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It was a wild scene to say the least.

October 2nd, 2002. The Hershey Centre in Mississauga, Ontario.

Canada versus the US, playing the Canuck’s brand of ball. It was supposed to be Canada’s chance to show the rest of lacrosse that they owned box and there was nuthin’ you or the USA National Box Team could do about it.

Long story short, the Americans dummied up the slow steppin’ Canadians and thrashed them 21-16 in front of a stunned crowd that couldn’t believe what they had just seen, even after the final buzzer sounded.

The US dominated every facet of the game and continuously showed that an athletic, high temp brand of lacrosse was more than enough to hang with the best Canada had to offer. Coincidentally, it’s the style of ball many teams, including the 2008 Champion’s Cup Buffalo Bandits, currently also employ in the NLL.

Anyways…

Since then, Canada’s had the lock down on gold whenever another Heritage Cup game or WILC comes up. Each roster they’ve assembled since the Fall of ‘02, always has a good mix or role players and athletic two-way guys, something that first roster was sorely missing.

Another trend since that first Heritage Cup? We’ve very rarely, if ever, seen the best the Americans have to offer, for a variety of reasons. There’ve been some decent teams assembled since 2002, but never have we seen a team as loaded as that first Heritage Cup team.

So what would happen if the best of both sides clashed again? Could the best American box talent hang with the mighty Canadians?

The other thing the Americans had six years ago was a hot as hell Dwight Maetche in their cage. The big question mark for the team these days is, who to put inbetween the pipes? Eric Miller is really the lone American tender in the pros and although former University of Delaware keeper, Chris Collins, is being primed to take over the reins in 2011, the next year the WILC’s drop, it’s the one position in the NLL that is totally dominated by Canuck talent.

Anyways, with the Olympics coming up, I started thinking about watching the best both country’s had to offer and what that would look like today. Is the United States good enough to topple Canada again?

I lined up a pool of 30 guys for both Canada and the US below. I’m sure there’s arguments over who’d you included, but just wanted to give everyone an idea of what both nation’s had to offer as of today.

Take a look below and let us know, do the Americans have the wheels to repeat their 2002 triumph?

And on a side note, for those ball players out there interested, check out the NLL Free Agent Combine hosted by US Indoor Lacrosse on October 4th, click here for more info. Last year’s first ever combine landed a few guys spots on NLL team’s practice rosters.

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