IIHF U20 Championship 1/5/2019

This tournament will have to be remembered as the tournament of upsets. first Russia upset Canada
in group a to take the top spot.

Playoffs

The Knockout playoff rounds number 2 seed Canada was upset by the 3rd seeded Finland in OT.

If that wasn't enough Switzerland the 4th seed upset number 1 seed Sweden in the same bracket.

The other side of the bracket we saw the favorites advance. USA again beat Chech Republic 3-1 and
Russia disposed of Slovakia 8-3.

Seimi Finals

In the semi-finals #2 seed USA beat #1 and undefeated Russia 2-1. Russia is a fast skating, skilled
team that had a lot of possession. They like to curl back with the puck and creats an off balacned
defense and skate into the offensive zone. The USA plays one of the best team defensive games
compared to all the other nations. They are disceplin in their defensive assignments and this leads
to frustrations or turnovers to give the USA offensive opportunities. The USA held on to a gritty 2-1
win over Russia to advance to the finals.

Finland played #4 seed Switzerland and the Finns were just to good. They dominated the Swiss and
won with a convincing 6-1 win.

Finals

Both Finland and USA have 4 Championships apiece at this level. Canada has a whopping 17 while
Mighty Russia has 13. Sweden, surprisingly only has 2 Championships to their name.

This final will be a rematch of their group game in which the USA won the group game. However

there was a apparently a good goal scored by Finland to tie the game 1:1 but an early whiscle was
called. The goal was waved off. This changed the dynamic of the game and the USA went on to win

4-1. Finland will be looking to avenge their group game loss while the USA will look to further frustrate
the Finns and capitalize on opportunistic offense and continue to roll 4 equal lines.

Watch for Jack Hughes to show us why he will be the #1 pick in this years draft.

Upcoming Sporting Events for 2019 -

2019 (Soccer, Hockey, Rugby)		Host
Dec 26- Jan 5th	U-20 “World Juniors” Hockey	Vanc & Victoria
Jan 26-27th	World Rugby Seven Series	Hamilton, New Z
Feb 2nd-3rd	World Rugby Seven Series	Sydney, Australia
Feb - March	American Rugby Championship (Argentina XI, USA, Canada, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile)	Home /Away
March 1-3rd	World Rugby Seven Series	Las Vegas, USA
March 9-10th	World Rugby Seven Series	Vancouver, Can
March 21, 26th	Nations League Qualification-CONCACAF (no –USA)	Home/away
April 5th-7th	World Rugby Seven Series	Hong Kong, China
April 13th 14th	World Rugby Seven Series	Singapore
April 18th-28th	IIHF World U-18 Championship (10 nations)	Sweden
April 21st –May 7th	U-17 CONCACAF Championship	No picked yet
May 10th -26th	IIHF Hockey World Championship	Slovakia
May 25-27th	World Rugby Seven Series	London, England
May 23 – June 15th	U-20 FIFA World Cup	Poland
June 1 and 2nd	World Rugby Seven Series-Final	Paris, France
June	2019 World Rugby U-20 Trophy Qualification V Canada	Home/Away
July 9th -21st	2019 World Rugby U-20 Trophy (8 Tier 2 Nations)	Brazil
July 9th -30th	Gold Cup 2019 –CONCACAF 16 nations	USA
Sept 2 -10th	Nations League A Match 1 & 2	Home/ Away
Sept 20th – Nov 2nd	Rugby World Cup 2019	Japan
Oct 7th – 15th	Nations League A Match 3 & 4	Home Away
Nov 11th – 19th	Nations League Match 5 & 6	Home / Away
	Rugby End – of –year-test	away

The World Juniors or the IIHF U-20 hockey tournament always starts the year off with an exciting bang. This year Canada will host again.  The
USAU-20 is now considered equal to Canada and Russia in this tournament. However Sweden and Finland are both just as good. This
tournament is played in Canada every other year, since it is a huge event and Canada hockey makes the most mula and kicks back revenue to
the IIHF.  

The American Rugby Championship starts 2 weeks after the Super Bowl with 3 games in Feb and 2 in March. This year the Eagles will again
have 3 home games, First Austin TX then 2 in Seattle. They will have to play Argentina XV away this year, so this year it will be much more
difficult to repeat. Hoping we see lots of progress.

We then switch back to Hockey for the IIHF U-18 Championship, which will be held in Sweden this year. The USA has dominated, yes I said
dominated in this Championship. They have reached the final 9 out of the last 10 years and winning 7 of the 9 times. The USA has the best
junior program.

The CONCACAF U-17 Championship will be in April and the host is not picked. It was hosted in Mex (09), Jam(11), Panama (13), Honduras
(15) and in  Panama (17) again. I believe the new president will try to get this tournament to Canada or a Caribbean nation next. I am thinking
a nice island like Curacao, Martinique, Bermuda or Guadeloupe. Since the USA host the Gold Cup, the last 3 Olympic qualifications and the last
U-20 Men’s Championship I believe it has to move to another location.

IIHF Hockey World Championship is in Slovakia, This tournament starts in May right after the completion of the second round of NHL playoffs.
 So when your NHL team is knocked out you get to tune in and cheer for Team USA. Canada has 26 Championships, Russia 27, Czech 12, and
Sweden 11. Finland and USA only have a paltry 2.  The USA just do not take this tournament that serious or they are just out gunned by better
teams …EVERY YEAR!?

FIFA U-20 World Cup is in Poland in May which is a great summer start for soccer.  The USA U-20 performs much better than the senior side
in the World Cup at this level. USA has reached the quarter finals the last 2 years. They enter as CONCACAF Champions.

