NIS, Serbia, July 16. A fourth quarter rally proved to be not enough as the United States men fell 13-11 to Croatia earlier today in the quarterfinals of the FINA World League Super Final. The loss puts Team USA into the fifth through eighth place bracket with a match against either Serbia or China on Saturday. Team captain Tony Azevedo (Long Beach, CA\/NYAC) led the offensive attack for the United States with three goals in the loss. Merrill Moses (Palos Verdes, CA\/NYAC) played the whole way in net with seven saves.<\/p>\n
Croatia jumped out a strong start posting five goals in the opening period to take a 5-2 lead after the first quarter. In the second the United States kept pace scoring three goals to three from Croatia. Trailing 8-5 at halftime the United States kept looking to chip away in this high scoring affair posting four goals in the third quarter. That was answered by five scores from Croatia and they built a 13-9 lead going into the final stanza. An attempt at a fourth quarter rally fell short for the United States as they mustered just two goals and came away on the losing end at 13-11.<\/p>\n
The United States went 7\/14 on power plays in the losing effort. Other goal scorers for Team USA included Brian Alexander (Santa Ana, CA\/Olympic Club), Ryan Bailey (Long Beach, CA\/Newport WPF), JW Krumpholz (Santa Ana, CA\/NYAC), and Jesse Smith (Coronado, CA\/NYAC) all with two goals each. The USA will meet Serbia or China next and earlier this week the United States defeated China 11-5.<\/p>\n
Quarters:2:5, 3:3, 4:5, 2:0
\nReferees: Naumov (RUS), Bock (GER)
\nExtra Man: USA 12, Croatia 6
\nTeams:
\nUSA: Merrill MOSES, Peter VARELLAS, Michael SHARF, Jeff POWERS, Adam WRIGHT, Brian ALEXANDER 2, Shea BUCKNER, Tony AZEVEDO 3, Ryan BAILEY 2, Tim HUTTEN, Jesse SMITH 2, James KRUMPHOLZ 2, Andy STEVENS.
\nHead Coach: Terry SCHROEDER
\nCROATIA: Marko NI\u017dIĆ, Damir BURIĆ, Miho BO\u0160KOVIĆ 2, Nik\u0161a DOBUD 1, Maro JOKOVIĆ 3, Frano KARAČ 2, Pavo MARKOVIĆ, Andro BU\u0160LJE, Sandro SUKNO 3, Petar MUSLIM 1, Fran PA\u0160KVALIN 1, Paulo OBRADOVIĆ, Josip PAVIĆ.
\nHead Coach: Ratko RUDIĆ <\/p>\n
Saves – M. Moses 7
\n6×5 – USA 7\/14<\/p>\n
The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine<\/i>. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World<\/i> offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World<\/i> reserves the right to choose what material is posted.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NIS, Serbia, July 16. A fourth quarter rally proved to be not enough as the United States men fell 13-11 to Croatia earlier today in the quarterfinals of the FINA<\/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":[12,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-water-polo","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n