USA vs Croatia Quick Reflection
On Saturday July 8 the US Men's National Team played a friendly against Croatia at Mt. San Antonio College as both teams finalize preparations to leave for the upcoming Aquatics World Championships in Fukuoka. Croatia came away with the victory 8-6. Even though I feel like I’ve been spoiled by all the international water polo being played in my backyard this summer, I had to make sure I attended. Below are some quick thoughts and reflections on my experience at the game.
Here are some highlights:
Regardless of the outcome, the night belonged to Merrill Moses who was honored for his career with the National Team at the game. I will admit, watching Merrill warm up and play the first few possessions for the US was a giant jolt of nostalgia for that legendary ‘08 squad. He still has the same charisma and presence in the cage, and until the first goal went in he had me convinced that at 46 he was as good as he ever was. Moses exudes personality in and out of the pool and was an integral member of one of the greatest teams this country has ever fielded (I have said many times privately that I don’t think we win silver without Merrill standing on his head). Thank you Merrill Moses!
I’ll be very honest, I am a huge pool junkie; I love good facility design and cool aquatics facilities or natatoriums are something I will travel to see. So it should be no surprise that one of the other stars of the night for me was the new aquatics facility at Mt SAC. I do not think it is hyperbolic to say that the facility rivals the ones at USC and Stanford as venues for high level aquatic events–especially water polo. The raised stands are separated from the deck and surround the pool on 3 sides in a ‘u’ shape while a massive scoreboard occupies the open end of the u. Also, there is a slightly smaller but still impressive scoreboard at the opposite end over the stands as well. Congratulations to Marc Ruh and his staff for opening the amazing new pool and showcasing it last night. Hard to believe that it is “only” a junior college.
Croatia was on the outside looking in at the recent World Cup where the US took bronze, and they were the primary perennial medal contender at world events that was left out. Likewise, the Croatian squad has had some turnover in its roster since the last Olympics. Therefore, I was curious to see what form the team was in in the lead up to Fukuoka. I give a lot of credit to the Croatian team and staff for their performance last night. They looked focused, prepared and poised throughout as they executed a defensive game plan that sought to minimize the impact of Hallock and pragmatically attacked the weakest US defenders to try to gain advantages. Bijac was very good in the cage with 9 or 10 blocks including a 6 on 5 stop from point blank in the fourth that took away any hope of a US run.
Just like at the World Cup games, supporters filled the stands for this game which is awesome to see. One thing I have noticed at this game and the World Cup games is that the crowd–mostly young players and their families–seem to know the national team players more than in the past. Hallock, Hooper and Daube seem to be the favorites with most, but the presence of the Dodd brothers is commented on often as well. I think there are things you can be critical of in regards to having a high school player playing at this level, but it certainly has brought recognition and perspective to the national team for a lot of kids I am overhearing in the stands.
And now, some critical thoughts:
The US suited up a mixed roster for this one with some notable players (the Woodhead bros., Erhardt, Weinberg) absent. I assume that was partly a decision based around resting certain athletes as well as giving others a chance to make their case for the 15 man roster. That said, the US definitely played like they were hungover from the emotions of their previous outing in the bronze medal game and replay. However, that doesn’t really assuage some lingering questions I have about this group. We saw in this game something that has happened before with the US: stretches where the offense comes hard especially if we can’t get the ball to Hallock. If the US can’t improve their extraman to take advantage of the opportunities Hallock earns (do we need a lefty if the lefty can’t defend?) and can’t get offense going without those opportunities the US looks a little lost.
I make the criticisms of the US team I just made, but even then we spotted the Croatians two early and scoring drought aside were still able to put pressure on them late. This is becoming somewhat of a hallmark of the current US roster: to play strong, scrappy and sometimes desperate defense to hang close enough to put together a run. And the US was absolutely putting together a run late in this one when a penalty call really derailed it. The call was made against Hooper who was guarding Vrlic at center. (As an aside, the matchup of Hooper on Vrlic at center happened a lot and while normally I’d say that's a disaster for the US, Hooper did very well). To my view, it looked like Hooper cleanly knocked the ball out of Vrlic’s hand from behind– or the only manner in which the rules say you can defend in that position. Unfortunately, the officials called this play a penalty and, like the crowd then, I vehemently disagree. This is not meant as a criticism of the officials on the game who I thought did a good job, but once again an indictment of the rules themselves. I will wait to watch a replay (more on that later) as maybe this is a case where my angle was the issue, but I think that the entire crowd thinking it was a clean defensive play because of how the rules have been explained and the play resulting in a penalty is symbolic of the issues the sport has with consistent and understandable application of the rules for spectators.
Speaking of penalties, I think the US has the makings of a penalty problem. Going back to the World Cup, we have had a revolving door of penalty shooters and very mixed results in that area. This somewhat goes back to the first point I made in my criticisms; if the US is going to play close games and rely on exclusions and penalties for goals we sure as hell better know we are going to score those penalties. Stevenson, who is no longer on this roster, was consistently taking penalties for the US as well as other players like Irving. Bowen missed last night and I believe did at the World Cup too, Hooper couldn’t beat Vogel at the World Cup, I believe Daube and Cupido or Irving have both missed one recently as well but I could be wrong. I hope it is just a weird streak of bad luck and that the US can find some consistency in this area at Fukuoka.
Lastly, a minor but annoying thing for me. USAWP mentioned multiple times that the game was on a “nationwide broadcast” through BallySports; however, I talked to several people who were unable to access the game for paywall reasons. While the game will be available on Youtube in 48 hours, it would have been nice if watching live didn’t require a cable subscription of some sort.
What about you? Were you there? Did you see anything either team was doing worth mentioning? Any predictions for Fukuoka? Let me know your thoughts on my reflections or share your own in the comments. As always, thanks for reading and keep thinking water polo.