A Tough Loss
Spain 7 USA 6
We battled Spain for four quarters last night but fell a little short. We just seemed slightly out of sorts. Perhaps it was Spain’s defense that kept us off balance or perhaps we were just a bit timid and not attacking with confidence. We never seemed to get into a good flow. We especially had trouble with our 6 on 5. In the end we only scored 2 out of 6 of our man advantage situations. There were also some shaky calls (2 critical no calls at the end of the game) made by the officials – but that is water polo. We certainly had our chances to win but fell short. Although we will not realize our ultimate goal of winning the World Championships we are still very much alive in our hunt for the USA Men’s first medal in the Worlds.
This was a frustrating game with the officials letting the teams play (wrestle, hold and grab) with very few calls. We earned 6 exclusions and Spain earned 6. The big difference in the game was that they scored 4 out of their 6 man advantage situations and we scored 2. The game went back and forth with the score being tied for the majority of the time. We were either tied or up by one for most of the first half and then the score was tied or Spain was up by one most of the second half. We had some really good opportunities at the end of the game to send it to overtime but either did not get the calls or could not get the ball in the net.
Now the goal is to get everyone over the loss and begin to focus on our next opponent. In the other semi-final Serbia defeated Croatia 12 – 11 in a game that had 33 exclusions (remember ours had 12). Amazingly that is almost 3 times the number of exclusions as our game. This one should be a very physical game. The Croatians like to press hard and grab and hold even more than the Spaniards so we will have our work cut out for us.
We tend to match up pretty well with the Croatians. In fact, in the last few major championships that we have met up with Croatia - we have a perfect 4- 0 record. This includes world championships and Olympic Games. So we should have confidence on our side. It is always interesting as a coach to see how your team bounces back from difficult losses too. We will come out and be flat or will we come out and be excited and ready to win a bronze medal. I guess that is our job as coaches to get them fired up and realize what a great opportunity we still have in front of us.
Tonight we will study game film from Croatia. The coaching staff just spent 4 hours reviewing film and we feel like we our formulating a good game plan. Once again, I believe that this game will come down to 6 on 5 and 5 on 6. In fact, as we were watching game film it seemed to us that the Croatians did not mind taking the exclusion. They will press hard and then take the exclusion when the ball goes to center and then rely on their 5 man defense. In order to beat them, we need to break the press and get the ball into our centers and then score on our 6 on 5. It is a simple plan but in truth this is what we need to do tomorrow. We will need all of our energy against these guys. They are big and physical.
Game time tomorrow is scheduled for 4 pm here in Rome. So we are back in the heat of the day. The game will be on back on at 7 am on www.universalsports.com Tune in and cheer us on as we try to make history and become the first USA men’s team to win a medal at the worlds. We are ready.
See you at the pool.
Coach
We battled Spain for four quarters last night but fell a little short. We just seemed slightly out of sorts. Perhaps it was Spain’s defense that kept us off balance or perhaps we were just a bit timid and not attacking with confidence. We never seemed to get into a good flow. We especially had trouble with our 6 on 5. In the end we only scored 2 out of 6 of our man advantage situations. There were also some shaky calls (2 critical no calls at the end of the game) made by the officials – but that is water polo. We certainly had our chances to win but fell short. Although we will not realize our ultimate goal of winning the World Championships we are still very much alive in our hunt for the USA Men’s first medal in the Worlds.
This was a frustrating game with the officials letting the teams play (wrestle, hold and grab) with very few calls. We earned 6 exclusions and Spain earned 6. The big difference in the game was that they scored 4 out of their 6 man advantage situations and we scored 2. The game went back and forth with the score being tied for the majority of the time. We were either tied or up by one for most of the first half and then the score was tied or Spain was up by one most of the second half. We had some really good opportunities at the end of the game to send it to overtime but either did not get the calls or could not get the ball in the net.
Now the goal is to get everyone over the loss and begin to focus on our next opponent. In the other semi-final Serbia defeated Croatia 12 – 11 in a game that had 33 exclusions (remember ours had 12). Amazingly that is almost 3 times the number of exclusions as our game. This one should be a very physical game. The Croatians like to press hard and grab and hold even more than the Spaniards so we will have our work cut out for us.
We tend to match up pretty well with the Croatians. In fact, in the last few major championships that we have met up with Croatia - we have a perfect 4- 0 record. This includes world championships and Olympic Games. So we should have confidence on our side. It is always interesting as a coach to see how your team bounces back from difficult losses too. We will come out and be flat or will we come out and be excited and ready to win a bronze medal. I guess that is our job as coaches to get them fired up and realize what a great opportunity we still have in front of us.
Tonight we will study game film from Croatia. The coaching staff just spent 4 hours reviewing film and we feel like we our formulating a good game plan. Once again, I believe that this game will come down to 6 on 5 and 5 on 6. In fact, as we were watching game film it seemed to us that the Croatians did not mind taking the exclusion. They will press hard and then take the exclusion when the ball goes to center and then rely on their 5 man defense. In order to beat them, we need to break the press and get the ball into our centers and then score on our 6 on 5. It is a simple plan but in truth this is what we need to do tomorrow. We will need all of our energy against these guys. They are big and physical.
Game time tomorrow is scheduled for 4 pm here in Rome. So we are back in the heat of the day. The game will be on back on at 7 am on www.universalsports.com Tune in and cheer us on as we try to make history and become the first USA men’s team to win a medal at the worlds. We are ready.
See you at the pool.
Coach
posted by Dr. Terry Schroeder at
10:13 AM
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