HC Stuart Shape has tapped his 14 to play for the Red, White & Blue starting July 8 in Spain facing Iran at 3 p.m. ET. With a pair of NJ players, there is a bit of a local flavor to the team with Jacob Kaplan of Morganville & Shea Hammond out of Upper Montclair. Great results in their most recent games, the 2017 World Championships & last year's IFCPF Copa America has left them in the #4 spot world wide, their best ever rank. The World Championships saw the US come back 2x taking the 5th spot there, while in the fall, games pitted against the best that North & South America have to offer, they were 3rd. 11 of these players return from the Copa America and the World Cup is of course the biggest competition of the year and 2 years since their last title try in the World Championships. Their 5th place was the best in the modern 7-a-side era, since 2014, and first since new rules for classification by the International Federation for Cerebral Palsey.
Sharp had this to say "We are confident that we can continue to show that we are one of the top teams in the world."
In group B of the 16 team games, the 2nd opponent will be Ireland at 3 a.m. ET July 10 then group play closes out with a strong Finland team July 12 at 1:10 p.m. ET, all from Sevilla Spain. All matches are to be streamed.