United States Under-20 football takes 4th at worlds?
by Mark Jurgena
Yeah, if you’re reading this you read the headline and I’m not sure what to think either.
The facts are the United States of America took fourth place in an American football world championship competition.
How is that even possible?
Well I guess we need to take a look.
First of all this strange occurrence took place at the IFAF Under-20 world championships.
IFAF stands for the International Federation of American Football. Yes it’s tackle football.
They held their quadrennial championships for their youth football players at the end of June in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Seven countries sent teams to the event with Canada fielding two squads.
After the United States dispatched Panama 86-12 in their opening contest on June 22, they moved to the semifinals on June 26 against Japan (That short turnaround reminds me of the old IHSA playoff format of Wednesday-Saturday games).
Anyway, the Japanese team hammered Australia 50-6 in their opener, but they were playing the USA for goodness sake!
Nope. In a game of shocking proportions, the Land of the Rising Sun blasted the U.S. 41-20. Japan moved to the championship and the U.S. to third place game.
In that game, the U.S. was pinned by a great punt early that put them at their own one yard line and fumbled in the end zone on 2nd and 10 where the Japanese recovered to go up 7-0.
They tacked on with a TD on their next possession.
After Team USA threw an interception, Japan scored another TD with 2:57 to play in the first quarter to go up 20-0.
Do I really need to continue?
So who was playing for the USA?
The 34-man roster consisted mostly of recently graduated high school players who are attending small colleges to play. Some are high school graduates who opted for prep school after their high school careers were over.
Perhaps, the roster needs to change?
Anyway in the third-place game the Americans faced Austria.
Despite the semifinal upset, they were in for a game. I knew this because I do follow the European League and the Vienna Vikings are a powerhouse at all levels of European football.
There were 17 players from Vienna on the Austrian team.
Anyway, the U.S. was soundly beaten by the European power 22-8.
Canada went on to win their third straight world championship beating the Japanese 20-9.
Of course, the Canadians beat Brazil 110-0 in their opener.
How do you put up a hundo in a football game? (a question I’ve always wondered in light of Staunton hammering Gillespie 233-0 on Nov. 23, 1923. Happy Thanksgiving there…)
But I digress back to the Americans.
Apparently the U.S. not winning is not a new phenomenon at this event. The last championship was in 2018 with Canada beating Mexico 13-7 for the title and the U.S. beating Sweden 61-9 for third place.
The Americans had lost to Mexico in the semifinals.
While we all realize the superiority of American football players as a whole, the world has begun paying more attention to the sport thanks to the efforts of the NFL to make the sport more global.
In fact, flag football will be a sport at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
That fact drew even more attention to the American losses.
They caught the eye of media types including ESPN’s Pat McAfee and many others. They are not upset at the players, but the process. It’s pretty clear that you can’t take high school players, toss them together for a couple of weeks, and go win world championships any longer.
Does it matter? Not really, at least these players wanted to go play! They also got a great experience for their efforts!
I applaud all the members of this years squad and the 2018 team for representing us at this event!
However, with flag football coming to the 2028 Olympics, it seems that tossing together a team of younger players probably won’t be accepted by the American public.
In flag football it doesn’t appear this will be an issue.
The USA men won the last Flag Football World Championship in 2022 by a 46-36 count over Italy in Birmingham, Ala. while the women lost in the title game to Mexico 39-6.
Also, Miami Dolphins superstar receiver Tyreek Hill has expressed a desire to compete in 2028 along with other NFL players.
YouTube
If you are interested in watching the highlights of any of the IFAF world championship games, go to YouTube and search for them. Highlights of all the games are available to watch.
Also on YouTube is the 2022 World Flag Football championship game against Italy.
