Shanghai - Work to Do

7/31/11

Tomorrow we pack up and leave Shanghai. We all leave with a feeling of “we are so close” and yet we come home with a 6th place finish. We battled Spain in the 5th place game and ended up losing 12-11. After falling behind 4 - 0 in the first quarter we managed to win each of the last three quarters but could not make up the deficit of the first quarter. For whatever reason, our guys seemed to be sleeping in the first quarter. Our defense was not as strong and Merrill did not have his best game. Throughout the tournament the pieces looked very good at times but in the end when the team had to be the strongest to win a tight game we were not where we needed to be.

In my opinion, the biggest factor is time together. Many of these other teams are training together so much more during the year. Once again, we had a total of four weeks together to prepare for this tournament. Just not enough time as a team.

I am looking forward to this next year. All of our guys have agreed to stay home and train as a team. As I mentioned in an earlier email we have to raise some funds to make this happen and we will be having a major fundraiser for the team. We are working on a date in late September. All the funds raised in this event will go directly to the athletes for training expenses for next year. This is vital to our success. Stay tuned for details.

As for now, we come home and have a few weeks off before we resume training for the Pan Am Games. We will actually have about 6 weeks of good time together to prepare for the Pan Ams. This now becomes super important for us. We need to win the Pan Ams in order to qualify for the Olympic Games. Otherwise, we will have to qualify in the per Olympic tournament which is a dog fight. The guys know what is on the line and we have to get to business and prepare for the Pan Ams.

I believe that each of our guys knows that they have to be 100% committed now to the national team program. We improved a great deal here over the two weeks. We came together and grew up. We realized that perhaps we have been in cruise control a bit and if we are going to be serious about winning the Olympic Gold nobody can cruise in this next year. No great goal comes without a big sacrifice. We are prepared to lay it on the line and go for it.

Italy actually defeated Serbia last night in overtime to win the gold here. Croatia won the bronze with Hungary fourth. Those are the teams that are in front of us right now. We know what we have to do and now it is just a matter of taking this day by day and putting the work in together.

I was reading John Maxwell’s Laws of Teamwork and there is a great quote that applies to our team. It says that “as the challenge escalates, the need for teamwork elevates”. That is where we are -as we move forward we need to learn to rely on each other to a greater degree. This is the only way that we have a chance to win the gold next year.

See you at the pool.

Coach

Shanghai - Turning the Tide

7/29/11

Another solid effort by our team. This time we did not let Germany jump on us early. Instead, we took a commanding 4 - 1 lead and played a great first half. We actually went up 8 - 4 at the half. The best part of what was going on in the game for us was our 6 on 5. We scored our first seven 6 on 5’s and this was a big part of our early lead. We were confident, aggressive and yet we were patient and smart. We worked the ball around very well and made great choices as we broke down the defense. The Germans made a big charge in the third and fourth quarter as we lost a bit of momentum. In the end we hung on for an exciting 9 - 8 victory.

One of the best elements of this game was that we actually had seven different players score for us. Ryan Bailey led the way with 2 goals and Peter Varrellas, Peter Hudnut, Adam Wright, Brian Alexander, Jeff Powers and Layne Beaubien all scored to secure the win. Merrill played another great game in the cage. It was a good team effort.

We will need another one tomorrow as we will face off with Spain for 5th place. They are a tough team and also feel like they have something to prove here. The other match ups for the final day are as follows. Italy beat Croatia and will play Serbia for the gold. The Hungary/Serbia game was pretty amazing. Hungary had the lead for the entire game and then Serbia tied it late in the game and sent the game to over time where they prevailed. So Hungary and Croatia will play for the bronze.

The message here for our guys is to finish strong. We have come together a great deal in this tournament. Improving in many areas as the tournament has progressed. It has been nice to watch. We all know that we have a great deal of work to do when we get home. We will go home with the sense that we are close to the summit. We all need to be committed through this next year and see how far we can go as a team. I believe that the Olympic Gold is within reach.

