THOUSAND OAKS, California, May 24. The USA Men's Senior National Team closed out play in the America's Cup in stellar as USA downed Canada 7-1 and USA Red moved past the Premier League All-Stars 9-7 to complete a perfect week for Team USA. The week of games served as a great evaluation tool for Team USA as they will trim their roster to 18 players come this Tuesday. After that they are next in action on Thursday and Sunday in exhibitions with Croatia as they welcome the top team in the world in for common training.
As for Saturday's games the Premier League All-Stars continued to be a feisty group as they hung around throughout trailing just 4-3 after the first quarter and leading 5-4 at halftime. The All-Stars were bolstered by Cal standout Michael Sharf who scored three goals on the day while Jimmie Sandman did the job in net in the first half keeping USA Red at bay. In the third quarter Team USA began to assert themselves and took over the lead at 8-6 thanks to two tallies from Thomas Hopkins and a goal apiece from John Mann and Jeff Powers. In the fourth they held off a potential rally by the All-Stars as Layne Beaubien found the net and USA Red moved on 9-7. Genai Kerr was solid in net turning aside eight shots.
In the second game of the day USA Blue was on point throughout against Canada nearly pitching a shutout as they blanked the Canadians through three periods. USA Blue started out up 4-0 at the end of the first quarter and led 5-0 at halftime thanks to pair of goals by Tony Azevedo. The second half saw things get a little chippy between the two squads but the USA defense kept it going as Merrill Moses recorded 14 saves in the win not allowing goal until the 5:28 mark of the fourth.
Special thanks to USA Water Polo for contributing this report.