Then we have the high intensity (Rugby) USA Selects v Canada A for the qualification to the U-20 World Rugby Trophy. This is a yearly
tournament that will be in Brazil this year. Canada has beaten the USA Selects last 2 years. Canada then flopped at last year’s Tournament
. Let’s hope we can finally beat Canada and play in the international U-20 Trophy tournament in Brazil. The tournament is the same time
as the Gold Cup.

CONCACAF Gold Cup is the Granddaddy of all USA tournaments in 2019.  It will be hosted in the USA (also Costa Rica). There will be
15 venues in the USA. Alliance Field will be a brand new SSS due to open in March 2019. Also Banc of California Stadium just opened in
2018. These stadiums will be perfect for the expanded Gold Cup. The tournament finally expanded to 16 nations. I am hoping for more
scoring and we should get that in the group games. There should be some quality Caribbean nations who will bring a plethora of European
players to make for a really good competition.

Then we have the Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan to start the Fall.  The USA Eagles will not be favorite in any match. Every nation in their group
out ranks them. I am personally hoping for massive improvement in this tournament.  I am hoping we can keep up with the thoroughbreds here.

Except for the Nations League and the 3 or 4 Rugby test matches that will wrap up 2019. The Nations League comes right after the Gold Cup.
The nations League is a much smaller tournament and will not get the glitz the Gold Cup had.  The test matches comes after the Rugby World Cup.
The Test matches will seem miniscule after the exciting Rugby World Cup 2019.

Order of excitement/importance for me

1. CONCACAF Gold Cup (July)
2. U-20 World Juniors (January)
3. Rugby World Cup (Fall)
4. FIFA U-20 World Cup
5. American Rugby Championship
6. U-20 World Rugby Trophy (if USA qualifies)

World Juniors 2019 Vancouver-Victoria update

The World Juniors is underway in Vancouver and Victoria. Sweden again finished 1st in their group again. Sweden has an astonishing 48 game preliminary round winning streak.  That is about 12 years in a row they have not losing a preliminary round game. That in itself is something that we all should pontificate. The USA placed 2nd after beating 3rd placed finisher Finland 4-1. This was a great win for is the USA since they don’t have to face Canada or Russia in the opening round, which would have been a daunting test. Kazakhstan now has to play Denmark for regulation.

The Vancouver group, which had the host (Canada)and might Russia had a bit of a surprise with their final seeding. Russia Topped Canada to finish 1st. This means Canada will have a tough opening knockout game against Finland. Have no fear, the Canadian players play in the ultra competitive Canadian Junior leagues. These are the closest leagues that emulate the NHL. Canada has won the most World Junior Championships and they will have the home crowd at the Vancouver Rogers center backing them. Czech Rep squeeked an over time win against Switzerland. This game
resulted in Czech getting the 3rd seed and Switz placing 4th.

The knockout rounds

Russia and Sweden have not lost yet. They both get the #1 seeds. Russia opens against 4th seed Slovakia. Slovakia played the tops teams tight and them they separated themselves from Kazakhstan 11-2 in the final game. This former Bohemian territory has a rich hockey history and play will passion against Mighty Russia.

Sweden seems to have a bit of a sickness that is running through their locker room. They had a very short bench against Kazakhstan  but were determined to keep their winning streak alive and place in the fortuitous #1 seed. Unfortunately they still will draw a very difficult opponent in Switzerland. Switzerland plays a very physical game and the swiss skill level improver every year. The last hit infractions rules goes against the Swiss strength. Swiss have tried their best to nullify the skill of other teams with "completing" their checks and takeing their opponent out of the fast skill game. I do not see the international refs putting their whisels away in the knockout rounds. Swiss must be carefull agains the fleet footed Sweden.

Canada has to play one of the big 5 (Canada, Russia, Sweden, Finland and USA) in the opening round since they did not win their group. Canada has scored the most goals with 23. They also have the best goal differential with a +18 and have given up the least amount of goals with only letting in 5 goals. Canada will be playing at the Vancouver Canucks rink in the Rogers Center. The Rogers center is already a sell out, so the Canadians will have the home crown behind them. Finland has the talent but played a little sloppy against the USA. They have to eliminate the mistakes when they face Canada. None of this boweds well against Finalnd but the Fins ahve beated Canada in warm up games. This should be a cracker of a game.

The USA are up against the old rival Czech Republic. The USA are starting to play a little better team defense and the USA is always trying to roll 4 lines. The USA matches up well against Czech Rep since the Czech only seems to have 1 top line. So if they can concentrate on stopping their top line and attack with the other 3 lines, they should be in good shape.

The coaching staff along with hockey USA believes in developing the whole team and this has been their MO in these Junior tournaments. As always players start to seperate themselves. Let’s start with the Captain Mickey Anderson. He is playing with passion and is very hard to beat on defense. He is everything a Captain should be, leading by example. He also has chipped in 2 goals and 1 assist. If the USA are to go deep they will have to rely on team defense and no mistakes from their defensemen. Next is tournament leading point getter in Ryan Pholeing. He list at an imposing 6’ 2” centerman is fast and crafty and very difficult to defend in front of the net with his size. Lets not forget about the consensus  #1 NHL prospect in Jack Hughes who has missed 2 games for precautionary injury reasons. BU’s Joel Farabee has chipped in 3 goals and 2 assist to place 3rd in points for teams USA. Robertson has the 2nd most points with 1 goal but has 5 assists. Robertson also stands at 6’ 2” and has the offensive skills. Lets not forget about the fleet footed Tlyer Madden from Northeastern who has scored 3 goals and added and assist. Others could emerge like Michigans Josh Norris but it will be solid goaltending, team defense that keeps shooters on the outside and bottling up the lanes and wave after wave of 4 relentless lines offense.

All four knockout games are tomorrow....buckle up