Canada 23, USA 13, at the 2007 NFL Global Junior Championship

The addition of this recap is inspired by a recent signing by the Ottawa RedBlacks.

Offensive lineman Brendan Dunn joined the new CFL club on Tuesday.  While looking up background information about the former defensive lineman, I came across the following mention about his history in international play.

Dunn first started thinking about a professional career after making a provincial team while in Grade 11 at Notre Dame. The following year, 2007, he made the Canadian squad for the NFL Global Junior Championship where he helped Canada defeat the U.S. (coincidentally, switching to offensive line for the first time for the tournament).

“It was ‘Whoa’, I made a national team,’” he said. “It dawned on me that I could play professionally. It gave me something to aspire to. That became my goal, and my dad told me to shoot for the stars.”

The 2007 edition of this tournament was the final one.  Football USA directed its attention to the IFAF U19 World Championship.

The recap below is copied (and abbreviated) from the the Football Québec website. 

...The first half was entirely defensive. The American team had scored first with less than five minutes remaining in the second quarter, when Jason Frierson caught a 20-yard pass from quarterback Derek Rifenbury. Immediately after the touchdown, a 48-yard kick return from Canadian receiver Dan Hankinson set the scene for Dan Village with a 23-yard field goal. The score then stood at 7-3.

In the beginning of the second half, the Canadians took the lead 10-7 when quarterback Bruno Prud’homme raced 14 yards for a touchdown. Minutes later, Prud’homme (connected with) Ismael Bamba in the goal zone after a 30-yard play, thus increasing the gap by 10 points.

In the fourth quarter, with two (field) goals of 33 and 37 yards by Dan Village, the score jumped to 23-7. At that point, the American offensive came alive when receiver Michael Hellman scored a touchdown after catching a nine-yard pass from Rifenbury. The Americans were unable to score their two point conversion and the team never managed to gain more than 192 yards during the entire game.

Quarterback Prud’homme stood out in this game, completing seven of 12 passes and running with the pigskin five times over a total of 18 yards. Ball carriers Eden Nyamadi (five runs for total gains of 68 yards) and Anthony Woodson (17 runs, 83 yards) also played a really strong game. In terms of defence, Felipe Fonseca, Frédéric Plesius, and Sammy Lavaud dominated, with seven, seven, and five tackles respectively.

Canada, which went into the game fresh from two shut-outs – one against the French (14-0) and one against Japan (7-0) in the preliminary round on Wednesday -- has now won 13 consecutive games in this tournament. The team’s last defeat was in 2005.

The following players were named to the All-Star Team following the tournament.

 4 QB Bruno Prud’homme
35 RB Anthony Woodson
83 WR Julian Feoli-Gudino
79 OL Dylan Steenbergen
97 DE Ameet Pall
49 LB Filipe Fonseca
12 K/P Dan Village

In addition, Ameet Pall was named tournament MVP on the strength of 7.5 tackles and five sacks.  He went on to be a 1st-round pick for the Calgary Stampeders (5th overall) in 2012.  He has since joined his hometown team, the Montrael Alouettes

Speaking of the Alouettes, while looking up details about the game I was reminded of an anecdote that took place prior to the gold medal game.  I located it on the Als' website.

During the tournament, American quarterback, Derek Rifenbury, stated to an Orlando newspaper, “With no disrespect, how can Canada win?”

Good for Rifenbury that he got an answer to his rhetorical question.