Wow, Australia beat Hungary and are most likely going to finish second in the group. What’s different about the team? Seem to remember USA beating them by a lot recently at world champs
The Croatia-Greece game was very good. Huge win for Croatia. That lefty, Kharkov, is just dangerous. Every single time he picks up the ball, you have to be worried it is a goal coming.
Playing great so far! Weinberg is stepping up
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Pretty much an ideal start so far. Let’s hope they can keep it up!
Whoever said they would like to see Hallock shoot and score more, there you go 
Dominant performance on both ends of the pool, even with the 6 on 5 continuing struggles. I do believe they had two goals right as the 6 on 5 was ending though.
A win over Croatia may get us the Aussies in the quarters. They’ve been playing well obviously but Hungary/ Serbia etc have been less than stellar.
Really, anybody but Spain and I like our chances…
Watching the replay now. The tv director decisions to cut away from the game to cameras with closeups or with to the bench right when actions happens was frustrating.
If the US beats Croatia and Italy beats Greece would we be second in the group? And if we lose to Croatia we are 4th?
Looks that way. If the US beats Croatia and Greece wins, 2nd place in A likely faces Hungary, and 4th faces Spain. Australia is certainly the tournament surprise on the men’s side. Barring a shootout by one of the pairings, it appears difficult to get third (and play Australia). The US can beat Hungary.
I believe so due to Italy and Greece both beating Montenegro with penalty’s. We need to beat Croatia. I feel like every Olympics there’s a team that loses their final game in group play on purpose for an easier QF but don’t think that’s the case this time
After the first four rounds of group play, here are the standings for Groups A and B:
Group A
Italy - 11 points
Croatia - 9 points
Greece - 8 points
United States - 6 points
Group B
Spain - 12 points
Australia - 9 points
Hungary - 6 points
Serbia - 6 points
If Italy beats Greece in regulation play, Italy will finish with 14 points and Greece will finish with 8 points. If Italy beats Greece in a shootout, Italy will finish with 13 points and Greece will finish with 9 points. If Greece beats Italy in regulation play, Italy and Greece will each finish with 11 points. In this scenario, Greece would finish ahead of Italy because the first tiebreaker is head-to-head competition. If Greece beats Italy in a shootout, Italy will finish with 12 points and Greece will finish with 10 points.
In Group B, Spain will finish first and Australia will finish second regardless of the results of Monday’s games. The winner of the Hungary/Serbia game will finish third and the loser will finish fourth.
On Monday, the United States/Croatia game will be conducted after the Italy/Greece game and the Hungary/Serbia game. Therefore, before the United States and Croatia play on Monday, each team will know who they will play in the quarterfinals if they win or lose the game. I think Croatia would rather play Australia than Hungary or Serbia. Therefore, if Italy beats Greece in regulation play, my guess is Croatia will not give its maximum effort against the United States and the United States will win the game in regulation play. In this scenario, the United States will play the winner of the Hungary/Serbia game in the quarterfinals and Croatia will play Australia. If Greece beats Italy or loses in a shootout, I predict Croatia will beat the United States. In this scenario, Croatia will play the winner of the Hungary/Serbia game in the quarterfinals and the United States will play Spain.
If Croatia and the United States each finish with 9 points and Greece finishes with 8, 10, or 11 points, the United States will finish ahead of Croatia based upon head-to-head competition. In the unlikely event Greece loses to Italy in a shootout and the United States beats Italy in regulation play, I don’t know how the three-way tie would be broken.
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Good analysis. Nobody is better at throwing games for a better matchup than Serbia and Croatia. I think that is a very plausible scenario. Has anyone watched any of the Australia games? I imagine that Nic Porter is playing out of his mind. He’s a great goalie and I wish we had him. On a side note, who knew Jacob Mercep was an Australian citizen? Too bad we couldn’t get him
Just watched their game against Hungary today. Porter was incredible, as good as any of top European goalies. With the way Australia is playing right now, I would actually rather USA play Hungary or Serbia in the QF.