See you at the pool.

Coach

A Battle Lost

7/27/11

Hungary vs. USA turned out to be a great battle that was fought hard down to the very end. After taking a commanding 5 - 2 lead, Hungary fought back to tie the game at 5 and then take the lead. From there the momentum of the game seemed to swing back and forth. We would catch them and tie the game and have a chance to take the lead but never again regained the lead. The tempo was in our favor. We actually beat them 6 on 6. Our defense was paying very strong. We came to play and played one of our best games since the Olympic Games in Beijing.

The underlying story of the game was the 6 on 5 and 5 on 6. They scored 5 out of 11 and also had a penalty shot and we scored only 3 out of 11. Often times in these big games that is where the games are won and lost. And yesterday this proved to be our downfall. In fact, in the fourth quarter we had four 6 on 5 opportunities. We scored on only one. The Hungarian goalie made a few very nice saves to shut us down. It was tough and to make matters worse on two of our power play opportunities, Hungary came down and scored on the very next possession to make these in effect two goals turn arounds.

The final score was 9 - 8 with Hungary moving on to the semifinals with Croatia, Serbia and Italy. We go into the 5th - 8th bracket and once again play against Germany on Thursday here.

As I reflect on the game there are many positives - we definitely played well enough to win in many areas. Our 6 on 6 defense was very strong. We had good intensity and Merrill played a great game in the goal for us. However, we made some individual one on one mistakes where we took bad exclusions (kick outs) and gave them a few easy goals. They even had a one-on-nobody break away when we took a quick shot immediately off an ejection foul and their team captain Biros broke away by himself. Our little mistakes hurt us big as they usually do against a good experienced team. Our 5 man defense was actually pretty good too. Hungary scored 5 out of 11 times and we had them somewhat frustrated on their man up opportunities. The real weak spot that sticks out is our 6 on 5. As I have said in the past the 6 on 5 is the true mark of how well your team is working together. We scored only 3 out of 11 of our power plays. This is not a good percentage and granted some of our failure is due to Hungary’s great 5 man defense. They move in and out on defense better than anyone in the world. Much of our failure in my opinion is just lack of time together. In the last few non Olympic years, we have only had 3-4 weeks training time together because of the European schedules that most all of our players play.

This year will be different. All the players have agreed to stay home and spend the next year training together. Actually, the opening ceremonies in London are one year from today! In order to make this happen we are going to have to raise some funds to help the players out. We will be having a major fundraiser in late September where all the funds raised will go directly to the athletes for training expenses. This will be critical to our success next summer. As you can all see we are close to the top but to climb to the summit is going to take a lot of hard work and time together. When we return to Thousand Oaks and resume our training at CLU (our training base is California Lutheran University) we will be working hard towards the Pan American Games which is now our next opportunity to qualify for the London Olympics. The Pan Ams will be in October of this year and we need to win the gold to qualify. Obviously, we have lots of work to do before then.

For now, we need to focus on finishing strong here. Germany tomorrow and then if we win we have the winner of Monte Negro and Spain for 5th place on Saturday.

Time to get back to work and start preparing for Germany. Lots of video to watch and figure out how we are going to win tomorrow.

See you at the pool.

Coach

Shanghai - Playing with Pride

7/25/11

Last night we came to play. The team was excited to prove that that are ready to play at a high level are in Shanghai. We stressed defense and talked about playing tough man to man defense for 30 seconds (the entire shot clock). Our goal was to allow them no more then 4 goals. We came out with great intensity and totally dominated the Canadians in all aspects of the game. At the end of the first period, we were ahead 5 - 2 and at half it was 11 - 2. We went on to beat them 17 - 4.

It was a game when almost everything we did worked. Our defense frustrated the Canadians the entire game. They really had trouble doing much of anything. This is a key for us as we now advance to the quarter finals against Hungary. The Hungarians advanced first in their bracket. They had a tough bracket which included Monte Negro and Spain. They beat Monte Negro 10 - 9 in the first game of the tournament and then beat Spain 12 - 11 to win their bracket and earn the bye that all first place finishers in the preliminary rounds earns.

