Respect
6/26/11
Last night we lost to Serbia 8 - 5. Definitely a better game than our first game against them. We played hard but are really struggling. Seems like the timing is off and we are not working together very well. Once again, we were destroyed on the 6 on 5 and 5 on 6. They scored 6 out of 9 times that they were up a man and we did not score on 7 attempts on our 6 on 5. That is about as bad as it gets. We have a lot of work to do in the next few weeks to get ourselves ready for the World Championships.
We did close the gap a little on the Serbs but they still have our number. I feel in a way that they do not really respect us. It is interesting to look at history. In February of 2008, we went to Belgrade and trained with the Serbians for 8 days. They kicked our butts night after night. Slowly over the course of that year we closed the gap with that team and just a month before the Olympics we played them in the finals of the World League tournament. We lost 7 - 4 but all the guys walked away from that game knowing we could beat that team. Serbia also knew that they had a worthy opponent. We had gained their respect (finally). In the Olympics, we played them in the first round and lost 4 - 2. The gap was getting smaller... and then in the semi finals we played them and finally beat them 10 - 5. It was a huge win and it kind of shocked the water polo world.
Over the past few years, Serbia has once again established their dominance over us. We have played them 5 times since 2008 and lost every time. What hurts the most is that they don’t seem to respect us again. I look down at their bench during our math with them and see players laughing. We make a big play and celebrate a bit (as a team) and they laugh at us. It makes my competitive blood boil and I hope it does the same for our guys. In my mind, Serbia is playing at about 95% capacity. They may improve but not much. On the other hand, we are at about 75 - 80%. We have a lot of room for improvement.
In the other semi final, Italy defeated Croatia in a shoot out to advance to the final. That means that we will play Croatia in the bronze medal game tonight at 7 pm. It is significant in that over the past three years we have consistently been in the medal round but have failed to win a medal. We have finished fourth on numerous occasions.
Croatia will be tough. They are big and strong. I think our guys feel pretty good about our chances but I am a little concerned that we don’t have enough gas left in the tank...
We seem worn down as I look them in the eyes this morning - I don’t see what I want to see. I worried.
We shall see.
See you at the pool.
Coach
Last night we lost to Serbia 8 - 5. Definitely a better game than our first game against them. We played hard but are really struggling. Seems like the timing is off and we are not working together very well. Once again, we were destroyed on the 6 on 5 and 5 on 6. They scored 6 out of 9 times that they were up a man and we did not score on 7 attempts on our 6 on 5. That is about as bad as it gets. We have a lot of work to do in the next few weeks to get ourselves ready for the World Championships.
We did close the gap a little on the Serbs but they still have our number. I feel in a way that they do not really respect us. It is interesting to look at history. In February of 2008, we went to Belgrade and trained with the Serbians for 8 days. They kicked our butts night after night. Slowly over the course of that year we closed the gap with that team and just a month before the Olympics we played them in the finals of the World League tournament. We lost 7 - 4 but all the guys walked away from that game knowing we could beat that team. Serbia also knew that they had a worthy opponent. We had gained their respect (finally). In the Olympics, we played them in the first round and lost 4 - 2. The gap was getting smaller... and then in the semi finals we played them and finally beat them 10 - 5. It was a huge win and it kind of shocked the water polo world.
Over the past few years, Serbia has once again established their dominance over us. We have played them 5 times since 2008 and lost every time. What hurts the most is that they don’t seem to respect us again. I look down at their bench during our math with them and see players laughing. We make a big play and celebrate a bit (as a team) and they laugh at us. It makes my competitive blood boil and I hope it does the same for our guys. In my mind, Serbia is playing at about 95% capacity. They may improve but not much. On the other hand, we are at about 75 - 80%. We have a lot of room for improvement.
In the other semi final, Italy defeated Croatia in a shoot out to advance to the final. That means that we will play Croatia in the bronze medal game tonight at 7 pm. It is significant in that over the past three years we have consistently been in the medal round but have failed to win a medal. We have finished fourth on numerous occasions.
Croatia will be tough. They are big and strong. I think our guys feel pretty good about our chances but I am a little concerned that we don’t have enough gas left in the tank...
We seem worn down as I look them in the eyes this morning - I don’t see what I want to see. I worried.
We shall see.
See you at the pool.
Coach
posted by Dr. Terry Schroeder at
7:29 AM
1 Comments:
We defeated Serbia yesterday (Serbia11-HUN12), they will learn what respect is bí the end of th Worlds
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