Stream link is rfen.es and they play again on Sunday.
Ended 16:9 Spain
Granadas 4 goals for Spain
Saveljic 4 goals for USA
Definitely glad weāre trying to see what weāve got in these collegians. And doing so against Spain is definitely getting thrown in the deep end. Sorry, I couldnāt help myself. ![]()
Happy Holidays!
Interesting to see Max with 2 fouls and no goals.
Spainās goalies played great - I think Aguirre had 15 saves alone and was MVP of the game. Aran Pina even got in and played well too!
Even though this new lineup was always going to struggle with generating chemistry after only a few days playing together, the Spanish goalie play made our offense look just a little bit worse than it was.
Do you know if replays of the recent games against Spain are available anywhere?
Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if Max Casabella, Robert Valera, or Albert Ponferrada are trying to make Spainās National Team?
Who was he defending most of the time? That may have been his assigned role.
I believe Roberto Valera is done playing Water Polo.
Valera - playing for Sabadell, Spain
Ponferrada - finishing school this spring at cal
Casabella - playing for Barceloneta, Spain
RTVE play app has the full game from Friday and will stream todayās game.
Also Rfen streaming has it.
USA Water Polo has a link now for todayās game as well for Rfen tv.
https://rfen.es/especialidades/waterpolo/template-partido/minuto-a-minuto/
I couldnāt find the game on the app, do you know how to find it?
Sorry, just seeing this. Did you click on the link above? It was there.
Some observations:
Weāve got a lot of work to do. Offense wins games, but defense wins championships.
No surprise to anyone on this board that weāve got some real offensive talent. However, I think our offensive system - to the extent that we have one - is reliant on elite Center/Set play. We tried going double-set with Vavic and Leichty , that didnāt really work, but those guys arenāt really Centers.
Nonetheless, I donāt think winning these games was the primary objective - it was evaluating guys in the pipeline. From that perspective, got to see that Vavic, Savelijic and Ryan Ohl shouldāve earned more opportunities to see what they can do.
Given the squad and varied lineups then, itās not surprising that we lacked any real defensive cohesion. That would always be highlighted against a real āsystemā team like Spain. Indeed, after entering the 4th Quarter tied, empty possessions on offense and some slick offense supplied by that system of Spainās proved the difference.
With all that said some of my random highlights/thoughts on our team:
The lack of a lefty at point makes us susceptible to the press Spain was running pretty much the whole game. They had at least three steals in the middle of the pool.
Ryder Dodd - this dude has a real presence in the water that canāt be overstated. And heās fearless.
Chase Dodd - still underrated and that is understandable when Ryder is your brother, I guess.
Max Irving - full disclosure, Iām a huge Max fan. Has a different kind of presence in the water for our team and he played a lot today. Guarding Granados is no easy task as well as playing (primarily) the 4 as a righty. Still feel like weād be better off with a lefty in that spot or at least get a post-up type lefty to play 5 next to him.
Vavic - seems like a prototypical senior level player. Plays well both ways and has some real offensive horsepower.
Ryan Ohl - I think heās got more than he (gets to?) shows offensively, but between swimoffs and defensive intensity, availed himself well.
Goalie(s) - Weinberg played the whole game today and played⦠OK. He did seem a bit frustrated at times with that lack of defensive cohesion - Spain had at least three 1-on-0 from the right side and only one of those was a counter. But playing goalie is such a mental and team game, that playing behind that kind of defense could get to any goalie.
Iāll stop there and hear otherās perspective, but Iām remaining optimistic that weāre taking the right steps to ball out for LA28!
Actually west tempkin played the 3rd quarter
Probably too early to ask this, but are we expecting Hallock, Bowen, Woodhead, Cupido to all be back in the mix here at some point?
This was months ago, and donāt want to get into the details - I heard from a reliable source that Bowen wanted to play but Udovicic essentially forced his hand into making a choice and drove him away. So Iām not expecting Bowen back unfortunately.
Letās hope Hallock is planning on coming back. Itās just not the same team without him.
They played Spain tough in the second game and were tied 14-14 in the 4th before Spain closed. I saw Hallock at NCAA in a shoulder brace so maybe some repairs underway. I think we need to have a continually refreshing group of centers at different ages being developed and give them expereince against the big boys, only way we will do well for the next decade.
