Laxing At 3 AM

TigerBlog never really found out why the gold medal game of the FIL World Championship started at 10 am in Israel Saturday morning.

He thinks it might have something to do with the Jewish holiday of Tisha B'av, which at one time he must have learned about in Hebrew school but whose significance he long ago forgot. As it turns out, TB (TigerBlog) had to relearn that TB (Tisha B'av) is considered the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, which is really saying something.

It's a day of fasting and mourning actually. It's a day of sadness, not of celebration, and because it began sundown on Saturday, the championship game needed be done by then. 

Of course, that doesn't really explain why it had to be played at 10 am. Maybe it was because of the combination of the holiday at sundown and the a desire to keep the game out of the stifling midday Israeli heat?

Whatever the reason, it does explain why TigerBlog was watching TV at 3 am Saturday.

His options were to watch the game live or to wait until noon and watch the replay and try to get that far without finding out who won. That, of course, would never have happened, and, of course, he would have watched it live whatever time it as played.

As it turned out, it was worth getting up in the middle of the night, since the United States and Canada played what will be remembered as one of the greatest - maybe even the greatest - lacrosse game ever played (and certainly the best one that ever started at 3 am Eastern). As he thinks about, he's hard-pressed to come up with a game that can match the drama, the level of play and the prize at stake. Not even an NCAA championship game - even an overtime NCAA final, the way Princeton won four of its six - stacks up.

In the end, all that separated what are by far the two best teams in the world was a goal with one second left by Princeton great Tom Schreiber.

Final score: United States 9, Canada 8.

Schreiber's goal was his third of the day, along with an assist. It gave the USA its first lead since it had been 2-1, and it came after a controversial final five minutes that will only add to the lore of the game through the years. 

TigerBlog did decide not to put anything on goprincetontigers.com or Princeton men's lacrosse social media about the game until after the replay ended at 2 in the afternoon. Hey, if even one person managed to avoid seeing how it ended before getting to watch it, then it was worth it.

This game was played with ferocity for all 80 minutes, or more than 80 minutes, possibly. That's the best word to describe it. Ferocious.

If you wanted to see what ferocious lacrosse looks like, then watch the last few minutes of the third quarter, when Canada had the ball for an extended possession and never scored. Watch how hard the United States defended.

Ferocious had to share with controversial for the final five minutes though. And Princeton's two representatives, Schreiber and Zach Currier of Canada, were right in the middle of it all.

Canada took the lead with 5:17 to go, with the international running clock, and then Trevor Baptiste of the U.S. won the next face-off, briefly. Currier, though, attacked Baptiste's stick in a way that only Currier can, and in a blink the ball was in Currier's stick.

With the way the international game is played, it's possible that had Canada kept possession, the United States never would have gotten it back. There is no shot clock, only a stall warning that forces a team to keep it in the offensive box, which is much wider than it is in college. Canada probably would have tried to run the clock out and, with the way it could handle the ball, would likely have been successful.

Instead, just as quickly as Currier took it away from Baptiste, the officials took it away from Canada, calling an offsides infraction that by all accounts was incorrect. Now the Americans had the ball, tied it and won the face-off with three minutes left.

The closest Canada came to touching the ball again came when it was a loose behind the goal and there was a, well, ferocious chase for it. Currier at one point looked like he might have been pushed, but no call was made. Schreiber definitely was pushed down after that, giving possession back to the U.S.

TigerBlog Jr. was at the game. He also worked a lot of games at the tournament, and he would tell TB that the way the clock works, there was an official time kept by the box official and an unofficial time on the scoreboard. The scoreboard time was the time that was also on TV or the videostreams, and this explains why there always seemed to be a delay between when the clock would get to all zeroes and the play would actually stop.

This is what happened at the end of the championship game. The clock on TV kept jumping around in the final 10 seconds, as the U.S. took two shots that went high. Each time play stopped, the clock on TV - which was also on the scoreboard - added time back on.

Still, the official time in the box was correct, and it's why Schreiber's goal was legit. He made a great play, running off a screen from Ned Crotty and taking a soft feed from Rob Pannell before beating the great Dillon Ward with one second still to go.

If you're a lacrosse fan, then you had to love the game. TigerBlog was rooting for Schreiber and Currier, which made it somewhat difficult because one of them had to lose.

Of all of the great players that TigerBlog has ever seen play at Princeton, none has approached the game quite like Currier. In a game of ferocity nobody is more ferocious or competitive, yet he plays with what you could call grace at the same time. And he never, ever stops.

Forget just lacrosse. TB can't think of another athlete in any sport he's ever seen who plays harder all the time. The result is a player that you always want on your side.

And then there's Schreiber, who was named the top midfielder in the tournament and earned a spot on the All-World team. He may very well be the best player in the world right now, as both Inside Lacrosse and Lacrosse Magazine have said, but that is not something that he considers.

He also is a graceful player, one who seems to glide as much as anything else. But don't think that he lacks ferocity, because he doesn't. He is the best passing midfielder TigerBlog has ever seen, and he is big and powerful as a scorer as well.

His second goal in the championship game, which tied the game at 7-7 in the fourth, was typical of him, where he caught the ball. He took a pass in the middle and, with very little time or very little arm extension, rocketed the ball into the goal. And he can do it with either hand. Most players need to step into a shot like that and have a full extension of their arms. Not Schreiber.

The game-winner was as much instinct as anything else. It was a great cut, and Pannell, with little time to spare, put it in a small window. Catch. Finish.

Gold medal. In epic fashion.

And so what if it was at 3 am? This game figured to be a great one, and it exceeded expectations.

In fact, it could be the greatest lacrosse game ever played.