In Beijing, the winners of pool play also received byes. Both teams (USA and Hungary) that received byes ended up advancing to the finals. The point being is that in a long tournament like this that extra day off is a big advantage. If we look at it this way Hungary may have the advantage. However, for us we are just now working our way back into our game. The team feels pretty good about where we are. They are excited about playing defense again - which is something that has been missing over the past year or so. In fact, last year we gave up an average of 10.5 goals per game. In contrast, during the Olympic Games, we gave up an average of 6 goals per game prior to the finals when Hungary beat us in a shoot out. Our energy level is good. We were able to use all of our players pretty equally over the past few games so no one should be too tired. The hotel situation has worked in our favor, where we have not had to drive all over town two times per day for training. We have limited that to one off site and one training on site. The point is that we should not be too broken down going into this quarter final match. We should be ready.

Hungary came to our game as a team and watched us play. They are a pretty cocky bunch and they have certainly earned that to a degree. This is a team that has won the past three Olympic Gold Medals. They are good for sure but they are beatable. This will actually be our first real meaningful match against the Hungarians since the gold medal game in Beijing. I am excited. A birth to the London Olympic Games is at stake (it appears that Serbia will make the top four which means that all four teams in the top four will earn bids to the Games - because Serbia is already qualified).

How do we beat Hungary? We have to be committed to playing our best defense. They have a team of sharp shooters. Lots of guys that can score the ball. We can not get into a shootout with them and expect to beat them. Our best game is a low scoring game where defense is dominate. We want to make them score 6 on 6 from the perimeter. We need Merrill to have a big game and we can’t give them any cheap goals - we need to make them earn everything they get. We can do this. It certainly will not be easy but it is not suppose to be. This is a team we need to beat if we are to have a chance to win a gold medal in London. There is no doubt that they will be in the final rounds in London. It is time to play with pride on defense. If we can hold them to 6-7 goals we can definitely beat them.

Today we will begin to focus in on what we need to do to beat these guys. We will be reviewing video for a good part of the day and we will also have one training later today where we will work on some tactics that will be key to our strategy to win. Game time tomorrow is 2 pm.

See you at the pool.

Coach

Testing the Waters

7/24/11

Friday Team USA was able to get some frustrations out with a lopsided 20 - 3 win over South Africa. It may have been “just what the doctor ordered” to get us some positive energy going. In our training yesterday, the team was more focused and seemed more hungry. There is certainly a lot of work to do when we return home but at this point all we can do is take it one game at a time while we are here and put in our best effort. You never know what will happen in sports... that is why we play the game. If you believe that you have a chance and go out and give it your best than you have a chance to win each and every time you go out there.

Today we have a very important match up against Canada. There are two reasons that this game is critical for us. First and foremost, every game now is an elimination game. The winner today advances to the top eight and the loser goes to 9th - 12th. So it is time to play our best. Canada actually wanted this match up with us. They feel like they are closing the gap between us and they have something to prove. This is a dangerous scenario for us. We can not for one second think that this game is going to be easy. We have to come to play at the top of our game. If we do that we will take care of business and keep our hopes alive to medal in this tournament. The second critical reason for doing well in this game is that Canada is our chief rival in the Pan Am Games in October. If we do not qualify here then the Pan Ams become our qualifier for the Olympic Games in London. Today’s game is important for us to send Canada a message and take all hope away from them as we go forward.

We have a relaxed morning with breakfast and then a stretcher at the hotel pool. The hotel has really worked out nicely here. They have a great gym and pool and we have been able to utilize these facilities without having to drive all over town for our trainings. The food has been great and the fact that we are situated on the side of the river away from the busy part of town is great for keeping the team focused. Also, the competition pool is really only 10-15 minutes away from the hotel so that has been awesome too. All in all, it has been one of the better hotels I have ever stayed in on any USA Water Polo trip.

