The seemingly unbeatable Croatian men's water polo team, who steamrolled every team they had played thus far in the Beijing Games, was served up a bitter loss by 9th ranked Team USA.
Team USA demonstrated suffocating defense, which frustrated the Croatian team throughout the match. Croatia capitalized on its "power plays", scoring four of their six goals during 6-on-5 situations. The US was led by scoring prodigy Tony Azevedo (the team's captain) who racked up 3 goals; rounding off the scoring was Ryan Bailey, Peter Varellas, Adam Wright and Tim Hutten with one goal apiece.
Against the best scoring team in the entire world, goalie Merrill Moses had an exceptional game with 11 saves.
After defeating Croatia, Team USA went on to win Group B after beating Germany 8-7 in an another hard-fought match. The miraculous wins send Team USA to the semifinals to play the winner of a Serbia/Spain quarterfinal matchup. Reaching the semifinals guarantees Team USA a shot at a medal for the first time since 1992.
Watch for Team USA's next match on August 22nd at 7:40pm (check your local listings).
We're Not Worthy: 10,000 - 1,000,000,000 pts
Legend: 1,000 - 9,999 pts
Pro: 300 - 999 pts
Expert: 200 - 299 pts
Amateur: 40 - 199 pts
Rookie: 0 - 39 pts
Community Moderator
Active.com Staff
SportsPowerStaff