Fight night and a busy Village 7/25/12

Our last day in Croatia turned out to be very interesting.  Once again, we won the scrimmage and then as things were wrapping up a skirmish broke out.  Both benches cleared and there was a lot of pushing, shoving and yelling going on in the water.  Many of the players were face to face and it was close to being a full on brawl.  The center of the storm was the biggest guy in the water, a Croatian player that stands about 6’8” and weighs in at 260 lbs.  He may be the biggest player in the Olympic Games this year. He was totally ticked off and wanted to fight Merrill (our goalie)  Our players did a good job of shielding Merrill from him until he decided to jump out of the water and run around to the side of the pool.  I had called Merrill to the side of the pool (to get him out of traffic and potential trouble) and the Croatian was coming up behind me ready to jump back in.  I turned just as he was making his move and my reaction was “I don’t care how big you are - you are not getting at my goalie”.  So I planted my feet and grabbed him to keep him from getting back in the water. Truth is if he really wanted to he probably could have just knocked me aside.  Fortunately, I was able to get him to slow down and at least think about it. Shortly thereafter things calmed down and we would make our way to the locker room.  It is always a bit interesting when two teams scrimmage right before the Olympic Games.  There is a great deal of pent up energy, perhaps a competitive fire that is ready to burn and more often than not these types of situations break out - fight night in Croatia... When I was playing on our Olympic team in 1984 we had a huge bench clearing brawl with the Italian team in a “friendly” scrimmage just weeks before the Olympic Games.  I guess that it is just a part of the preparation.  No one wants to feel like they are getting beat so frustrations rise to the surface very quickly.  The best news is that no players were injured and that we left Croatia with some very good training and perhaps a little more confidence.

The next stop on our journey was Budapest, Hungary.  This was about a three hour bus ride from the small town in Croatia to Budapest. As a staff, we had decided to give the team the day off. The reality is that this will more than likely be our final day off over the next three weeks.  The hotel where we would be in Budapest for the next couple of days is right next to the Hungarian National Training Center, a beautiful five pool complex.  The building is loaded with water polo history.  There are marble plaques on the walls recognizing the nine Hungarian Olympic Championship teams.  Pretty impressive stuff.  Amazingly, they have managed to win the past three Olympics games (2000, 2004 and 2008).  This is a streak that needs to be stopped and we are ready to do that.  However, this day was for rest and recovery.  We all enjoyed a day of rest at the hotel where there are some natural mineral hot springs.  Needless to say, we all spent a few hours soaking in the hot mineral baths knowing that in a few short days things will be very intense.

The training was good with Hungary.  We trained twice with them on Monday and once on Tuesday morning.  They really did not want to scrimmage much so we played a good deal of 6 on 5 (more tactical and less stressful on the bodies).  We had one four quarter scrimmage which ended up being a bit of a chess match - both teams kind of making calculated moves and feeling one another out.  They won the first two quarters and we won the last two. In the end, I believe that the final score was a tie.  With our flight out at 7 pm that same evening we all had a few hours of rest before leaving for the airport and heading back into London.

The flight was an easy two and a half hours and we landed in London with the sun setting on the Olympic City. We then boarded a bus that headed for the Olympic Village which will be our home now for the next three weeks. The bus ride was only an hour as all the Olympic lanes are now open.  When we arrived at the Village it was a different scene than when we came in last week.  The security was totally ramped up.  It actually took us over 30 minutes just to get through security and upon entering the Village, we all felt a buzz.  There was a totally different energy as it is no longer a ghost town. The Village will continue to fill up for the next week until it reaches its capacity of about 10,000 inhabitants.  It will be a fun place with athletes from all over the world making new friends as they prepare for their chance to be the best in what they do.  With just two days to go now until Opening Ceremonies we will continue to act as if the gold is ours as we settle into our Olympic home.

I have been trying to give the guys a small message every day.  Something to think about that may make a difference in helping us win the gold.  The message today comes from the movie Invictus.  There was a great scene where Francois Pienaar, the captain of the South African rugby team was talking to President Nelson Mandela.  The message was this - In sports or leadership we are rarely 100%, we always have to play a little “hurt”.  To me this means that we have to perform at our best even when we don’t feel 100%.  Through the course of this eight game Olympic tournament we are all not going to be feeling our best the entire time. Chances are that someone will feel a little hurt. The beauty is that on a team everyone can pick up a bit for each other.  Maybe collectively we are at 95% with one or two players hurting a bit -  the key is that our 95% level has to be better than our opponents.  

See you at the pool 

Coach