Anyone have any insight on why Bowen seems to be near the bottom of the minutes played list? Are they saving him? Can’t imagine he’s out of shape. They got Daube going today and they need both firing on all cylinders against Croatia
If the United States beats Croatia in regulation on Monday and Greece loses to Italy in a shootout, the United States, Croatia, and Greece will finish group play with 9 points. If I’m reading the World Aquatics regulations correctly, the three-way tie in Group A would be broken as follows. First, by considering the goal difference (excluding the goals from shootouts) in the three games played among the three countries. If two countries are still tied after considering goal differential, the 2-way tie would be broken by head-to-head competition between the two countries. Second, if there is still a 3-way tie after considering goal differential, the tie would be broken by considering the goals scored in the three games played among the three countries.
Greece beat the United States 13-11 and Croatia beat Greece 14-13. Therefore, at this point in the competition, Greece and Croatia have a plus-1 goal differential in the games played among the three countries and the United States has a minus-2 goal differential.
If you would rather see the United States play Australia in the quarterfinals than the winner of the Hungary/Serbia game, the best-case scenario on Monday is for the United States to beat Croatia in regulation and Greece to beat Italy. If you would rather see the United States play the winner of the Hungary/Serbia game in the quarterfinals, the best-case scenario is for the United States to beat Croatia in regulation and Greece to lose to Italy in regulation. If you don’t want to see the United States play Spain in the quarterfinals, the worst-case scenario is for the United States to lose to Croatia or beat Croatia in a shootout.
I have watched the Aussies. Porter has been amazing as has Pavillard and Nathan power. Their defense has been what is winning them games. Drop has been solid combined with great goaltending and strong 6-5. Good lessons for team US. They are also doing this all without their best player from Pro Recco Aaron Younger. Not sure if he is interested or ?
To win the gold medal, the US women’s team will have to beat Hungary in the quarterfinals, Australia (assuming they beat Greece in the quarterfinals) in the semifinals, and (most likely) the winner of the Spain/Netherlands game in the finals.
Hungary is going to be a tough matchup for them. I’m skeptical this team wins gold. Could be the end of an era for some of these players and the coach
Good to see that Rbpolo has joined us on the WPEX. As he notes, Alex Bowen hasn’t played as many minutes per game (just 13:27) as many of us would have predicted. Not counting Adrian Weinberg, Max Irving has played the most minutes per game (23:57), followed by Luca Cupido (21:54), Hannes Daube (20.55), Johnny Hooper (20.33), Ryder Dodd (19:37), Ben Hallock (17.59), and Chase Dodd (17.50). Although Bowen hasn’t received as much playing time as I expected, he is the third-leading scorer with 7 goals. Daube is the leading scorer with 12 goals; Irving is the second-leading scorer with 8 goals.
Judging by the number of minutes the field players have played in the first four games, it appears that DU has chosen to play a smaller and faster lineup more than I would have predicted.
Loren Fatovic (No. 3), a RH attacker, has played the most minutes per game (25.58) and is the leading scorer (10 goals) for Croatia. The two players listed as centers for Croatia, Luka Loncar (No. 4) and Josip Vrlic (No.10), are playing fewer than 23 minutes per game between the two of them. Loncar has scored 4 goals; Vrlic hasn’t scored. Croatia has two LH attackers: Konstantin Kharkov (No. 12) and Maro Jokovic (No. 5). Kharkkov is Croatia’s second-leading scorer with 8 goals. Jokovic has scored 5 goals and has played more minutes per game (25:57) than anyone on Croatia’s team, except Fatovic. Croatia has shared time at goalie. Team captain Marko Bijac (No. 1) has played 18 minutes per game; Toni Popadic (No. 13) has played 14 minutes per game.
Croatia has two left-handed attackers. For the second consecutive Olympics, the United States doesn’t have one left-handed player.
DU seems to be running two different offenses–one with Hallock in the pool focused on feeding Hallock for exclusions and–much less often, natural goals or penalties. When Hallock is not in pool, offense is more focused on counter attack and some movement. He’s also running lots of live-time switches, often having Hallock playing offense and switching out on the D. (To avoid picking up exclusions? To run a stronger defense? To have both Hallock and a defender with fresh legs? Some of all that maybe.) Lots of teams are using those live-time switches now in creative ways. I was skeptical of that rule change, but I think it makes things interesting. I really like the new 2M rules, but I think other teams are making better use of them than the US. A team with Hallock, Bowen, Cupido and Obert ought to be able to use that for post-up goals off a pass from inside the 2. Ditto for Hooper or Cupido or the Dodds on short drives. With that pass available, why has the rear back to a catch and shoot not re-emerged as an offensive tactic?