The 2014

World Lacrosse Championship The World Lacrosse Championship (WLC) is the international men's field lacrosse championship organized by World Lacrosse that occurs every four years. The WLC began before any international lacrosse organization had been formed. It started as ...

was held July 10–19 at

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outside

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Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

. 38 nations played 142 games in this international men's lacrosse championship tournament organized by the

Federation of International Lacrosse World Lacrosse (WL), formerly the Federation of International Lacrosse, is the international governing body of lacrosse, responsible for the men's, women's, and indoor versions of the sport. It was established in 2008 by the merger of the previ ...

. Nine nations—Belgium, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Israel, Russia, Thailand, Turkey, and Uganda—all competed in the event for the first time. In the championship game on July 19,

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captured its third gold medal by upsetting the

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8–5 in front of 11,861 fans. Canadian goalie Dillon Ward was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player after he made 10 saves in the championship game, becoming the first goalie to ever receive the honor. The Iroquois Nationals finished third by defeating

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

16–5 in the bronze medal game. It marked the first time the Iroquois earned a medal at the World Lacrosse Championship, as well as the first time the Australians failed to earn a medal since

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, the national host, organized a lacrosse festival for boys' and men's lacrosse teams to play alongside the world championships. Players from around the world competed in 11 age divisions from U11 to 60-and-over.

Pool play

For pool play, participating nations were separated into nine divisions. The countries with the top six rankings—Australia, Canada, England, Iroquois, Japan, and the United States—competed in the Blue Division, where the top two teams advanced to the semifinals and the next two teams advanced to the quarterfinals. In the other divisions, each first through fourth place teams were placed in first through fourth play-in brackets.

Blue Division

After not competing in the 2010 tournament in England due to passport issues, the Iroquois Nationals had to appeal to the FIL to play in the elite Blue Division, usually reserved for the top six teams from the previous championship. After originally placing Germany in the Blue Division, the FIL granted the Iroquios' appeal in 2013. Team USA coasted through the Blue Division games, only tested by Canada's early 3-0 lead in the opening game of the tournament. But the U.S. scored the next eight goals and ended up putting away their strongest rival 10-7. Canada also easily defeated the lower ranked teams, but needed a goal from Curtis Dickson with 19 seconds remaining to beat the Iroquois Nationals 9-8. Iroquois, Australia, Japan, and England played several close games for the right to get to the championship bracket. Japan lost a double-overtime game vs Australia but won in overtime over England.

Green Division

Grey Division

Orange Division

Plum Division

Red Division

Turquoise Division

White Division

Yellow Division

Play-in brackets

Play-in games were played between the teams of all divisions except Blue.

First qualified teams

*Scotland and Israel advanced to the quarterfinals.

Second qualified teams

Third qualified teams

Fourth qualified teams

Championship bracket

After losing to the United States 10–7 in the first game of the tournament, Canada dominated the championship game. They played a deliberate, slow-down offense that is allowed under international rules, combined with strong defense, ground ball play, and goaltending. Like in the first game, Canada jumped out to an early lead, 2–0 after the first quarter. Team USA managed only one goal in the first half, and only put 5 shots on net. At the half, Canada was up 3–1, with

Kevin Crowley Kevin Crowley (born November 13, 1988 in New Westminster, British Columbia) is a Canadian professional lacrosse player for the Vancouver Warriors in the National Lacrosse League Crowley is the first of only three players in the history of lacross ...

scoring all three Canadian goals. Crowley got two more in the second half to lead all scorers with 5 points. Canada played even better in the third quarter, scoring five straight goals to increase its lead to 8–2 in the first minutes of the final period. The U.S. added three goals at the end to make the final score 8–5, but they were never in the game in the fourth quarter. Tournament MVP Dillon Ward made 10 saves in goal for Canada. U.S. attackmen

Kevin Leveille Kevin Leveille (born August 18, 1981) is an American lacrosse player from Delmar, New York. As a child, Kevin played youth hockey for the TAYHA Chiefs before finding his true calling as a lacrosse prodigy. Eventually his skills landed him on the ...

had three goals and

Rob Pannell Rob Pannell (born December 11, 1989) is an American professional lacrosse player who plays for Redwoods Lacrosse Club and formerly for Cornell University. He is the fourth leading scorer in men's Division I history, and holds the Cornell and Ivy ...

had three assists. In the third place game, the Iroquois Nationals easily defeated Australia 16–5 to earn their first medal in international men's field lacrosse. The team earned 4th place in the 1998, 2002, and 2006 tournaments but didn't compete in 2010. The Thompson brothers –

Jeremy Jeremy may refer to: * Jeremy (given name), a given name * Jérémy, a French given name * ''Jeremy'' (film), a 1973 film * "Jeremy" (song), a song by Pearl Jam * Jeremy (snail), a left-coiled garden snail that died in 2017 * ''Jeremy'', a 1919 ...

, Hiana,

Miles The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of distance; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 Engli ...

and Lyle – combined for six goals and five assists.

Classification brackets

5th to 8th place

Despite falling to rival England in the fifth-place game, Scotland earned its best-ever finish at the championships by placing sixth. The Scottish team defeated Japan in the previous contest, and are expected to replace the Japanese in the elite Blue Division at the next world championship tournament. Playing in its first-ever world championships, Israel very nearly duplicated Scotland's feat, twice narrowly falling in games that could have advanced the team into the Blue Division. After reaching the quarterfinals, the Israelis led Australia in the third quarter before dropping a tough 9-8 decision. Then in a placement round game, Israel made a dramatic comeback to push England to overtime before suffering a 10-9 setback. Israel finished seventh after defeating Blue Division squad Japan.

9th to 12th Place

13th to 16th Place

17th to 20th place

21st to 24th Place

25th to 28th place

29th to 32nd Place

33rd to 38th place

Final standings

Awards

The following awards were given out at the end of the tournament. MVP: Dillon Ward
Outstanding Attackman:

Outstanding Midfielder:

Paul Rabil Paul Rabil (born December 14, 1985), is an American former professional lacrosse player and co-founder of the Premier Lacrosse League. He played for the Cannons Lacrosse Club and Atlas Lacrosse Club of the Premier Lacrosse League, as well as th ...

Outstanding Defenseman:

Tucker Durkin Tucker Durkin (born September 5, 1990 in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania) is an American Professional lacrosse player who played high school lacrosse at La Salle College High School and collegiately at Johns Hopkins University. He currently p ...

Outstanding Goalie: Dillon Ward

All-World Team

The President's Team

The President's Team consisted of the following players, honored for being the top 10 players in the tournament not competing in the Blue Division. Kyle Buchanan
Ryan Licht
Matt MacGrotty
Jimmy McBride
Jordan McBride
Jonathan Munk
Kevin Powers
Ben Smith
Ari Sussman
James Van de Veerdon Brendan JR Murphy

References

External links

Official Website

Federation of International Lacrosse

Denver 2014 tag
at Lacrosse All Stars {{World Lacrosse Championship World Lacrosse Championship

International lacrosse competitions hosted by the United States