Team USA won Invictus gold by making murderball more fun

ORLANDO, Fla.-- Wednesday night’s gold medal wheelchair rugby match at the Invictus Games was settled the same way as every other game involving the US team: with complete domination.

The US defeated Denmark, 28-19, in another tilt decided by the US’s unstoppable offensive juggernaut. Denmark was the best hope for any opposition to the dominant US team, having entered the match riding a decisive 31-26 semifinal win over the UK. But Team USA scored on Denmark within the first five seconds of the finals, and after the first five minutes, took a lead that they’d never give back.

En route to the gold medal game, the US brutally defeated Australia in the semis, 36-15, a scoring record for wheelchair rugby at the Invictus games. Viewing the US-Australia match became so painful that the crowd cheered whenever Australia came anywhere near the goal line.

The US’s two overwhelming victories came thanks to a difference in style between the US and the European teams that proved to be a dramatic advantage. US forward Sebastiana Lopez-Arellano shed some light upon it when she describes the team’s offensive style: “A lot of our guys play basketball. They know how to dodge and weave and everything, and I think those skills transfer over.”

The international rules of wheelchair rugby vaguely resemble hockey in that it is played by smaller units of players, five on each side, who can be substituted out for other players on the bench. (Unlike hockey or soccer, and like rugby, there is no goaltender.) The game is played in two 15-minute halves. Players work to carry the ball across the goal line, and both wheels must cross the line while the player is in possession of the ball. Players use either defensive or offensive wheelchairs. The difference in equipment is exhibited by spikes that adorn the front of the defensive chair.

Wheelchair rugby is traditionally played with the same kind of sensibility as non-wheelchair rugby. European wheelchair rugby teams emphasize a game with passes to a swift offensive player who can move the ball up the court, coupled with heavy offensive scrums that seek to gain possession.

The US team’s style of play is unorthodox in this group, bringing the dimension of air into the gameplay. Their style is marked by complicated weaving offensive patterns, especially between two skilled forwards such as McDaniels and his offensive line mates Eric Rodriguez or Jorge Salazar, that result in long lobs and breakaways like in a basketball game.

Rallying from behind in the semis, Australia tried to take a page from the US in the final minutes. They’d attempt to launch a pass that would open up mid-court scrums on a breakaway toward the goal, only to fail as the ball slid through the fingers of the offensive player and fell out of bounds. There was no such problem for the US team, who completed nearly every pass to gain competitive zone advantage.

The US team had a basketball O but took its defensive cues from football. Defenders were quick to use upper-body limbs to whack balls out of their opponents’ grip, forcing giveaways and interceptions, and coupled those blows with hard hits for a physical style that thwarted everyone else.

“Honestly? We just dominate,” Lopez-Arellano said. “Our thing is that we like to hit. So you hit hard -- you put fear in their eyes so that they don’t want to touch you. You come out and do some initial hits, just like in football, you’ve got to show them who owns the court, and you take over. They start backing off a little bit of the bigger dudes.”

Will other countries pick up on this change in style of play, and start to incorporate it into strategy in advance of next year’s Invictus games?

For the sake of people who like a closely fought match, we can hope.

INVICTUS GAMES 2016 | 5.11.16 Rugby Finals - FULL MELT (Highlights & Medal Ceremony) from Invictus Games on Vimeo.