Lacrosse makes a mark

The Lacrosse world showed the footballers of the world how to compete a World Cup that was short and sweet, ensuring competitive matches, in little over a week.

Twenty-nine nations competed in Manchester, England at the University of Manchester Armitage Centre, this week with the US lifting the title in style.

Actually, make that 28. The tournament got off to the worst possible start as one of the pre-tournament favourites and inventors of the game of Lacrosse were prevented from entering the UK and therefore had to forefeit their first match.

With the number of rosy red faces in Manchester you could be forgiven for thinking they were still a part of Lancashire.

Those banned from entering the UK by the Borders Agency were representing the 4th ranked team in the world, the Iroquois. Never heard of them? Frankly, nor had I!

The Iroquois team represents the Haudenosaunee - an Iroquois Confederacy of the Oneida, Seneca, Mohawk, Tuscarora, Cayuga and Onondaga nations, whose land stretches from upstate New York into Ontario, Canada.

While every one of the 23 players and coaches are eligible for either US or Canadian passports, they tried to travel with Haudenosaunee passports and Iroquois ID cards, which while acceptable for inbound travel to the US, are not accepted in other countries in the world, and were therefore prevented from departing.

Fortunately, help was at hand in the unlikely guise of Hollywood film director, James Cameron who donated $50,000 to the team to help them meet the unforeseen costs of changing flights and booking US hotel rooms.

Cameron was born in Canada where Lacrosse is the national sport. The Iroquois had been scheduled to take part in the opening match of the tournament against England, a game which had to be hastily rescheduled with Germany agreeing to take their place, not only in the opener but also in the top (blue) division. England secured their best result of the Championships in this game with a 12-3 victory.

Having failed to live up to expectations in this tournament England had to qualify for the 5th/6th place play-off match with a game against the "auld enemy", Scotland, running out easy winners 23-9.

In a rematch of the opening game England finally gave their loyal supporters plenty to smile about with victory over Germany in their last match at this year's Men's FIL World Lacrosse Championships in Manchester.

The hosts clinched an impressive 14-9 win to secure fifth position in this year's tournament.

In the final, a four-year long rebuilding process by the US men's national team culminated in a 12-10 victory over Canada. It was Canada that had defeated the US in the 2006 final to take the crown.

Team US's seventh world title did not come easily. After seizing an 8-4 lead at half-time, Canada stormed back to level at 8-8 in the third quarter, setting up another epic fourth-quarter showdown between these two teams.

Canada started the fourth quarter strongly and took the lead with 17 minutes remaining and were 10-9 up with under ten minutes to go. However, it was at this point that Team USA's youngest player, Ned Crotty, came into his own, scoring the next two goals with spectacular efforts.

In a desparate last attempt Canada removed their goalkeeper but conceded an empty-net goal to go down 12-10.

In the bronze-medal play-off Australia defeated Japan 19-6.

And for those motor-racing fans in Bahrain they may have been surprised to learn that Eddie Jordan was there watching, having fast-tracked his way to Manchester from winning a golf-tournament at Sunningdale with his wife.

So what was it that brought Eddie to a rain-sodden Lacrosse World Championship? His son, Zak, was there representing Ireland having been introduced to the game by an Australian sports teacher at school. Zak played in all of Ireland's matches scoring one goal and one assist in the process.