🇺🇸 USA vs. CANADA 🇨🇦

The two strongest forces in the lacrosse universe are set to collide on Wednesday night, when the national teams from United States and Canada kick off the 2023 World Games in San Diego.

The standalone matchup will air on ESPN2, with the opening face-off scheduled for 7 p.m. PT/10 p.m. ET.

This game is a rematch of the gold medal matchups from 2014 (Canada won) and 2018 (USA won). It’s also the first of 48 pool play matchups over the course of six days (Wed., June 21 - Mon., June 26).

The United States and Canada are in Pool A with the Haudenosaunee, Australia and England teams. There are five other pools with a total of 30 countries set to compete.

After pool play, playoff and placement games will begin on Tuesday, June 27. The top two teams from Pool A will advance directly to the quarterfinals on Wednesday, June 28. The medal round will be played on Saturday, July 1.

In addition to USA-Canada this week, one quarterfinal matchup and the bronze medal game will air on ESPNU. Both semifinal matchups and the gold medal game will be broadcast on ESPN2.

All 107 games will be streamed on ESPN+.

🥍 USA Roster & Schedule

On Monday, Team USA announced its captains: Michael Ehrhardt, Tom Schreiber and Jesse Bernhardt.

Here’s the full Team USA roster, listed by position:

1 Matt Rambo — Attack
2 Michael Sowers — Attack
3 Rob Pannell — Attack
6 Kieran McArdle — Attack
24 Brennan O’Neill — Attack
14 Zach Goodrich — Midfield
15 Ryan Conrad — Midfield
19 Danny Logan — Midfield
26 Tom Schreiber — Midfield
27 Jake Richard — Midfield
34 Ryan Terefenko — Midfield
40 Connor Kelly — Midfield
41 Charlie Bertrand — Midfield
4 J.T. Giles-Harris — Defense
21 Liam Byrnes — Defense
22 Jack Rowlett — Defense
28 Michael Ehrhardt — Defense
33 Matthew Dunn — Defense
36 Jesse Bernhardt — Defense
5 TD Ierlan — Face-Off
9 Trevor Baptiste — Face-Off
10 Blaze Riorden — Goalie
91 Jack Kelly — Goalie

2023 Tewaaraton Award winner Brennan O’Neill is the only player on the USA roster who is still in college. His coach at Duke, John Danowski, is also the head coach of Team USA.

Here’s when you can catch USA in pool play (Pacific/Eastern Time):

Wed., June 21: USA vs. Canada — 7/10 p.m. on ESPN2
Fri., June 23: USA vs. Australia — 7/10 p.m. on ESPN+
Sat., June 24: USA vs. Haudenosaunee — 7/10 p.m. on ESPN+
Sun., June 25: USA vs. England — 4/7 p.m. on ESPN+

💥 Other Pool A Matchups

While USA and Canada are projected to be the top two teams in Pool A, the Haudenosaunee team will also be in the mix. England and Australia should put up some decent fights, too.

Here are the other Pool A matchups to keep an eye on when USA is not playing (Pacific/Eastern Time):

Thurs., June 22: Australia vs. England — 7/10 p.m. on ESPN+
Fri., June 23: England vs. Haudenosaunee — 4/7 p.m. on ESPN+
Sat., June 24: Australia vs. Canada — 4/7 p.m. on ESPN+
Sun., June 25: Canada vs. Haudenosaunee — 7/10 p.m. on ESPN+
Mon., June 26: Haudenosaunee vs. Australia — 4/7 p.m. on ESPN+
Mon., June 26: Canada vs. England — 7/10 p.m. on ESPN+

👀 PLL Players to Watch

The USA roster is 96 percent PLL players, but there are a lot of other PLL players scattered around a few other rosters as well. Here’s what countries they’ll be representing at the World Games:

CANADA
Brett Dobson, Goalie (Archers)
Connor Fields, Attack (Archers)
Latrell Harris, Defense/Midfield (Archers)
Graeme Hossack, Defense (Archers)
Challen Rogers, Midfield (Archers)
Justin Inacio, Face-Off (Archers)
Jeff Teat, Attack (Atlas)
Clark Petterson, Midfield (Atlas)
Brodie Merrill, Defense (Cannons)
Josh Byrne, Attack (Chaos)
Dhane Smith, Midfield (Chaos)
Wes Berg, Midfield (Redwoods)
Owen Grant, Defense (Redwoods)
Ryan Lee, Attack (Redwoods)
Zach Currier, Midfield (Waterdogs)
Ryland Rees, Defense (Waterdogs)
Dillon Ward, Goalie (Waterdogs)
Jake Withers, Face-Off (Waterdogs)

HAUDENOSAUNEE
Lyle Thompson, Attack (Cannons)
Kyle Jackson, Attack/Midfield (Chaos)
Zed Williams, Defense (Whipsnakes)

ITALY
Matt Deluca, Goalie (Waterdogs)
Zack Cole, Face-Off (Redwoods)
Jeff Trainor, Midfield (Cannons)

ENGLAND
Christian Scarpello, Midfield (Waterdogs)