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<\/p>\nIf there was any suspense in Group B women\u2019s water polo play at FINA Worlds, the United States ended it within eight minutes of its Tuesday morning match against rival Spain. That\u2019s how long it took for the Americans to open up a 6-1 lead on their way to a more-convincing-than-the-final score-might-suggest 12-8 victory in the opening match of another day where favorites dominated.<\/p>\n
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Spain’s\u00a0Beatriz Ortiz Munoz<\/strong> opened the scoring less than a minute into the match with a power play goal. Then the sky fell in on the Spaniards. Maddie Musselman<\/strong> hit on a weakside strike two minutes in, then connected again on the next possession to give Team USA a lead they would not relinquish. Rachel Fattal<\/strong>, Jamie Neushul<\/strong>, Kiley Neushul<\/strong> and Aria Fischer<\/strong> followed with first period scores to provide what proved to be an insurmountable lead.<\/p>\n With a match Thursday against New Zealand\u2014an 8-6 winner over South Africa\u2014there\u2019s absolutely no doubt that the U.S. will clinch the top spot in Group B and a bye into the quarterfinals on Monday, July 24, as well as a tidy three-day rest. In fact, perhaps the only way to slow the Americans down is if they were to finish out the tournament under FINA\u2019s recently-ratified rules for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics\u2014that is with a single goalie and a roster of 11. No matter their personnel, none of the other teams in contention want to face Team USA in the all-important quarterfinals.<\/p>\n As things stand now, that unenviable assignment will fall to the winner of a quarterfinal play-in match on Saturday between the second place team in Group D and the third team in Group C. The two best teams not sporting the stars and bars\u2014Hungary and Holland\u2014are in Group C and locked in a battle to avoid facing Team USA until as late as possible. The best way to achieve that is to finish on top of the group, and Tuesday both teams delivered convincing wins.<\/p>\n Behind four goals apiece from Dora Antal<\/strong>, Rita Keszthelyi<\/strong>\u2014now with 8 goals in two games\u2014and Barbara Bujka<\/strong>, the host Hungarians demolished the French 24-5, upping their point total to four and their goal differential a gaudy +28.<\/p>\n Holland is not far behind. In a 20-8 thrashing administered to Japan, Sabrina van der SLOOT<\/strong> notched six goals to lead all scorers for the day and increase her tournament-leading total to 9. The Dutch point total also stands at 4 and their goal differential is +27. No matter; the group will be decided on Thursday when Hungary and Holland meet in the afternoon\u2019s\u2014and the tournament\u2019s thus far\u2014featured match.<\/p>\n France vs. Japan on Thursday will determine Group C\u2019s third place finisher; with an 8-5 win over Russia on the strength of Rowie Webster\u2019s<\/strong> two goals and two steals, Australia is close to guaranteeing that it will not finish second in Group D. The Aussies, with four points, can clinch the group on Thursday against Greece, a 19-5 winner over Kazakhstan. The question is: will Russia\u2014with a match Thursday against the hapless Kazakhstani\u2014end up behind Greece. Both possess two points but the Russians own a first day victory over the Greeks.<\/p>\n After it\u2019s loss, Spain will likely find its way to a win Thursday against South Africa\u2014currently sporting a -24 goal differential in two games\u2014and then see how Group A shakes out, as the second finisher in Group B is currently matched against Group A\u2019s third place team in Saturday\u2019s quarterfinal play-in round.<\/p>\n After another 18-4 win\u2014this time over Brazil, Italy, with four points and a +28 goal differential, is clearly on track for the top spot in the group and a bye, while Canada and China will jockey for second place and a likely date Saturday with Group B’s New Zealand. The Canadians made a strong statement in that direction with a thrilling 9-8 victory over the Chinese, accomplished on a buzzer-beating goal by Christine Robinson<\/strong> after China\u2019s Danyi Zhang<\/strong> had tied the score with eight seconds remaining.<\/p>\n Canada completes group play on Thursday with a match against Brazil while China will face an Italian squad that may rest some of its top players, leaving the second and third place finishers in Group A very much in doubt.<\/p>\n What’s not in doubt is that the Americans remain the team to beat, with a clear path through the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If there was any suspense in Group B women\u2019s water polo play at FINA Worlds, the United States ended it within eight minutes of its Tuesday morning match against rival<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4875,"featured_media":266680,"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],"tags":[50841,62568,37728,62630,60595,54091,39213,37598,32490,62276,62575,62628,62629],"class_list":["post-266674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-water-polo","tag-aria-fischer","tag-barbara-bujka","tag-christine-robinson","tag-danyi-zhang","tag-dora-antal","tag-jamie-neushul","tag-kiley-neushul","tag-maddie-musselman","tag-rachel-fattal","tag-rita-keszthelyi","tag-rowie-webster","tag-sabrina-van-der-sloot","tag-us-womens-water-polo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n