Water polo loses to Hungary

by Martin Dale-Hench on September 7, 2009

Playing a tougher team one day after losing to Italy, 26-6, the U.S. Water Polo Team lost another game by a similar margin, 27-6. Although the score was the same, the Americans played better against a tougher opposing team — Hungary, the silver-medal team from the 2005 Melbourne Deaflympics. “We played a little better today, more passing, less missed shots,” utility Shahram Shahidi said. The first quarter was not pretty for the Americans, who went scoreless the entire eight minutes with Hungary scoring an average of one goal a minute for an 8-0 lead. Half of these goals came on breakaways when goalkeeper Matthew Huff had nobody between the shooter and himself, echoing the Italy game. During the pre-game lecture, coach Julia Velasquez told the team to play “mirror defense” and to shut down Hungary’s outside shooters, who did most of the damage in Hungary’s 19-13 win against Germany the previous day. The U.S. seemed to finally get the memo in the second quarter. The opening of the second quarter saw the U.S. draw the first foul against Hungary, getting a man-up advantage. Sean Jackson scored shortly afterwards for his fourth goal of the Games to make the score 8-1. The defense cranked up, preventing Hungary from scoring for almost four minutes before Hungary finally threw one in from a breakaway with 4:31 remaining. After that point, the counterattack defense seemed to falter once again, allowing seven more goals before halftime. Roberto Garcia scored two goals from the point with a minute before intermission to put the score at 16-3. “We had better set-up on offense,” Garcia said, “and better patience on man-up offense.” The Hungarians had five fouls to the Americans’ one, something coach Velasquez said she liked. One of the opponents committed a “brutality” foul and was thrown out of the game. The U.S. team played its best in the third quarter, Velasquez said. Huff made many outstanding saves on balls thrown by streaking Hungarians, batting them over the net. He had 12 saves in the game, to Hungary’s nine. Jackson skipped a shot off the water past the goalie at 6:33, and Garcia scored from a redirect of a pass from Stetson McBirnie, who had faked a shot to draw a defenseman from his position to create a 2-on-1 opportunity. Jordan Eickman was the author of the only goal in the fourth quarter, his first in Taipei. The Hungarians scored five in the third and six in the fourth. After the game, Velasquez said the Hungarian players paid their respects to the shorthanded Americans, who had only one substitute to work with. The Hungarians had the luxury of switching their tired players every two to three minutes with six extra men on their bench. “We just need more subs,” Eickman said, “and we would have been fine.” Regardless of their lack of rest, the Americans are keeping their heads up for the Germans, who are notorious for rough, physical play. “We have to watch out for them,” Shahidi said. “They love to start fights.” If the U.S. team loses its next game, against Germany on Tuesday, they will be on the brink of elimination.

Water polo loses to Hungary

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