LOS ALAMITOS, Calif., July 22. TEAM USA rallied in the second quarter with 10 unanswered goals against the French to secured an 11-6 triumph at the FINA World League Semifinals in Los Alamitos, Calif., on Friday. Meanwhile, Canada defeated Brazil, 13-8, while Australia downed China, 12-4.<\/p>\n
"We came out slow today,\u201d Team USA head coach Ricardo Azevedo said. \u201cWe missed some clear opportunities in the first three or four minutes. I thought that we were rushing today. We were playing a little bit too wild. I didn't think we were playing our game. Our game is great defense and counter attacking. I thought we were putting up shots too soon and not passing the ball around enough. I just didn't think it was there. The second quarter, we played our game. And at the point the game was over.\u201d<\/p>\n
The game began even, goal for goal, until Adam Wright launched the ball on a power play to end the first quarter up by one, 3-2. Jeff Powers had a powerful first quarter with a steal followed by a clean shot as he edged toward center-cage from the wing on a power play, 6-2. Spencer Dornin slid in a final goal as the buzzer sounded, ending the first half, 7-2. Peter Varellas scored next for Team USA with an exclusion goal early in the second half, 9-2. Wright gave the U.S. a seven-goal streak, earning a hat trick, 10-2. Rick Merlo upped the streak to eight goals, 10-2, at 3:24 in the third. France\u2019s Frederic Audon pulled away on a counter and lobbed the ball in to score their first goal since the first quarter, 11-3. To end the game, France pulled through with four-goals, but could not catch the U.S.<\/p>\n
\u201cTony (Azevedo) is like a coach in the water out there,\u201d Team USA player Peter Varellas said. \u201cHe knows so much about the sport and I am able to draw on his experience on the international level and use that to accelerate my own development. It\u2019s great to get back into a flow with them.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
The water polo action will continue July 22 with games between Australia and Canada (3:30 p.m.), France and China (5 p.m.) and USA and Brazil (6:30 p.m.).<\/p>\n
BOX SCORES:
\nUSA \u2013 3 4 4 0 – 11
\nFRA \u2013 2 0 1 3 – 6<\/p>\n
INDIVIDUAL SCORING:
\nUSA \u2013 P. Varellas 1, J. Powers 3, A. Wright 3, T. Azevedo 2, R. Merlo 1, S. Dornin 1
\nFRA \u2013 F. Audon 4, T. Simon 1, Q. Chipotel 1<\/p>\n
GOALIE SAVES:
\nUSA \u2013 M. Moses 5
\nFRA \u2013 B. Bry 4, R. Garsua 2<\/p>\n
PLAYER ADVANTAGE:
\nUSA \u2013 7 of 9
\nFRA \u2013 1 of 4<\/p>\n
ATTENDANCE: 600
\nDELEGATE: Gianni Lonzi, Bill Frady
\nREFEREES: Patelli, Ni<\/p>\n
CAN \u2013 3 3 3 4 – 13
\nBRA \u2013 1 2 5 0 – 8<\/p>\n
INDIVIDUAL SCORING:
\nCAN \u2013 K. Mitchell 1, K. Graham 1, T. Marks 2, B. Jung 2, D. Stein 3, A. Feltham 1, N. Miller 3
\nBRA \u2013 F. Chidiquimo 1, R. Seabra 1, M. Santos 1, L, Machado 1, F. Franco 3, F. Silva 1<\/p>\n
GOALIE SAVES:
\nCAN \u2013 R. Randall 6
\nBRA \u2013 A. Cordeiro 8<\/p>\n
PLAYER ADVANTAGE:
\nCAN \u2013 4 of 12
\nBRA \u2013 4 of 12, 1 of 1 (penalty)<\/p>\n
ATTENDANCE: 400
\nDELEGATE: Gianni Lonzi, Bill Frady
\nREFEREES: Hart, Koganov<\/p>\n
AUS \u2013 2 4 3 3 – 12
\nCHN \u2013 2 0 1 1 – 4<\/p>\n
INDIVIDUAL SCORING:
\nAUS \u2013 D. Marsden 2, T. Franklin 2, T. Whalan 3, R. Maitland 2, R. Moody 1, L. Gavin 2
\nCHN \u2013 L. Yu 3, J. Xie 1<\/p>\n
GOALIE SAVES:
\nAUS \u2013 L. Trettel 9
\nCHN \u2013 W. Ge 6<\/p>\n
PLAYER ADVANTAGE:
\nAUS \u2013 6 of 9, 1 of 1 (penalty)
\nCHN \u2013 0 of 2, 1 of 2 (penalty)<\/p>\n
ATTENDANCE: 200
\nDELEGATE: Gianni Lonzi, Bill Frady
\nREFEREES: Corb, Valouche<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LOS ALAMITOS, Calif., July 22. TEAM USA rallied in the second quarter with 10 unanswered goals against the French to secured an 11-6 triumph at the FINA World League Semifinals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n