After a 3rd-place finish in Madrid that left observers scratching their heads a bit, the USA Men's 7s team is working on addressing the issues that sprang up as they prepare for the second tournament in Spain.

Of course, they will do it without USA star Perry Baker, who injured his leg Sunday against Kenya and has had to return to the United States to figure out exactly how bad it is, and what to do about it. (A report from spain said he had fractured his tibia, but we're waiting for further corroboration.) 

Perry Baker Injury Update

The injury hit the team hard, but Baker's injury wasn't why they finished third. They had already lost to Argentina on Saturday with a healthy Baker, and the Speed Stick's injury against Kenya came when the Eagles were already behind and weren't fixing any of the issues that had put them behind.

USA Men a Disappointing 3rd In Madrid

Scores And Standings Madrid 7s

USA Head Coach Mike Friday said he was happy to see his players on the field and enjoying the game. It had been a long time coming and the players were all smiles. But, he added, "looking past that we were, as expected, rusty in all facets of the game and what was clear is that our ability to ‘repeat effort’ under the physical duress that combat creates needs to significantly improve from both a physical application and mental mindset. We basically are still not battle ready."

Kenya showed that, fielding a fast and physically strong team that outmuscled, outworked, and out-supported the Americans. Kenyan players were able to play in their very competitive club league before Madrid, and that certainly showed, and losing that game 38-7, the game that ensured the Eagles would play for 3rd and not 1st, was, Friday said "a tough lesson at school."

But ... to be perfect now would be unrealistic, even undesirable.

"To put things in perspective we are in pre-season building towards the Olympics, so we wouldn’t want to be at a 100% at the moment," cautioned Friday. BUt he also had a list of things to fix this week.  

"We will need to focus on our kickoff receipt this week; we were very inconsistent," said Friday. "We were slow to adjust and react to the actual kick and we lost far too many possessions from that facet of the game. Defensively we will be looking to ensure we chop tackle more effectively this week and win the reload game as well continue to get the balance of shape and patience in defense and aggressive line speed."

On attack the team needs to work hard and better in support.  

"As a group we will need to work harder on implementing the habits of reloading and working hard off the ball to create depth and width to our attack and be more selfless in recognizing where we need to move the ball quickly to then attack with pace and power."

To get there Friday is working the players hard this week and asking them to dig deep. "We will see," Friday said ominously, "how they can cope with that."

All players on the trip will get equal time, because playing under stress and learning from that is more important than winning, but winning is a by-product of good performance and good play. 

"Winning development is the ideal," said Friday. "Winning at the expense of development is a little short-sighted for our season goal. As a group we will look to improve and I think the new guys gave a good account of themselves and we need to see them continue to develop and get comfortable out there in the heat of it all."