Don’t tell me you expected anyone else to win it all...

Well, the American football world championships finished today in Austria and boy they came to a close with a great round of games!  I've been saving up my blogging energy for this moment, so here’s a rather large capsule review of the final few games and an extra helping of Irishman rant to get you through the tournament hangover.  Enjoy.

Friday:

Austria 48 | 10 Australia

Home field advantage.

Well, this was the weakest game of the final round clearly, or at least the one with the widest margin of talent to the untrained eye.

To be fair to Australia I think they did better than the score line would suggest.  No, honestly I do!  Stay with me here.  Now some might view the following points as excuses but I’d rather you take them as considerations for the final equations.  1) They had the unfortunate task of going against the host nation who hadn’t won a game before this, and in front of their home crowd they were desperate for a good performance.  2) They were they odd ones out in a brutal group.  Did you see who they had to face? The USA, Mexico and Europe’s best; Germany!  I’m almost surprised they could field a team after that!  And hell they made a fight out of it at times.

I was very impressed when they came out for the second half with a no huddle offense and got their TD, a shrewd coaching move.  Pity the Austrians were just in the mood to vent some frustration.  The power running game was excellent and it set up big passing plays perfectly.

Big shout out to my former teammate Austrian FB/RB Florian Hiess; key blocks on two rushing TDs and a score of his own too.  Way to run hard!

Japan 17 | 14 Mexico

The battle for bronze.

This was always billed to be a very entertaining game and it didn’t disappoint.  It was the first time I got to take a proper look at the Mexicans and by the beard of Zeus they were impressive!

I had seen the Japanese before and was expecting their typical well organized, well disciplined style of play.  The fun part of this game for me was the complete contrast in style from their opponents.  The Mexicans were big, bad-ass, and a little bit bonkers!  It was a lot of fun to watch these mammoths run about the field with reckless abandon.

Their physicality and attitude made them out to be the bad boys of the tournament, unfortunately for them however I think it was living this image with a little too much vigour that ultimately shot them in the foot.  There were a lot of penalty flags thrown throughout the tournament but there seemed to be a few extra ones in this game.  Too many poor decisions by the Mexican players at key points in the game that just weren’t necessary.  Still, I’ll admit that may have rattled the Japanese, who knows, that could have been their gameplan?

The game was kept close to the last seconds of the game (blocked field goal anyone?) and was a very exciting chess match to behold, and after the results these two teams churned out against European counterparts it was another reminder of the gap in levels between the continents.

Saturday:

Germany 21 | 17 France

A scrap for European supremacy (don’t mention the you-know-what....).

Familiar foes took to the field to try and claim the title of Europe’s best.  Germany were always expected to be here if we’re being honest, however France pulled somewhat of an upset when they took out the host team to get into this fixture, so they weren’t about to go quietly into the night.

This was an excellent competition featuring some great play from both sides in all phases of the game.  It started as a battle of field position as both teams probed and felt the other out, a cagey game to begin with.  But it was great to see one team go the length of the field and score only to have the other calmly come back and march right back down the field for a response.

There always has to be a winner though and I think we can all agree that the killer moment was that amazing 90-yard touchdown for Germany; once that went in the French seemed to surrender any hope of pulling back in front.  To their credit though they fought back for a field goal and put it on their defence to get them one more shot at a win but darnit those efficient Germans weren’t to be denied.  A masterful 4 minute drill was run as they combined runs, passes and some frustrated French penalties to kill the clock.

Even though the Germans won both teams should be proud, that was one of, in fact no, it was the best game of the tournament I felt.

USA 50 | 7 Canada

Turns out it’s true: Team America do in fact police the world.

Well it is their game so we’ll let them have this one.

It wasn’t the exciting game it was supposed to be but by golly it was an impressive performance from the boys in blue.  From their first drive they let everyone know who was in command as they calmly and quickly marched down the field and got into the endzone.  Now, to Canada’s credit they went right after them with a great play action and pass: the QB and RB sold it brilliantly, the receiver made a great move and was wide open and given a free pass to the endzone, the crowd swelled with anticipation, and then he dropped it.

Sadly that wasn’t the lone snaffoo for the maple-leafed ones as they fell victim to that most irritating fumble through the endzone touchbackspritely dash by the American signal caller pretty much untouched to paydirt.  Then the tournament new boys took a safety rather than risk punt when the U.S. defence decide to knock it up a notch...BAM! 16-0.  Some learned folks might say that was a good decision so as to get better purchase on the ensuing free kick rather than a cramped punt from under the shadow of the goalposts, but not so much when the opponent proceeds to take the ensuing drive right back down to the goal line and walk it in again.

Canada did their best to be fair, their first few drives as I mentioned could have garnered points, but if they were ever going to have a chance to win this one they were going to have to play perfect on every snap of the ball, in every phase of the game.  Sadly this didn't happen.  After those first two drives things took a sharp turn down the slippery hill of defeat, and as they realised things weren’t going to go their way frustration began to show and as a result flags began to fly with a bit more frequency.

Poor guys, after casually striding past Austria they got knocked violently back to reality.  Once the big boys took a 30-0 head start they clearly stuck it into cruise mode.

The Canadians had some good individual plays throughout the game I'll concede, and they even managed to get a score before the half on a decent catch and run, so good on you guys....but then the states decided to lob one up into double coverage as time expires and miraculously nab another cheeky score.

Sheesh, hard to keep up with all these scores, can only imagine how the poor scoreboard operator coped!

Anyway, I’m not even going to go into the second half because it’s inhumane, at 37-7 by the end of the second quarter you start to realize who's going to come out on top.  So, commiserations to the new blood Canadians and an emphatic hats off to the undisputed heavy weight champions of the world; they made it look so easy.

Closing Thoughts

What a great tournament!  Well done to all involved, from the players and coaches, to the TV crews, cheerleaders, performers and event staff, it was such a fantastic occasion and a worthy event for the game we all love!  Well done I.F.A.F. and well done Austria, give yourselves a pat on the back; bravo!

I loved watching the games and seeing what’s out there in terms of level of play, it was inspirational to me, while at the same time downright terrifying!  The USA, Canada, Mexico and Japan are so unbelievably beyond the reach of us Europeans it’s kind of sad, but then what did we honestly expect?  Still, I found myself green with envy while watching all the guys having a run out in the name of their respective countries at that level.

It really grinds my gears that the Irish national program is a whisper at the best of times, I mean I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever get the chance to represent my country at that level and that depresses the expletive out of me!  So all of you who participated in the games and national programs I hope you appreciate what a great moment that was!

Anyway folks, that’s all I have to say about all that, will be back with more posts next week.  Until then I’ll leave you with this celebratory video for the American football world champs....America.

Slán.