Water Polo World Championships in Canada

Our guys played an incredible game against the Italians. 👍

That championship-level defense was impressive. With a defensive unit like that, we can take on anyone.

As for the Mexicans, I'm not worried at all. They always seem to struggle with an inferiority complex whenever they face us, so they'll likely choke.

The key is avoiding the Canadians until the finals; if we get past them, anything can happen.

Man, I might as well just stop watching the games altogether. Every single time I tune out, they somehow manage to play out of their minds. 😁

Nothing left to say, I guess. You guys can go ahead and lecture me about their "strategy" or whatever.

Yeah, Michael Sullivan3, you’ve got a point, except for the fact that they’ve beaten us in our last 738 water polo matchups.
Honestly, their massive ego is a blessing in disguise—imagine if they actually had the skills to back it up.

Finally, we actually had both our offense and defense clicking at the same time. To be fair, the defense wasn't even that bad, but once Vićan woke up in goal, everything just looked solid. I don't know how the Italians performed in their other games, but their offense was absolutely PATHETIC tonight. Either that, or our defense was just flawless.😕

With that win over the Greeks, we’ve officially secured first place and move on to the quarterfinals against the fourth-place finisher from group two—most likely the Slovaks.
If things don't go our way, we'll be rooting for the Italians against the Spaniards. First off, those Spaniards look much more dangerous to me. Plus, if the Germans beat Canada, it creates this specific loop between us, the Germans, and whoever wins that match. If Italy pulls it off, we top that group and dodge both the Canadians and the Mexicans (who have been the biggest threats in that other group so far). But if the Spaniards win? We're stuck in the bottom seed, and there's a 90% chance we'll run straight into the Mexicans in the quarters.

USA - Greece 7:7

total wash

8:7 lead for us... we got this ball... 43 seconds left on the clock...
Break time now.

Only 26 seconds left!
Greek attack incoming

GAME OVER! USA WINS 8:7!

WE TOOK FIRST IN THE GROUP.

Quarterfinals are Thursday at 9:30 PM against Slovakia.

We’re probably going to end up like those handball players

One bad game and then 😠 😠 😠

We'll definitely take down the Slovaks. They don't even have a coastline (do they??)

Jupiiii, I missed the game again 😁 so obviously we’re the champions, it’s just my luck that I can't seem to catch a single match 😁

So, how did we play?

silentheron58 said:We’re gonna wreck the Slovaks. They don't even have a coastline (do they??)

The Canadians don't have one either, and look how they're doing.😁

If there aren't any massive upsets in the quarterfinals, we're looking at a semifinal lineup that looks something like this:
Yugoslavia vs. Russia and Canada vs. America... and honestly, after that, anything could happen. We already dropped a game to the Russians in the group stage—and let me tell you, losing on a pathetic "golden goal" from 15 meters out? It was absolutely gutting. If we have a chance to leave them in the dust, we better take it.

If this tournament has proven anything so far, it’s that anyone can beat anyone. For water polo, at least, that’s not just a cliché anymore. I mean, look at the chaos—you could see the Germans take down the Spaniards and Italians only to get knocked out by the Canadians, or have everyone in a group just cannibalizing each other. Honestly, seeing a Slovak or a German in the semifinals wouldn't even shock me at this point.

On another note, our special teams were absolutely abysmal against Greece. We had players driving past defenders without creating a single scoring opportunity, while the Greeks were essentially going 5/6 through almost the entire fourth quarter. 👎 There is a massive amount of work to be done here.

Even the Canadians don't have them, so they're just totally tearing it up

It's the same story for Mexicans and Canadians too 😉

George Cruz65 said:I wouldn't be shocked at all if we saw the Slovaks or Germans in the semifinals.

On another note, our special teams were absolutely abysmal against Greece. We had players drifting through possessions without even setting up a real shot, while the Greek players were basically going 5-for-6 through most of the fourth quarter. 👎There’s a massive amount of work to be done there.

Don't go jinxing us with those Slovaks—god forbid 😁we run into them in the quarterfinals; they've done enough. We've got the semifinals ahead of us.

The second point you made is actually symptomatic of the problem. Our offense can be straight-up comical sometimes, though I guess it's a small consolation that we managed to score five goals from standard plays. Honestly, I can't bring myself to watch it anymore, so I don't even know exactly how bad it looked. 😁

..I honestly, what am I even saying? You end up facing the Canadians in the semis and you're just fighting for the bronze at that point...
Not that I’m trying to be a total pessimist or anything—it's just that half the roster isn't even playing right, and honestly, we barely scraped by the Dutch yesterday.
I mean, maybe we can somehow hold our own against the Germans, but I'm pretty sure the Russians are just going to take over the pool again...

swifttrucker14 said:So, swifttrucker14, what exactly would you want from these "soccer players"? 😁

..well, yeah, soccer players—look at this halftime score against Azerbaijan (if that’s even how you spell it), and they’re actually arguing about the lines on the field, acting like some local cops decided to go out and paint the grass themselves.
Maybe we’d have a better shot in these qualifiers if we just hired eleven police officers, painted them in red, white, and blue, and stationed them at key spots on the pitch—or maybe just ten officers and a giant flag where the goalie should be.

Robert Cooper41 said:If there aren't any massive upsets in the quarterfinals, the semifinals should look something like this:
Yugoslavia vs. Russia, then Canada vs. USA... after that, anything can happen! We actually lost to the Russians in the group stage, but honestly, it was a total fluke—they scored a pathetic "golden goal" from 15 meters out, so it’d be about time we finally left them in the dust.

hmmm. I don't know about that... I'm thinking the odds for a Russia-Greece matchup are pretty much a coin flip at 50/50...😉

I’ve got a feeling the Canadians are taking home the gold, with the Mexicans grabbing silver, and we'll settle for bronze—hopefully beating out the Greeks instead of the Russians.
Honestly, I don't think we can touch the Canadians; they always seem to crush us, and at this point, it feels like a total psychological thing.

Guys, let's go ahead and take down the Slovaks first! 😉

THE SLOVAK SEA KNOWS
THAT I LOVE IT
DUDU SHIMENCE...

What was the final score against the Slovaks?