Today we will test the waters again and see if all the meetings and talking about playing with pride and intensity have hit the mark. This will be a truer test to see if we are ready for the big boys or not. Game time 4:50 pm. I am excited about seeing if we can win some games here. Four games to go counting today (cross over, quarter finals, semi finals and finals). All we have to do is win our next four games and we will be the champs! (: For now, we will just focus all of our energy on winning this game today. It really is all the matters right now. We have something to prove and today is the day to do it.

See you at the pool,

Coach

Not Quite the Start We Wanted

7/20/11

Tonight we played Italy. We battled and fought but in the end just did not have what it takes to win the game. We came out much better but were still down 2-1 at the end of the first quarter. At the half, it was 4 - 2 Italy. We played the third quarter poorly and lost that quarter 3 - 1 to make the score 7 - 4 going into the fourth. Unfortunately, we gave up too may bad goals with mental errors. While it was a better effort, we are just not clicking right now.

Where do we stand? We play South Africa on Friday. Definitely a team we should handle well. They are also 0 - 2 and have given up 31 goals to date. We will beat them and finish 3rd in our bracket. This will cross us over with the number 2 team in the C bracket which is Canada. The winner of that game advances to the quarter finals more than likely to face Hungary. We have our work cut out for us. We have to find our groove. Part of our problem is definitely conditioning and part of it is just we need more time together. My sense is that we will improve each and every game here.

My overall opinion is that we have a group of veteran players that have not put the time or energy into getting themselves into the best possible shape. They have become slightly complacent and it does not take much to be off your game. We will work hard to find ourselves in this tournament. That is all we can do right now and hopefully we have a few games to gain some confidence and strength before we go into the quarterfinals next week. It is a long tournament and a lot can happen. We have not been working like the team we once were but we will find it. I am certain of it.

Tonight our bright spots were our 5 man defense. We held Italy to 3 out of 9 power plays which is pretty good for the 5 man. On the other side of that was our 6 on 5 which was a measly 3 out of 10. We also gave up some pretty soft goals. As our offense struggles a bit we need to find a way to keep teams from scoring so many goals

We have some work to do here. No fun for anyone when you lose your first two games. The mood is pretty blue. Hopefully, we can right the ship and gain some confidence as we go forward here. Our goal is to get better every game.

Another gray day in Shanghai. We had some thunder showers today but overall it was a pretty good day. Except for loosing of course. The swimmers came in today and made quite a stir. Everyone wants to see Michael Phelps. Lots of media in the hotel tonight.

Ok - that is about it for tonight. I am checking out and hitting the sack. Better days ahead.

See you at the pool.

Coach

Shanghai - Poor start

7/19/11

For whatever reason, we came out last night very lethargic and played through the first quarter like we were asleep. Germany on the other hand came out like they had something to prove and before we knew it we were down 5 - 0. Not the start that I had imagined. At that point, we became fired up and tried to make a run at them. We fought hard and actually played two quarters of water polo that were as good as I have seen from this team in the past few summers. Early in the fourth quarter we earned a penalty throw and had a chance to tie the game at 7. Unfortunately, Tony Azevedo’s shot was blocked and although we continued to fight could not ever come all the way back. Germany scored to go up by two and then we scored to make it 8 - 7. We had another great chance to tie it up but missed on a 6 on 5. Germany scored once more from the perimeter to win 9 - 7.

Definitely not the way we had envisioned the tournament beginning. This is a team we can beat and we played poorly for two quarters and handed them the game. Disappointing to say the least. We had a long meeting last night after the game. I asked the guys to think hard about how we played and try to figure out what is going on with starting the game out so poorly. If you remember, in Florence most of our games we were down 3 or 4 to 0 before we started to play. There are definitely some mental focus issues going on. My biggest concern is that we don’t seem hungry. We are not playing with urgency like there is something to prove. We played with very little intensity the first quarter. We as a team need to find that and get back to playing this game with passion. Having some fun together and of course, winning some games.

