Courtesy: USA Water Polo
SAO PAULO, Brazil – The USA Men’s National Team picked up their second straight win at the FINA World Championship Qualification Tournament, defeating Brazil 15-4 earlier today. For the second straight day Johnny Hooper (Los Angeles, CA/California/LA Premier) scored five goals to help pace the offense with Drew Holland (Orinda, CA/Stanford/Olympic Club) and Alex Wolf (Huntington Beach, CA/UCLA/Bruin) combining for 10 saves in net on defense. Team USA returns to action tomorrow when they meet Canada at 2:15pm et/11:15am pt. Live streaming of the tournament is set to begin tomorrow and can be accessed by clicking here.
For the second straight Team USA made an impact early opening up a 3-0 lead after the first quarter and going ahead 7-1 at halftime. Brazil got things going in the third quarter adding three goals but Team USA countered with five more of their own for a 12-4 lead. The United States closed things out in strong fashion with three unanswered goals in the fourth quarter to take the match 15-4.
Team USA went 7/15 on power plays with Brazil going 3/9 on the advantage. A day after the United States and Argentina combined for seven penalties, not a single penalty was called in this match. The top two teams in this event will qualify for the FINA World Championship this summer in South Korea. Click here to see the full Team USA roster competing this week in Brazil.
Scoring
USA 15 (3, 4, 5, 3) J. Hooper 5, A. Bowen 3, M. Irving 2, L. Cupido 2, B. Hallock 2, M. Vavic 1
BRA 4 (0, 1, 3, 0)
Saves – USA – A. Wolf 6, D. Holland 4
6×5 – USA – 7/15 – BRA – 3/9
Penalties – USA – 0/0 – BRA – 0/0
Kudos to Argentina and Brazil to keep it as competitive as they did. I have been down there and know both countries well and you really do not see or hear of anyone playing water polo anywhere. It is just not common. There’s no CIF conferences, few youth clubs, etc… I am honestly surprised they can even round up a dozen guys to get in the same pool as Team USA and go head to head.
It would only be a slight exaggeration to say the same thing about 49 of the 50 US states. On a national basis, boys water polo is well behind ice hockey and bowling as a high school sport and is only a little (13%) ahead of weightlifting. About three-quarters of the 22,501 participants are in California. http://www.nfhs.org/ParticipationStatistics/PDF/2017-18%20High%20School%20Athletics%20Participation%20Survey.pdf
long live random water polo articles