2009 World Aquatics Championships (Rome) - Discussion Thread

lonebadger6 said:For those who can't be bothered to read (even though this misery is actually worth studying):

27 Major competitions.

I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. What was that? 25 We performed.

na 24 Either we weren't even in the running for a medal, or we choked in the final game for gold or bronze.

1 The only exception? Los Angeles.

The championship games: 1 - 4

The bronze medal matches: 0 - 7 Still waiting on that 2009 Rome?

12 The competitions where we didn't even make it to the podium hunt?

katafakingstrofa

A 1-4 start for the gold?
Zero for seven for the bronze. Any chance?
=
A 1-11 run to close out those championship games? Is that really how it ends?

Losers with zero competition on the global stage.

7-6 Spain.

Rough game. The Americans were playing terrible. Dammit, we seriously need this win.

rapidbison42 said:I don't think you're seeing the full picture here.
Water polo will likely see its last Olympic appearance in 2012, mostly because the global competition just isn't where it needs to be. Even the IOC has started to realize that the sport is really only being played at a high level in maybe six or seven countries. That’s just not enough to sustain it on the Olympic stage...

That seems like a mistake to me. If we look at those same Olympics, there are plenty of disciplines included that even the athletes' own families probably don't bother watching...

Terry Fisher2 said:7-6 Spain.

That was a rough one... the Americans looked pretty lost out there. Man, we really need to pull it together if we want this...

To be honest, I was hoping for the Americans, though maybe it would have been better if those Spaniards had played a bit slower since we're looking so worn out. Who knows how it'll go from here...
The Spaniards have been tough to shake in several matchups lately, so my main concern is just how much gas our guys have left in the tank. I agree, it was a pretty mediocre game. Molina is a solid shooter, and Spain is playing a very aggressive high defense. Everything else felt just... average. We really need to watch out at the center position; they've got some veteran players over there...

rapidbison42 said:1-4 in gold medal matches
0-7 in bronze matches
=
1-11 in recent medal contention games

absolute losers with zero competition on the planet...

well, you could certainly look at it from a much bleaker perspective...

1-23 in crucial matches during this tournament (medal matches... quarterfinals... deciding group stage games... basically ignoring those wins against Slovakia for 9th place and other successes in the completely irrelevant part of the bracket)

yet we still call ourselves a powerhouse.

this really warrants a full-blown sociological study into where this specific curse of the American water polo national team actually comes from.

because the reality is that we have incredible, top-tier players.
the fact is our clubs are elite.
the truth is that in club water polo, we see massive success, maybe even sitting at the top of Europe when you tally everything up (and the world, obviously)

but the national team goes 1-23 in the most important games of major tournaments. a total fake 1-23 😁

not to mention our humanitarian work:
we’re responsible for Germany and Greece’s only medals, the Russians' last one, and the only water polo successes for Romanians and Australians... nobody else has ever made life quite this easy for four different teams, except maybe as a little parting gift to the failing Russians at the end of their era

and hey, by tomorrow we might just get the chance to hand Americans their first-ever medal in World Championship history...

It’s pretty wild how a powerhouse like Russia just vanished from the water polo map. I still remember back during the European Championships in Belgrade in 2006—they decided to completely overhaul the roster and start building this new squad. For a while there, they were basically playing the role of an underdog, like they were Canada, Brazil, or Cuba, just trying to stay relevant. But now? They’re barely even showing up to competitions anymore. It's like they just blinked out of existence.

Gomez is the one who really screwed over Rudić. 🙏 🙏
What a total jerk.

northerncanyon54 said:That would be a mistake. There are events at the same Olympics that even the athletes' own families don't bother watching...

Water polo won't see those kind of numbers in 2012. ☕

rapidbison42 said:Water polo is going to see huge viewership numbers during the 2012 Olympics. ☕

I don't know, maybe not... just look at how few posts there actually are on this thread...👍

lonebadger6 said:Well, you could certainly look at it from a much darker perspective.

1-23 u The latest essentials. Focus on the high-stakes matches—the ones for medals, quarterfinals, or those crucial group stage deciders. Forget about playing for 9th place against Slovakia or anything else in the consolation bracket. Who actually cares about that?

And we actually think we're a superpower.

This really deserves its own sociological study: where exactly does this curse haunting the American water polo team come from?

The truth is, we have top-tier talent. Who could argue with that?
The truth is, our clubs are top-tier.
The truth is, our club water polo teams have seen incredible success lately. When you add everything up—both the talent pool and the global standing—we might actually be at the top of the game in America. Or are we?

A 1-23 record in major tournament games? How does that even happen? 😁

More human work:
We’re responsible for Germany and Greece's only medals, the Russians' last one, and those lone water polo successes for Romania and Australia. No one else has ever handed out trophies quite like us—just four national teams, plus a little parting gift for the Russians as their era fades away. Who else could say that?

