Italy trounces U.S. in water polo

by Martin Dale-Hench on September 6, 2009

The first international match for most U.S. water polo players ended with a 26-6 setback to Italy in the Hsinchu County Swimming Plaza on Sunday afternoon. Although the score didn’t indicate it, the Americans had plenty of chances to score but failed to take advantage of them. “We just didn’t convert opportunities,” said two-meter Scott Madsen, who also played goalie in the third quarter. The Americans had a promising start — Stetson McBirnie won the face-off, and, 15 seconds into the game, Sean Jackson shot the ball from the point into the back of net for the game’s first score and his first of four goals. This would be the Americans’ only lead in the game. The Italians converted a man-up, or power play, opportunity to draw even at 1-1 with 7:15 to play in the first quarter, and they added another 30 seconds later. After a nice pass by Jordan Eickman, Jackson evened it up at 2-2 with 5:39 to play. After three goals in two minutes by Italy, Roberto Garcia grabbed the ball in front of the Italian net and put it in to make it 3-5. The Americans then went on a long scoring slump, failing to score for more than 10 minutes until 18 seconds left in the second quarter. By the time Jackson finally got one in, the United States was down, 12-4. The Italians got most of their goals from breakaways and counterattacks while the Americans were trying to get back to their zone after an offensive attempt. Goalie Matthew Huff often had one or two Italians swimming to him undefended, and he made many sensational saves to keep the score from running up. “Huff did a really great job today,” coach Julia Velasquez said. Scott Madsen’s physical play in the two-meter slot was another positive note. That position usually receives the most fouls, Velasquez said. However, Madsen did not commit any the entire game, and maintained the requisite physical and tenacious play. The second half saw the same type of action as the first half. The Americans’ shots sailed wide, hit the crossbar or went directly to the goalie. After their misses, the Italians cherry-picked with long passes, resulting in easy goals as the Americans were too slow to get back to their defensive formation in time. “We missed a lot of assignments on defense,” Shahram Shahidi said. Garcia tallied his second goal with 1:37 left in the third quarter, cutting the score to 18-5. In the fourth quarter, Huff showed just why the coach was pleased with his performance. The Italians took a penalty shot from five meters away, and Huff made another point-blank save. Unfortunately, the Italians picked up the rebound and scored on their retry. Jackson got his fourth goal with a nice touch-and-pass setup, drawn up after a timeout, with six seconds left in the game. Although they lost the game by a large margin, the U.S. squad was ready to learn from the experience and move on, especially with five of eight players being Deaflympics rookies. “We need better defense coverage, and be patient with passing,” Garcia said. The United States faces defending gold medalist Hungary on Monday. Hungary defeated Germany, 19-13, earlier Sunday.

(Photo by Sina McCarthy)

Italy trounces U.S. in water polo

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