These are about development, not about us spectators as much. Winning isnt the key i think, developing and learning is.
Roster is out for the coming games with Italy. Irving is back, along with Jett Taylor from the youth team. I have not compared closely to recent roster, but the only other change I see is Daube out for “personal reasons”. Woodhead, Chase Dodd, and Nelson still out with injuries. Rosters Revealed For USA Men’s National Team Series With Italy Starting Wednesday; Get Your Tickets Now! - USA Water Polo
Quick clarification; Chase will be eligible to play, it’s Ryder who has an undisclosed injury 
Sorry for the multiple emojis, but 20 characters needed to post.
Italy #9 (Iocchi Gratta) is a joy to watch when he plays for Pro Recco, but damn.. he’s just a d!ck when he plays for Italy. So much unnecessary extra curricular with USA in a friendly match (not the first time by the way) , makes it hard to not dislike Italy’s national team!
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I’m finding this game to be a complete snooze fest.
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Italy is playing with a new team it looks like, only familiar with 3/4 of the players.
So both teams just not feeling like they are very familiar with each other…
So great to watch Weinberg play tonight. Despite directly watching Vavic and Cap #3 mix it up at start of Q4 I could not tell what happened that got him rolled.
I did however hear the Italian goalie yell at Vavic “You are idiota!”
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Is the game available to stream? I know this is shocking, but the USA WP press release does not say or provide a link if so.
Never mind, looks like it’s on Overnight, and I did the find the link on the USA WP roster PR.
That cone throw from Campanga was classic.
Irving/Vavic/Dodd were the only reason that the USA was able to stay in this game. No other players stood out tonight for me, lots of simple ball handling errors and poor passes.
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Agree. Too many issues to work thru….: (1) goalie play in second half needs improvement, (2) difficulty with Italian physicality, (3) center game was non-existent, (4) perimeter shooting very tentative, (5) our 5 trap didn’t work and allowed their center to get set at 2m line.
Also, some of the young guys just not remotely ready for prime time. It’s like 3-4 Olympic level guys plus 8 really good collegiate level guys and a few high school level players. Just not sure what’s going on when I watch.
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Agree with this. I just don’t understand the high school player approach. They are great players at their level for sure. But this is different.
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Probably 5 more issues could be added to your good list of 5.
Bottom Line, this team is simply not relevant. Certainly no one in Europe is losing sleep over having to face the US down the road. It should be not forgotten that this team has been relegated. They went something like 1-7 in the qualifying tourney. Dejan’s efforts during post mortem pod casts to say that he knew all along they would not do well ring very hollow,. This is simply not what he was saying to players before they went to Greece. This is not what players and players families thought. They figured US would do very very well.
It is also curious that Dejan seems to be somewhat downplaying the importance of going to Europe for seasoning, This was his major strategy., but now he is making a big deal about the team staying in the US. What I have heard is that the real reason for staying close to home is because too many of the older players are not willing to go over. And who can blame them, with jobs etc. Meanwhile, the younger players are not going over either (aside from Chase). I talk semi-regularly with 3-4 people from 3 different country/leagues in Europe, and from what they have seen, they do not think many of the younger players would even get picked up by top clubs at this point. As WPpops said, “this is different.”
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Question to your point on younger players not getting picked up. Do you put the “fault” on National Team coaches or college coaches for that?
I am not sure I completely agree. I assume that almsot all post-college guys will play overseas next season. Irving plays for Pro Recco. Chase goes to Budapest in the Fall. Vavic and Weinberg will be playing in Greece. Larsen has been playing in Spain, and I assume will continue playing overseas. Saveljic has played in taly the last season. Daube has played in Athens. Did you mean Woodhead, and maybe Daube? As for the 2027-2028, it might make sense for the team to stay together in the US, we shall see.
As for the younger hs players, I could see #9 developing into a valuable national team player. I am not sold on #8 at this point
Daube is also staying in Greece next season and will be playing on the same team with Vavic.
Is anyone surprised that players in their first competition at this level are not yet ready for prime time in European professional leagues? These are friendly matches, and the US is giving a bunch of young talent an opportunity to learn, and the staff a chance to evaluate them, teach them, and see how they might fit.
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