Nice Job (Again) by the Ladies

[BekkiL]

1) There is no accounting for taste. You may not enjoy watching women's water polo. That is your opinion. To claim it is not very good water polo is insulting, demeaning and rude. Frankly, I was so bored watching the bronze medal game in London between Serbia and Montenegro I almost fell asleep (And I was there, in person), but that is just my opinion. Women's water polo is a far more dynamic sport, to me.

2) People love to complain about the "pipeline" and how our ODP program is simply a money grab. Our men's program is excellent evidence for their point (I suppose), based on results. Our women's program, on the other hand, proves these detractors wrong. So, they ignore the amazing success that program has had top to bottom over the past 16 years because it does not fit the narrative that USAWP and ODP is a horrible, money sucking nightmare.

3) This: http://espn.go.com/espnw/news-commentar ... men-sports

4) The parity across the nations on the women's side is amazing. Our women are fabulous, but so are the other top 7 teams. The Olympic qual tournament is going to be so exciting. I love it.

[ephpolo]

Doru, I was in and out of watching because the phone kept ringing. (Damn job--I can finish what needed to be done early, but I can't keep people from contacting me.)

So, this is based on paying attention to about 2/3 of the game.

(1) The teams were pretty closely matched. The difference in the game was about 3 mistakes the Dutch made in the first quarter that allowed easy goals from the US. One was a quick transition goal off a dropped pass and steal, another was bad positioning on the center early in the shot clock that led to an easy score. The other was a dumb shot right at Johnson for an easy save followed by what I think was a fantastic outlet pass for another goal. Tough to tell what happened after the turnover to get the American who received the pass wide open, as all we saw was Johnson throwing the ball, then the goal. But it was a LONG pass to a quick shot right in front of the goal.

(2) US did a great job of drawing exclusions at center in the 2nd half, and converting a few of them. In a low scoring game, that and great defense was all they needed.

(3) Very physical game. Lots of holding, grabbing, and pushing, especially at center and in transition. Referees pretty much let it go and only called the obvious fouls when the ball was delivered, after watching a bunch of wrestling and giving some time for the help defender to come in and make the steal--so even on decent passes to center, there were not many exclusions called. Given that, plus the very strong Dutch defense, #2 above was pretty impressive. Caps off all over the pool, and Maddie Musselman, a 17 year old who I think was playing with the Senior team for the first time, spent some time on the bench with her nose packed after taking a hard elbow or fist while "untangling". Think she also had a goal, and was pretty impressive over all.

(4) Two great goalies. The Dutch goalie was an 18 year old who was new to the team. Very skilled, but lack of experience showed, especially in the 2nd half when she was facing a lot of 6-5 shots. Made a dumb end of quarter shot to throw the ball away after an offensive exclusion that would have given her team a 6-5 to start the 4th if they won the swim. But she is going to be very good, I think.

(5)Johnson was just superior. Without 3 or 4 very good saves, including one late in the 4th game on a penalty shot that would have tied the game, the Dutch would have been in the game all the way and perhaps won. She also made several steals out of center while the referees were letting the center and center defender wrestle, and I think at least one of these created a transition goal the other way. She got the award for outstanding goalie for the tournament. Didn't hear who was MVP or who else made the All-Tournament team. Based on what I saw, which was just this game, she'd have gotten my vote for MVP.

(6) I don't know who the Brit is that Universal Sports has announcing the games with Greg Mescall, but he was pretty awful. Didn't know the game much, didn't know the players' names, confused the teams on a couple of occasions, including calling one US goal for the Dutch, and would just get lost while speaking and shut up. Mescall tried to fill the awkward pauses, but it was pretty hard to listen to.

(Bonus) Ben Carson must be pretty desperate and pretty broke. He or his campaign staff think that advertising to me on the USA Water Polo web site will help his chances! Don't think I've ever seen anything but a polo-related ad there before.

No press release or game stats up at USAWP yet. Just checked to confirm whether Musselman had a goal, but couldn't find any info.

[Alan Cima]

No press release or game stats up at USAWP yet. Just checked to confirm whether Musselman had a goal, but couldn't find any info.

http://omegatiming.com/Sport?sport=AQ Click on World Champs: Water Polo and you have game sheets/stats from all the games
http://omegatiming.com/index_home.htm#livetiming/livetiming-events.htm Has a java applet that gives you real time stats during the game

Sorry thought everyone knew about these. Omega does a great job - sadly only when it is also a swimming event.

The FINA release is up as well http://www.fina.org/H2O/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5348:water-polo-reports-women-finals&catid=423:kazan-2015-wp&Itemid=1981

[ephpolo]

Just to add, the replay of the game on TV is on now.

Parity among Netherlands, Italy, Australia and US is pretty impressive. Lots of 1 goal games and shoot outs. Too bad they don't play overtime to settle ties at the end of 4 quarters. I'd rather have them declare a tie than go to alternating penalty shots to decide an important game. Talk about boring, compared to a real overtime . . . . .

That aside, much more competitive and much more fun to watch than the men's games I've seen in the FINA tournament.

Speaking of female standout athletes, how about Katie Ledecky? 200-400-800-1500 championship is some impressive. Don't want to jinx her 800, but unless she gets sick or false starts, it seems pretty safe given her 400 and 1500 wins.

And thanks, Alan!

PS Noting that I was distracted about timing of events while watching earlier--the Dutch mistakes I mentioned above were early in the 2nd quarter, after the Dutch came out of the 1st up 1-0.

[Doc]

Alan and ephpolo,

What about the following link?

http://www.waterpoloplanet.com/HTML_lin ... ips_W.html

Doc

PS: I had to post the results with my left arm and I am right handed.

[ephpolo]

Thanks for that, Doc. I didn't know it was here. I did try to find it on the FINA website and could not.

Where on WPP should I look for those kinds of links?

[Doc]

ephpolo,

Go to the WPP home page. On the left side of the home page there is a side bar and each image on the side bar is a link to game results.

Doc

[Doru Roll]

Good to have you back Doc.

[ephpolo]

Yes, Doc, good to have you back. My problem is that when I come to WPP, it's always to t he forum section I have book marked, so except on the 1st of the month when I look for new content, I don't see what's been added.

[Doc]

ephpolo,

You also need to book mark the WPP home page: http://www.waterpoloplanet.com/

On this month's home page there are 7 articles and on the side bars there are women and men links to the results of the World Championship, there are women and men links to the results of the Pan Ams, and there are women and men links to the results of the Super League. Also the 7 articles stay up for a month at a time and I try to use the side bar to post current links to game results.

Doc