to tie this out, the 2024 Cadet team that placed 5th moved up 3 spots to 2nd (and second by a gnat’s whisker), while the 2024 Youth team that placed 7th moved up 5 spots to claim 2nd.
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Anyone else surprised Ross put two centers/guard in the penalty lineup???
Great showing for Team USA - congrats to all players, Ross and coaching staff. Also Croatia played, for the most part, a very inspiring game. Perhaps USA should have been pushing on the offense more into T Anderson, that worked well in most of the other matches - he was dominant. Croatian coach Koljanin (who was previously the head coach of Olympiakos) recognized that and was constantly doubling on Anderson, which made the difference. Congrats again to the US boys! 
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I was more surprised we let their lefties score 10 of 13 (?) goals. But such a great effort and result for our team and an awesome sign of growth for USAWP!
Please please please please have Wes do commentary for the Olympics (there must be someone here who can and should put in a word with NBC or whoever). Having to listen to previous commentators casually mention how their academy program develops players to play at this level is enough for me to hit the mute button or watch a low quality stream from a different country.
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Has nobody watched enough Euro water polo to have listened to that one Hungarian commentator who is on all the big LEN Champions League games? That is a real commentator who depicts the game and doesn’t insert himself unnecessarily
Gergely Csurka is his name
No chance. NBC doesn’t hire no names to do lead commentary. If anyone deserves it it’s Mescall.
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Congrats to Team USA, the coaches, and everyone involved. What a showing. Also, anyone who doesn’t like the commentating by Wes Kading must hate all pro sports commentating and color commentary. It’s laughable. Does he have to be your favorite? Of course not. But to make it sound like he’s no good is beyond ignorant. There is a reason these MAJOR European tournaments are bringing him on. Stop with the politics and just be happy that streaming and commentating is leveling up for the sport we all love.
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The response to Anderson shows how important a dominant center who can shoot is. He shows more potential than the two playing currently for the senior team, in my opinion.
A great win for the boys. Clearly coaching is huge as is having the players train together for months before the tournament. We didn’t do well in the past, not for lack of talent, but because of the way the tournaments were approached.
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Coach is more often than not going to choose players that want to shoot. That’s more pressure than any of those kids have ever experienced. You don’t want to put someone out there that is hesitant and I’m sure Tyler and Jet were the first to say “i’m shooting coach”, not to mention they both have great shots. Make or miss, you have to give huge props to all 5 in that situation.
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Couldn’t agree with this more…if he hadn’t had Jett shoot people would be on here saying why didn’t we have one of the leading scorers and likely future Olympian shooting? Coach made the right call there - great week for this team in the end it was an amazing shooting performance from the Croatian lefties that won it!
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Congrats to Anderson for being selected MVP and their Captain Kaneko for being selected to the All-Tournament Team. I’m not sure how they select, but there’s a large pool of amazing players to choose from.
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Absolutely agreed on his olympic potential but at this current moment he doesn’t have a completely natural shooting motion because of how lanky he is. It will be an advantage to him later on but take a look at clip of jake erhardt shooting to see the difference
He is primarily a center defender. Lost track of how many field blocks and steals he had. The fact that he is one of this team’s leading scorers is just an added bonus.
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Maybe… but I agree that he is not a natural shooter. 5 meters are a specialty shot and the attackers should have been chosen. Yes, he can score in game, but that is different. I believe the coach made an error and to choose someone because of politics is a mistake. I wish at all levels of the national team the coaches would ignore politics and put the right person in for the job.
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Sorry but I’m not sure how you could have any idea of idea of which shooters should have been chosen or why they were unless you were on the team or staff. At this level, the team has practiced penalties, tracked makes and misses in both practices and games. They likely came up with a line up before the game started based on information that they have had with this team over the last year plus.
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Amazing how quickly some jump to “politics” with zero facts. It’s one thing to disagree with a coaching decision after the fact. It’s another to question someone’s integrity without evidence. None of us outside the team know the penalty percentages from training, the data the coaches collected over the past year, who was feeling confident that day, or the countless factors that went into those decisions. These coaches invest an incredible amount of time preparing this team and deserve better than unfounded accusations. Instead of pushing baseless narratives, let’s appreciate the players and coaches for delivering the best finish this program has ever had and stick to the facts.
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I don’t think questioning coaching decisions, or playing Monday morning quarterback on player-personnel or who should take the penalty shots is a fruitful endeavor. Sometimes goalkeepers make great saves, and the Croatia goalie made some amazing saves (both in the semi and also in the final). While not the outcome anyone wanted, it’s clearly a finish to be proud of, with victories over European stalwarts Italy, Hungary and Montenegro! All these boys were asked to do whatever it took to help the team win, so let’s not forget that about this team
This age group of boys only lost one game 2 years ago in Malta at the 16u world championships. Their only loss was to eventual winner, Spain. That group beat Serbia and Greece. So let’s just give these boys their props, as this age group is very talented!
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Every shooter including top shooters on every team at every level miss sometimes. Jett is a great 5 meter shooter. He just missed. Nothing else to read into it.
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