{"id":1827,"date":"2000-09-24T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2000-09-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/uncategorized\/2000\/09\/mens-water-polo-u-s-notches-first-win\/"},"modified":"2014-07-24T17:29:23","modified_gmt":"2014-07-25T00:29:23","slug":"mens-water-polo-u-s-notches-first-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/mens-water-polo-u-s-notches-first-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Men’s Water Polo: U.S. Notches First Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Eric Velazquez<\/p>\n

Sydney, Australia\u2014While many Australians were sitting down to a cup of coffee and the morning paper, and people in the U.S. were fast asleep intheir beds with visions of water polo dancing in their heads, the U.S. men\u2019swater polo team was busy winning its first game of the 2000 Olympics.<\/p>\n

It was a simple plan. Early to bed and very early to rise for Team USA in preparation for this morning\u2019s 9:30 a.m. game against the Netherlands. How
\nearly is early?\u201cWe got up at about 4:40 this morning,\u201d said head coach John Vargas. \u201cWe got in the weight room and rode stationary bike and did some other things to get the blood pumping and our minds focused on the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, it worked.The U.S. chalked up its first win of the week, 12-8, over the Netherlands. Apparently, the Dutch didn\u2019t get their z\u2019s last night, or they got too much this morning. USA scored early and often, going ahead 4-2 in the first quarter, thanks in large part to a pair of goals each by Chris Humbert and Tony Azevedo. Humbert\u2019s third goal of the day came with 3:56 to play in the second quarter on an extra-man situation to give the U.S. a 5-2 lead. The U.S. continued to have its way down at set that quarter, with Kyle Kopp scoring the first of his two goals from the hole to make the score 6-3. Ryan Bailey scored his first Olympic goal as time expired in the third
\nquarter, as USA went up 10-6. Wolf Wigo added to that three and a half minutes later, scoring his fifth goal of the tournament. Wigo has now hit on five of his seven shot attempts. With 1:17 left to go, Humbert pocketed his fourth goal of the day to top off the U.S. scoring, which shot 12 of 21 on the day.
\nHumbert now leads the team with seven goals.<\/p>\n

Goalkeeper Dan Hackett heated up for the U.S., stopping 10 of 18 shots ongoal, who attributed his performance to the team\u2019s defensive effort. \u201cI think the key today was our defense,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were able to stop their counterattacks well and that helped us get ready quicker.\u201d Humbert agreed.
\n\u201cWe shut them down and made them make passes that they didn\u2019t want to make,\u201d he said. \u201cWe forced turnovers, we made steals\u2026all of these things meant that the Netherlands couldn\u2019t get into a routine. They had no rhythm.\u201d<\/p>\n

It could be the U.S. who is in a rhythm now. The win, despite being their first, throws coach Vargas and company into fourth place, a spot that needs to be maintained for them to advance to the quarterfinals. Team USA is trailed by winless Greece and Holland in the standings, with two games left in preliminary play.<\/p>\n

Up Next for the U.S.:
\nThe U.S. will again play the \u201cSunrise\u201d game tomorrow morning against gold-medal favorite Hungary at 9:30 a.m. Hungary has won six Olympic golds, more than any other country, but have not won a medal since their bronze in 1980. Their Olympic performance in recent years has been puzzling because they have some of the greatest individual talents in the world. The riddle
\nof getting the great individuals to play as a team would appear to have been solved by Coach Denes Kemeny. As winners of the 1999 FINA World Cup, the
\nHungarians go into Sydney as the gold medal favorite in the eyes of most international observers. They have great personnel balance with three excellent left-handers and great outside shooting to go along with the solid two-meter play of Gergely Kiss. They have several starting players capable of playing two-meters which creates many mismatches. They play a split zone
\ndefense, which results in many easy fast-break scoring situations. Tibor Benedek may be one of the best players in the world, but the Hungarians won
\nthe 1999 World Cup without him. Tamas Kasas and Zsolt Varga are proven international stars while newcomer Petar Biros is an emerging talent. Goalkeeper Zoltan Kosz is among the best.<\/p>\n

======================================================<\/p>\n

WATER POLO FEATURE:<\/b><\/p>\n

Get the two latest videos from US Water Polo – The Driver, featuring Wolf Wigo, and Playing Two Meter, featuring Chris Humbert, and save $4.95 of the regular price of 59.90.<\/p>\n

US Water Polo: Driver & 2 Meter Video Combo<\/A> – $54.95<\/p>\n

Also see our other Water Polo Products in the Water Polo<\/A> Section of our Swim Shop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Eric Velazquez Sydney, Australia\u2014While many Australians were sitting down to a cup of coffee and the morning paper, and people in the U.S. were fast asleep intheir beds with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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":[105,477,185,478,7722,1151,7723,480,552,178,141,479,3661,124,7726,7617,1335,3659,45,1651,7727,122,1660,3671,62,68,559,276,7724,7725],"class_list":["post-1827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz","tag-australia","tag-chris-humbert","tag-coach","tag-dan-hackett","tag-denes-kemeny","tag-driver","tag-gergely-kiss","tag-goalkeeper","tag-greece","tag-head-coach","tag-hungary","tag-john-vargas","tag-kyle-kopp","tag-netherlands","tag-petar-biros","tag-playing-two-meter","tag-polo","tag-ryan-bailey","tag-sydney","tag-tamas-kasas","tag-the-1999-world-cup","tag-the-2000-olympics","tag-tibor-benedek","tag-tony-azevedo","tag-united-states","tag-usd","tag-wolf-wigo","tag-world-cup","tag-zoltan-kosz","tag-zsolt-varga"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nMen's Water Polo: U.S. Notches First Win - 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