🇺🇸 WORLD CHAMPIONS

Oh say, can you see the final score from last Saturday?

The United States took down Canada, 10-7, to claim gold in the 2023 World Lacrosse Men’s Championship. It was the U.S. national team’s second straight gold medal finish in this event and a great way to kick off the 4th of July weekend for Americans.

The U.S. went undefeated (7-0) over the course of 10 days in San Diego. Here are the full results, bookended by a pair of wins over our friendly neighbors to the North…

Pool Play:
UNITED STATES 7, Canada 5
UNITED STATES 12, Australia 3
UNITED STATES 9, Haudenosaunee 7
UNITED STATES 18, England 1 (Round 1)

Playoffs:
UNITED STATES 19, Israel 3 (Quarterfinals)
UNITED STATES 11, Australia 2 (Semifinals)
UNITED STATES 10, Canada 7 (Gold Medal)

Outside of America’s dominance, there were a handful of interesting storylines that emerged from the World Games. We’ll get into a couple of those angles after we give our flowers to the hero of the gold medal game.

📈 The Rise of Brennan O’Neill

Brennan O’Neill may have been the youngest player on the Team USA roster, but he looked like a man among boys in the gold medal game against Canada. He racked up five goals in the win, finishing the tournament with 14 goals and five assists for a total of 19 points.

As a result, O’Neill was named MVP of the 2023 World Championship. This honor came exactly one month after he won the 2023 Tewaaraton Award for his 97-point season with the Duke Blue Devils this spring.

O’Neill might be the most physically dominant lacrosse player on the planet right now — and it’s not just because of his size (6-2, 225 lbs.). His overhand lefty release is freakishly deceptive. Watch how his first goal of the game had Canada goalie Dillon Ward thinking low, only for the shot to go right over his off-stick shoulder.

O’Neill’s shot alone is extremely difficult to track. But when he throws in a face dodge, the big lefty borders on impossible to stop. Here’s an example of that, from Team USA’s win over Israel in the quarterfinals (which ended up on SportsCenter Top 10 Plays):

O’Neill is now up for an ESPY as the Best College Athlete (Men’s Sports) of 2023. If he sweeps the Tewaaraton Award, World Championship MVP and an ESPY award, this will have to go down as the greatest summer any lacrosse player has ever experienced.

🧐 TLN All-World Team

There is an official All-World Team, which you can check out here, but nine out of the 10 players on the team are from either USA, Canada or Haudenosaunee. Also, there’s no recognition for specialists such as face-off, long-stick midfield or short-stick defensive midfield.

Therefore, we decided to assemble our own All-World Team with a limit of one player per nation. Here’s our roster:

Attack — Shinya Tateishi, Japan
Attack — Austin Staats, Haudenosaunee
Attack — Christian Cuccinello, Italy
Midfield — Logan Ip, Hong Kong
Midfield — Brennan O’Neill, USA
Midfield — Khairi Sears, Jamaica
SSDM — Nathan Henare, New Zealand
LSM — Payton O’Mara, Peru
Defense — Graeme Hossack, Canada
Defense — Matthias Lehna, Germany
Defense — Konrad Miklaszewski, Poland
Goalie — Ryan Richters, Latvia
Face-Off — Jonathan Dugenio, Phillipines

Which players would you substitute on this roster to make a better All-World Team?

🇯🇵 Japan Headed to Pool A

Team Japan made a tangible leap at the 2023 World Championship in San Diego. They torched the Pool B competition, outscoring their opponents in the group 70-6. That’s an unofficial goal differential of +64 (World Lacrosse caps goal differential at +/-12 goals per game).

In the first round of the playoffs, Japan took down Germany. Then they lost a tough battle with the Haudenosaunee in the quarterfinals, setting up a crucial fifth-place game against England.

With a future spot in Pool A on the line, Japan methodically wore down England and secured an 8-4 victory. The celebration was stifled, though, due to a dirty hit delivered by a Team England defenseman in the final seconds. That player has since received a 6-game ban for his unsportsmanlike behavior.

Japan fielded two players who finished top-five in the tournament for points — Shinya Tateishi (32 points) and Hiroki Kanaya (26 points). It would be awesome to see one or both of them get a PLL tryout at training camp next summer.

🇯🇲 Jamaica’s 17-Year-Old Star

One of the most exciting individual stories from the 2023 World Championship was the emergence of Stone Evans, a 17-year-old high school lacrosse player who starred for Team Jamaica.

Despite his young age, Evans finished second on the team in points (12) and led Jamaica with nine assists. He helped his team go undefeated in pool play and upset Italy in the first round of the playoffs, before ultimately finishing eighth in the tournament.

Evans, who just wrapped up his junior year of high school this spring, plays at the Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, MA. He is a three-star recruit at Inside Lacrosse who is currently committed to play in college at Air Force.

📺 PLL Broadcast Info

After an extended international break, the PLL returns to Minneapolis this weekend. Here’s when and where you can watch the games (Eastern Time):

Saturday, July 8
6 p.m. — Waterdogs vs. Chrome (ESPN+)
8:30 p.m. — Cannons vs. Atlas (ESPN+)

Sunday, July 9
2 p.m. — Redwoods vs. Chaos (ESPN2)
4:30 p.m. — Whipsnakes vs. Archers (ESPN+)

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