By Bruce Wigo
BEIJING, China, August 22. THE U.S. men's Olympic water polo team will play for the gold medal in Beijing after thrashing Serbia in a semifinal game, 10 – 5, at Yingdong Natatorium. The victory marks a "Return to the Podium," that had been predicted by Olympic great and now head coach of the team Dr. Terry Schroeder.
The early going was tense with the score tied at 1, 2, 3 and 4 goals, with the U.S. doing the chasing. Vladamir Vujasinovic started the scoring for Serbia two minutes into the game. Layne Beaubien tied it 20 seconds later on a natural goal from seven meters out. Alexandar Sapic put the Serbs back on top with a shot after foul from six meters. Tony Azevedo tied it at 2 all with a power play goal. With 1:23 left in the first period, Azevedo pumped three times from the top before passing to Peter Varellas who scored to give the USA its first lead. Dusko Pijetlovic tied the score at 51 seconds to end the period's scoring.
The second quarter was a defensive struggle with only three goals scored. Vujasinovic and Beaubien traded goals to keep the score tied at four, but at 1:23, Ryan Bailey drew an exclusion. Coach Schroeder called a time out and when play resumed, Varellas found Bailey with position in front of the goal and Bailey converted for the goal to give the U.S. a 5 -4 lead into the half.
Less than a minute into the third period, Varellas found Bailey again on a power play and the U.S. was up 6 – 4. At 3:09, Adam Wright found Azevedo open on a drive to the goal, fed him a perfect pass and the U.S. was up 7 – 4.
Hoping to turn the tide, Serbia pulled goalie Slobodan Soro, and replaced him with Denis Sefik, the nation's all-world goalkeeper, who had been benched earlier in the tournament for his less than stellar play. It didn't matter. The Serbs were finished. They couldn't score on U.S. goalie Merrill Moses, who was spectacular, and the U.S. would go on to score three unanswered goals in the fourth quarter by Rick Merlo, Azevedo again and Jeff Powers. Moses pulled down or blocked 16 Serbian shots.
The U.S. played great water polo and were under control on offense making the most of its opportunities, shooting 10/21 (48 percent) as opposed to the Serbians, who were stifled by the American defense, shooting a paltry 5/33 (16 percent). Moses, who drew chants from the large crowd of "Merrill, Merrill," recorded 16 saves.
It was a spectacular win for the Americans. Perhaps the greatest win in the long history of American water polo. They came into this tournament as the ninth seed and hope that nine could be as lucky for them as the Dutch women. The Dutch women came into the Olympics as the ninth ranked team in the world and upset the heavily-favored U.S. to win the gold.
In the other semifinal, Hungary topped Montenegro 11 – 9, coming from behind with three unanswered goals in the third period. Both teams came out on fire. In the first quarter, each team was willing to take exclusions, rather than give up natural goals from the center position. The power-plays were plentiful and so were the goals. The solution to stop the scoring was to change out the goalkeepers, and the difference for the Hungarians was a combination of greater depth and the play of Istvan Gergely, the Hungarian back –up cage minder. Eight different players scored for the Hungarians, who were led by three goals by Gergely Kiss.
The U.S. will now meet Hungariy for the gold medal on Sunday (Beijing time), while the Serbians will play against Montenegro for the bronze.
