It ran through July 15, when France defeated Croatia 4-2 in the final. There were 64 games played in all. Any guesses on the total number of goals scored?
Any guesses on how many of those games TB watched? He'd guess he saw at least some of at least 55, maybe even 60 games.
So yeah, he liked it.
The World Championships of men's lacrosse started on July 12 and ran through July 21, which was this past Saturday. There were 170 games played in the tournament, and TB watched, well, a lot of them, whether it was the top division, the Princeton players who played on other teams or just some random games that were on ESPN+.
Oh, and there were 169 goals scored in the World Cup. There were way more than that in the lacrosse tournament.
Anyway, that was a lot of soccer and lacrosse to watch - and write about - for TB.
The tournament ended a little after 5 am Saturday on a goal by Princeton's Tom Schreiber with one second to play that gave the United States a 9-8 win over Canada for the gold medal.
If you've never met Tom Schreiber and only know him as one of the greatest lacrosse players of all time, that doesn't really tell you what kind of person he is. This tweet when he got back might give you some insight:
Anyway, Schreiber's goal ended a little more than five weeks of fascination between the two tournaments. So what did TB do when it was all over?Something on my mind since returning home — @JLKelly94’s contributions post injury. His energy, focus, & mental toughness were contagious down the stretch. Made himself as valuable as anyone on the field. Truly the epitome of a great teammate. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Qy7g08K6Gj— Tom Schreiber (@TomSchreiber26) July 24, 2018
He picked up his two kids.
More specifically, he picked up his two kids at two different airports in two different states a little more than two hours apart.
It made for a lot of driving in a short time. Hey, that's what parenting is all about.
Miss TigerBlog ’22 came in from Paris first, to Newark Airport. She was there for a week with BrotherBlog and Joe, the official brother-in-law of TigerBlog.
Her choices were a graduation party last month or the trip this month. She chose correctly.
MTB saw all the Paris sights, with the Eiffel Tower, the Arc De Triomphe, Versailles, the museums, a river tour of the Seine. In something that is definitely a sign of the times, she posted a few pictures on social media and then was messaged by a young woman she met at the Princeton Preview. The two then met up at a cafe in Paris.
As for TigerBlog Jr., he had been in Israel for 29 days, the first 10 as a tourist and the next 19 playing and working at the tournament. His trip home was from Tel Aviv to Amman, Jordan, and then Amman to JFK.
For most of the time that TBJ was at the tournament, TigerBlog kept asking him if he could find Ravi Sitlani, an assistant coach for the English national team. For the entire time, he kept missing him.
By the way, nobody calls him "Ravi." TigerBlog has known him for 10 years, and he's never heard anyone call him anything other than "Baggie."
When TBJ came through the gate at JFK off his Royal Jordanian flight, he had two pieces of good news for his father. First, he'd brought him a present from his month in Israel - a hat from the World Championships that he'd clearly been wearing.
Second, he told him that, lo and behold, Baggie was on his flight. They'd connected in Amman as the only people at the gate wearing lacrosse stuff, in TBJ's case Sacred Heart lacrosse shorts and, for some reason, a Wales Lacrosse shirt.
TB and TBJ waited a few minutes, and then there was Baggie himself. When Baggie said he was looking for a cab, TigerBlog offered him a ride into Manhattan.
As a result, they got to spend another hour or so together. It's always great to see him, and has been since TB first met him back in Spain when the Princeton men's lacrosse team was there in 2008.
They talked about their times together in the past, and Princeton lacrosse, and how the Tigers are going to be this spring. They talked about Michael Sowers. They talked about head coach Matt Madalon.
And the World Championships. What TB thought of the games. What it was like for them to be there.
And, of course, tthe picture that Baggie and Princeton's Nikhil Ashra took together in 2008, when Baggie called them the only two Indian goalies in the world. TB told him he still had that picture:
Since then he's seen him a few times in this country at lacrosse events, and in Portugal in 2016, again when Princeton played England. That's where, by the way, the English first met up with Alistair Berven, a 2017 Princeton grad who played in the tournament for England.
He's just a really good guy, a big guy of Indian descent with a serious English accent. He told TBJ that he must have "made a lot of new mates" in Israel, for instance.
Baggie sent TB an email Monday thanking him for the ride and the beauty of friendship through lacrosse.
Anyway, it was great to see him. Traffic was pretty bad getting into Manhattan, and, as always, it took awhile to get crosstown.
This was one time TigerBlog didn't mind at all.
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