We have a light weight workout this morning and then a swim down. This afternoon we will go to an outside pool for training and begin our preparation for Italy. We need to get back to playing with some pride and intensity on defense. Lots to work on and obviously much room for improvement. We need to find ourselves again.

A new day today... Time to get to work.

See you at the pool.

Terry

Restless in Shanghai

7/17/11

I have had a bit of trouble adjusting to the time change here. Perhaps it is the 15 hour difference between here and California but I am usually a pretty good sleeper no matter where we are in the world. I have found myself up before the crack of dawn and feeling a bit restless. My sense is that I am excited for this Championship to begin. The days before the big event are normally the toughest. The waiting game. There is a very positive vibe happening on the team. Lots of laughter and good energy. I think we are going to ready to play some high level games here. Can we win this thing? Yes we can... no question. In our meeting tonight, I mentioned that we were one of 8 teams that had a real chance to win this thing. I then asked them, Why not us? Why not now? What separates the team that wins the big tournament with the team that finishes just out of the medals? The answer is that usually very little separates the winning team from the rest. Everything just has to come together at the right time. Just maybe, this is our time.

We are training lightly - mostly going over some tactical last minute details. Unfortunately, we have had some unwanted spies at our trainings. It seems that at most of our trainings either Germany or Italy have been scheduled to come in immediately after us for their training. The bad part is that they show up 30 minutes early and just sit around and watch our training. This has made it tough for us to work on anything very specific in our preparation for either one of these teams. The guys have taken it all pretty well. They have laughed at the thought that these other teams are so desperate to find out what we are working on that they are planning their days around coming in early to scout us in practice. We are tapering down and getting our bodies feeling good.

Many of the teams (including Germany and Italy) went to Singapore for a pre World Championships tournament. We were invited but decided not to go because we wanted to spend our time at home preparing on our own. I think we made the right decision as it seems all the teams that went came down with some kind of intestinal bug and most of the teams have players that are still feeling a bit sick.

Tomorrow is game day. We will have a pretty casual day. Up at 8:30, 10 am swim at the pool and then some down time before our meeting at 3:45. From there we head over to the pool. Game time is at 6:20 tomorrow. We (the coaches) are going to show up in our new matching suits - fresh from the fabric market here in Shanghai. This is something that I have wanted to do for quite some time - bring a little more class to the pool deck. It should be interesting to see how everyone reacts. We just have to win and the culture may be changed forever.

Should be fun. I believe that we are ready. Once this tournament begins my restlessness should ease up.

See you at the pool.

Terry

Shanghai

7/13/11


We arrived safely in Shanghai tonight. I feel we are ready to do something special. We have been training very hard for the past few weeks at home and the guys have been working hard. We had some excellent trainings at home. Good physical conditioning in the pool and the gym, with a good balance of team tactics. We have placed a big emphasis on team defense, 6 on 5 and 5 on 6. If we are going to win a medal here, these areas of our game will be big keys.

When we left practice on Sunday, I left the team with a thought. Perhaps it is a mantra that they will buy into as we go forward (at least that is my goal with it). The idea or thought was to be the “best ever” team in USA Water Polo history. The guys are well aware of our teams in the 80’s that won two Olympic silvers (1984 and 1988). That team never won a medal at the World Championships. In fact, no USA team has won a medal at the World Championships. So if this team is going to take on that challenge of becoming the “best ever” than it starts now with a medal here in Shanghai.

The other accomplishment that would put them in the category as being the best team in USA Water Polo history, would be to win the gold medal next summer in London. So that is our challenge - to win a medal here and to win the gold next year.

In 2008, we all were well aware of our mantra which simply said “Back to the Podium”. Here we are four years later - looking to make a statement that would certainly leave a legacy behind for this team.

I am excited about these games. The hotel is wonderful, food seems great. We just need to get some rest now and get our bodies ready for the task in front of us. Our first game against Germany lies just 5 days away. They will be very tough - no doubt.

Time for some rest.... We will see you at the pool!

Coach