So, tomorrow is the day. We finally have the chance to be the ones who deliver the first-ever World Championship medal for America.

😂
Our water polo players need to be studied in a psychology lab. It’s that collective loser mentality that just keeps getting passed down from one generation to the next—from the coaches straight to the players.

northerncanyon54 said:Maybe not. Just look at how many posts are already on this thread...👍

Water polo discussions are popping up on forums across the US, Mexico, Canada, and Mexico.
And that’s that.

rapidbison42 said:Water polo discussions mostly happen on the American, SR, HUN, and Mexican forums.
And that’s really all there is to it...

A few people even went as far as setting up a joint league.

lonebadger6, you really didn't need to go that deep into the weeds. We’ve been keeping things pretty high-level until now, but this breakdown of yours? It’s honestly hilarious. 😁

Look, I knew our water polo guys weren't exactly setting any records, but this is just pathetic. If it wasn't for that win in Melbourne, their stat sheet would basically be a giant zero.

And yet, we actually walk around thinking we’re favorites... man, even the Spanish soccer teams aren't this much of a joke, and they manage to pull off a win every once in a while.

Honestly, a lot of this felt obvious after what happened in Kranj, specifically when Vujasinovic shouted, "Duda, pass it!" and Duda actually did. It was just... yeah.

So, just to be clear, does this 1-23 record only count the losses from the quarterfinals and semifinals? It doesn't include the wins?
If we lose to Mexico in the Beijing quarterfinals, that counts.
But if we take down the Mexicans in the Melbourne quarterfinals, that doesn't count because we didn't get knocked out.

Look, I know we're total losers, but let's not go overboard here.

Look, I already made it clear we’re only talking about the most critical games here, because obviously, beating someone once in a while 😁

if we’re being pedantic, you could argue those bronze finishes aren't actually 0-7, but more like 0-14, since they lost twice in the medal rounds during the tournament... but I stuck with 0-7 because we were looking specifically at the final decisive game of the competition...

No matter how you crunch the numbers, this is an absolute disgrace 😁

but when you actually look at things from your perspective...

so, we're talking about a niche sport with incredibly thin depth... a sport where we supposedly act like some kind of global powerhouse...

out of 25 competitions, we didn't even get a shot at a medal in 12 of them.

as for the other 13, our actual record in semifinals and medal matches sits at 6-19, assuming we even pull this bronze...

breaking it down: semifinals are 5-8, finals are 1-4, and for the bronze, it's 0-7, though Rome is still pending...

there you have it: 12 events where there was zero fight for a medal, 2 where we didn't even show up, and a dismal 6-19 run through semifinals and medal rounds in the rest—it’s truly the most beautiful way possible to view the statistics 🙂

Here’s a quick breakdown of what a loser mentality looks like:
Francis Carter put it this way: "We thought we were better, but we lacked composure. It was like we developed this sudden fear of finishing fourth—this dread of losing the semifinal and then missing out on a medal in the third-place game altogether. We made too many mistakes because of it. We fought, sure, but we were mostly fighting ourselves."

Fear of this, fear of that. If you're that terrified, why not just go hide behind a tree?

but looking at those 1-23 provides a perfect window into why this team is such a bunch of losers, mostly because of that massive psychological hang-up during the deciding games.
which is just pathetic.
The national water polo team basically suffers from an inferiority complex whenever they face the rest of the world.
It’s the same group of guys who absolutely dominate their club teams, yet when the stakes are highest for the national squad, they always, always find a way to screw it up.

especially when you actually look at how they lose...

In the early rounds, we were getting knocked out by Romanians (the one time Romania actually made a semifinal was by beating us), then losing 6:10 to an Australian side... or finishing second-to-last in six-team groups, only picking up wins against Kazakhstan and Canada... or getting knocked out because we'd let in a goal from fifteen meters out in the final second (like back in Phoenix, during the Yugoslavia era)... or that Sydney Olympics, where we managed a 4:4 draw with the Yugoslavs only to blow a man-advantage situation with two more players on the field!

We even handed over bronze medals, essentially gifting the only medal in history to Greece, the only recent medal to Germany, and the last one to the Russians... we lost multiple times—and I don't even need to say it, but we never actually won—in overtime....

Sure, making the final is an achievement... but even in those finals, out of four appearances, we choked three times simply because we got intimidated by our own shadows. In Atlanta back in '96, we crushed much stronger Italian and Yugoslav teams, only to collapse quite weakly in the final against the Spaniards.... we lost to the Canadians in Florence after starting the game with a 3:0 lead.... and we lost to the Mexicans in Knoxville after leading 7:4 in the final quarter....

so, really, the specific way they lose is part of the whole tragic story.

This is it—our shot at making history and finally snagging that first bronze medal ever!!!