Ireland Lacrosse Men’s National Team Roster & Match Reports FIL World Championship Israel 2018

Ireland Lacrosse Logo [Reference: 1]

Final Record

Final Record: 12th PlacePWLGFGAPts
Ireland84488754

Final Standings Yellow Division

Yellow DivisionPWLGFGAPct
Ireland2203262
Denmark21117181
China2027320

Results

DateIreland / RoundOpposition
DateYellow Division
12.07.18Ireland18China3
14.07.18Denmark3Ireland14
DateTournament Tree Rounds 1-3
15.07.18Ireland12Latvia7
16.07.18Ireland15Italy7
17.07.18Israel16Ireland4
DateFinal Placement Rounds
Place 3
18.07.18Ireland10England11
9th Semi-Finals
19.07.18Ireland5Germany14
11th Place
20.07.18Ireland10Scotland14

[33]

Tournament Report

Ireland’s Men’s National Team finished 12th out of 46 Nations at the Federation of International Lacrosse world championships in Israel 2018. After winning their first four matches Ireland lost to hosts Israel in the last tournamemt Tree Round before narrowly losing 10-11 to World Lacrosse power England, and the running out of steam with lossesto Germany and Scotland.

Match Reports

Ireland 18 China 3 (Yellow Group) – 12 July 2018: Ireland opened their 2018 FIL world Championships in style with an 18-3 victory over China. Ted Forst (6 Pts) and Corey McMahon (5 Pts) led the Irish points scorers.[34]

Ireland 14 Denmark 3 (Yellow Group) – 14 July 2018: Ireland finished top of the Yellow Group by dominating Denmark in their second game. The Offense controlled the game with help from Luke Palmadesso and Sonny Campbell at the Face-Offs, while the Defense almost totally shut-out the Danes. Offensive Player of the Game was Andy Meyers for a couple of goals and two-way performance. Defensive Player of the Game was Gearoid Dunbar for great positioning and tough defending.[35]

Ireland 12 Latvia 7 (1st Tournament Tree Round) – 15 July 2018: In the first of the Tournament Tree Rounds, Ireland defeated Latvia 12-7, taking control of the game early on, but Latvia were able to stay in touch as the game progressed. Ireland’s Offense kept possession, taking advantage of Latvia’s no pressure Defence, while Latvia were the first team in the tournament to challenge Ireland’s Defense, with big, athletic forwards. Offensive Player of the Game was Teddy Forst for his hat-trick and smart play, while Defensive Player of the Game was Connor Kelly in goals for making dynamic saves.[36]

Ireland 15 Italy 7 (2nd Tournament Tree Round) – 16 July 2018 Ireland went 4-0 in the Tournament beating Italy 15-7, keeping the Italians pinned down for course of the match. Despite the tough Italian Defense Ireland were able to score with almost every shot on goal, and Aaron Cahill took a pounding from the Italy Defense while scoring two important goals, which earned him Offensive Player of the Game. Peter Sullivan earned Defensive Player of the Game for Lock-Down Isolation Defense and team defense awareness, as well as causing a number of turnovers.[37]

Ireland 4 Israel 16 (3rd Tournament Tree Round) – 17 July 2018: Ireland came away from this match with their first loss of the tournament to the Hosts, who played the best match of their tournament. Israel’s defense was big and dexterous, and their goalie kept Ireland to only four goals, as Ireland faced their biggest challenge yet everywhere on the field. Plamadesso and Campbell hotly contested each Face-off and held their own, although Ireland’s Defense took the biggest pounding anywhere on the field, though they recovered somewhat in the second half.[38]

Ireland 10 England 11 (Placement Round 1: Place 3) – 18 July 2018: Ireland were punching above their weight in this match against England. Twice the Top Division side were held even with Ireland, at 9-9 and 10-10, after Ireland came out strongly, going 5-1 up in the First Quarter to shock one of the Old Powers of the sport. England made some big adjustments to their style of play in the second quarter, running a run-and-gun sttyle attack and taking advantage of superiority in man-up opportunities as they came back into the game, as the game was tied 7-7 at the half. The second half saw few goals scored as both teams scored two in the thord to again be level at the end of a quarter. With only fives minutes remaing the score was still level at 10-10 but the English found a hole in transition and put one past the Irish goalie. Ireland went on the attack immediately to try and get the equaliser but it was to no avail as a technical foul in the last minute saw the ball turned over and England managed to run out the clock. It was a remarkable performance from the Irish team which showed what the Ireland Lacrosse program is capable of, coming within a whisker of beating one of the top 5 teams in the World. [39]

