US retains U19 Title: Defeats Canada 10-8

The United States retained its title as winner of the FIL U19 Championship, by defeating Canada 10-8. The United States is the only team to ever have won the Championship in the history of this event.

Mike Tagliaferri scored one in the US victory. Read more at:
http://insidelacrosse.com/news/2012/07/21/u19-world-championships-usa-beats-canada-keeps-gold-streak-alive

Nicely done, boys!

USA U19s are 2-2 at end of Pool Play: Tags sizzles

Amazingly, the USA U19 team, having had an unblemished record through the entire history of the U19 Worlds, has lost twice in pool play. The lost to Canada in their opener, the clobbered England and Australia and lost to the Iroquois nation 15-13 an hour ago. Shocking!

As Indian Country Media put it, "This marks the first time that Nationals have bested Team USA in international field competition (they’ve beaten Team USA in indoor matches), which, considering Team USA draws from a pool of roughly 150,000 players nationwide and is a multimillion dollar operation while the Nationals draw from a pool of about 86, is astonishing."
 You can read their article here:

Despite this, Mike Tagliaferri had 4 goals and an assist in this contest. The other big scorer for Team USA was Matt Kavanagh, with 4 goals and 2 assists. Those 8 goals were not enough to stave off a fired-up Iroquois team.

Disappointed for the USA team, but thrilled that the Iroquois are doing so well in this tournament!

Mike Tagliaferri at U19 World Championships

Mike Tagliaferri

NorCal's Mike Tagliaferri has had some nice moments at the U19 World Championships in Finland. Here's his roster page for the team, which includes some background info and a brief video:
http://laxmagazine.com/teamusa/u19men/2011-12/bios/u19/tagliaferri_michael

Mike had no statistical events in Team USA's opening loss to Canada in overtime. In their next game, the USA defeated England 20-1. Mike scored two goals and had an assist in that game. Against Australia, the USA prevailed, 24-6, but Mike didn't see much action. Interestingly, attendance at the USA v Australia was 548 spectators. NorCal got more fans than that at SRVs regular season home games against SI and DLS.

As I am writing this, team USA is playing the Iroquois National team. I'll update this entry if Mike has goals or assists.

Way to go, Mike!