USA plays inspired, but falls to No. 1 Hungary in water polo
Advertiser News Services
ATHENS, Greece — With flag-waving, chanting Hungarians creating a chaotic atmosphere at the Olympic Aquatic Center yesterday morning, a young water polo team from the United States discovered something about itself.
Associated Press
It can play with the best.
Chris Segesman of the United States takes a shot against Hungary's Tamas Kamas in a men's water polo preliminary match. The Americans lost for the first time in the tournament, 7-5.
That includes top-ranked Hungary, which handed the Americans their first loss of the preliminaries — a hard-fought 7-5 defeat that even the losers felt good about. The Hungarians
(3-0) are going after their eighth gold medal.
"They're the best team," Stanford's Tony Azevedo said. "We're second right now."
That remains a question as the United States (2-1) scratches to reach next week's quarterfinals. Yesterday, Tamas Varga scored his second goal on an extra-man play to seal the match with 1:27 left. The Hungarians then blocked shots by Layne Beaubien and Wolf Wigo to thwart a furious American comeback attempt in the last minute.
The Hungarians led 5-4 at halftime. After Punahou graduate Brandon Brooks denied the Hungarians on a breakaway with one of his 11 saves, Gergely Kiss scored with 17 seconds left in the third quarter for 6-4.
Jesse Smith cut the lead to 6-5 with less than five minutes to play. Brooks made two saves to keep the Americans close before the Hungarians finally closed it out with a physical, unforgiving defense that stopped 6 of 8 extra-player opportunities over the course of the match.
The U.S. team has made inroads the past four years, after losing in the quarterfinals of the 2000 Games to Russia.
"You go out and you see all the other teams in the stands watching us," Azevedo said. "They know. They know we're a team that is frightening."
The United States needs to beat either 2000 Olympic semifinalist Russia or No. 3-ranked Serbia-Montenegro in its next matches to advance. They won't be short of inspiration.
"As hard as it's been, (coach) Ratko (Rudic) taught us a lot about — ahem — he calls it 'the suffering,' " Brooks said. "He's made us lift a whole level. He's also taught us that it takes a lot of hard work and suffering."
Kiss sees the Americans as water polo's most improved.
"They've grown much with Rudic," Kiss said. "He made good teams in Yugoslavia and Italy. He has possibilities to make good teams wherever he wants. He and the U.S. team are at this level. If they play well and we don't play up to our potential, they can be the best."
usawaterpolo.org contributed to this report.