Ireland 5 Germany 14: (Placement Round 2: 9th-12th Semi-Finals) – 19 July 2018: Coming down after the high of the near shock match with England, Ireland lost 14-5 to old nemesis Germany. Ireland made a number of miss-steps in the Penalty Box, giving Germany plenty of Man-Up Opportunities which they capitalsed on. For most of the first half Ireland led as the Offense found the net on a few occasions. After that, the offense conceeded forced turnovers which left the Defense on the back foot for most of the second half. Tiredness had set in and the Defense also made mistakes, failing to clear consistently, as Ireland wilted under pressure and lost 14-5.[40]

Ireland 10 Scotland 14: (Placement Round 3 11th Place) – 20 July 2018: With the last game of the tournament, Ireland fought gallantly but lost to a Scotland team which had started in the Top Group and had lost all of its matches prior to this one. Despite leading early with goals from Wallace, Cahill, Forst and Wichmann Scotland fired off seven wwithout reply to put the game beyond the Irish, however, 12th out of 46 was a good finish for Ireland and they could look over the tournament with some sense of Pride with success early on and close games against some of the giants of the game.[41]

Team Roster

PositionName
GConnor Kelley
DGearoid Dunbar
DPeter Sullivan
Wallace
Wichmann
ATeddy Forst
Corey McMahon
ALuke Palmadesso
ASonny Campbell
AAndy Meyers
AAaron Kelley

References

Websites

[32] World Lacrosse 2018 (2018) FIL Men’s Lacrosse World Cup 2018 – Groups [Internet] Available from: http://worldlacrosse2018.com/schedule-app/#cmd=group-rank-full-ex [Accessed 20 August 2018]

[33] World Lacrosse 2018 (2018) FIL Men’s Lacrosse World Cup 2018 – Games [Internet] Available from: http://worldlacrosse2018.com/schedule-app/#cmd= [Accessed 20 August 2018]

Social Media

[34] Ireland Lacrosse Facebook Page (2018) Post July 13, 2018 [Internet] Available from: https://www.facebook.com/irelandlacrosse/posts/1787937981284864 [Accessed 25 August 2018]

[35] Ireland Lacrosse Facebook Page (2018) Post July 15, 2018 [Internet] Available from: https://www.facebook.com/irelandlacrosse/posts/1791172557628073 [Accessed 25 August 2018]

[36] Ireland Lacrosse Facebook Page (2018) Post July 16, 2018 [Internet] Available from: https://www.facebook.com/irelandlacrosse/posts/1792731640805498 [Accessed 25 August 2018]

[37] Ireland Lacrosse Facebook Page (2018) Post July 16, 2018 [Internet] Available from: https://www.facebook.com/irelandlacrosse/posts/1792797850798877 [Accessed 25 August 2018]

[38] Ireland Lacrosse Facebook Page (2018) Post July 18, 2018 [Internet] Available from: https://www.facebook.com/irelandlacrosse/posts/1795700857175243 [Accessed 25 August 2018]

[39] Ireland Lacrosse Facebook Page (2018) Post July 19, 2018 [Internet] Available from: https://www.facebook.com/irelandlacrosse/posts/1796943067051022 [Accessed 25 August 2018]

[40] Ireland Lacrosse Facebook Page (2018) Post July 20, 2018 [Internet] Available from: https://www.facebook.com/irelandlacrosse/posts/1798827890195873 [Accessed 25 August 2018]

[41] Ireland Lacrosse Facebook Page (2018) Post July 20, 2018 [Internet] Available from: https://www.facebook.com/irelandlacrosse/posts/1799098433502152 [Accessed 25 August 2018]

[42] Ireland Lacrosse Facebook Page (2018) Post July 21, 2018 [Internet] Available from: https://www.facebook.com/irelandlacrosse/posts/1800747823337213 [Accessed 25 August 2018]

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Cillian Murphy (Ireland Lacrosse Commissioner)

About this document

Researched, compiled and written by Enda Mulcahy for the

Eirball | Irish North American and World Sports Archive

Last Updated: 22 August 2020

(c) Copyright Enda Mulcahy and Eirball 2020

You are free to copy this document in whole or part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the authors. All Rights Reserved.

Leave a Reply