Since the inaugural tournament in 2003, every four years lacrosse fans have tuned in for the World Indoor Lacrosse Championship (WILC), with the outcome (at least concerning the top three teams) always being the same: the Canadians take home gold, the Iroquois Nationals win silver, and the United States, much to their chagrin, win bronze.
For the 2015 tournament, one underdog team in particular played remarkably well, and though they aren’t bringing home any awards, they certainly proved their tenacity, strength, and love for the game: Israel.
In its WILC debut, the Israelis showed that they could sufficiently navigate a lacrosse box, with a tournament record of 5-2 (losing only to Germany, and then to Canada in the semifinals) before its defeat to the United States for the bronze medal. The Americans came away with an easy win, taking down the blue-and-whites 15-4.
Israel had come into the game after a monumental 20-2 loss to the Canadians (who pretty much own this game), though, as Bleacher Report’s Daniel Rogers notes, “almost everyone has been destroyed by the Canadians.” We did invent the game, after all.
Kyle Bergman, Chad Culp and Bryan Hopper led Israel in the offensive charge, with tremendous goalkeeping from Zachary Higgins. "We're trying to build the sport in Israel, field and indoor," Israel’s head coach Brad MacArthur said in Yahoo News. MacArthur is an Ontario native, and former National Lacrosse League player.
In the championship game, Canada defeated the Iroquois Nationals 12-8 for its fourth straight gold medal. According to the Federation of International Lacrosse, the tournament was the first international sporting event to be held on indigenous lands.
