As watching Michael Phelps’s transcendent performances at the Water Cube became a nightly ritual, the focus of this Olympics in the United States has been locked into the pool,
The American water polo teams are crafting some strong story lines in a different pool, as the men’s team’s scintillating 8-7 victory over Germany on Monday guaranteed that both American teams will be playing for a medal. The American men secured a bye in the quarterfinals and will play the winner of Serbia and Spain for a spot in the gold-medal game.
While water polo is not likely to put folks in a week-long trance like Phelps, the American performances here have created one of the biggest buzzes in the Olympics’ second week.
The American men have not won an Olympic medal since 1988. The women are ranked No. 1 in the world and are favored to win their first gold medal.
The Serbian coach Dejan Udovicic said his team is in a “really bad position” and looked “really tired.” But United States Coach Terry Schroeder said there was open talk in the Olympic Village Monday morning about the Serbians losing on purpose.
“Regardless of whether or not they did, this is a huge accomplishment for this team,” Schroeder said.
The game was not without its nervous moments, as Merrill Moses made a point-blank save on Germany’s Soren Christoph Mackeben with 3:55 remaining to preserve a one-goal lead. Moses shined again for the Americans, finishing with 14 saves.
With 15 seconds left, Germany appeared to tie the score, 8-8, on an amazing goal by Thomas Schertwitis. He had his back to the goal, and whipped it past Moses. But he had restarted illegally, negating the goal and causing a wave of disbelief by the Germans.
“I am angry with the referee,” the German Coach Hagen Stamm said. “The referees didn’t want to give us a chance to win the game.”
Perhaps the best sign of how far that American water polo team has come is they won without a goal from star Tony Azevedo, who entered the day as the tournament’s fourth leading scorer. The balanced effort is indicative of how the Americans have evolved from an afterthought to the forefront of the water polo world.
The United States entered the Olympics ranked No. 9 in the world, and by advancing to the semifinals showed the swift revival that Schroeder has overseen. The fourth American coach in the past four years, Schroeder took over a team that lost to Serbia by double digits as recently as February.
“This team has really been through a lot,” Schroeder said. “When I came aboard, it was as close to a dysfunctional family as you could find. We’d been through three coaches in three years and there were a lot of individuals and good pieces.”
Schroeder built chemistry by acting as a father figure and scheduling training matches with the top teams in the world. He cited a one-goal loss to the world power Hungary as a turning point, as the team left the game with the felling of, “We can do this.”
“We had to practice and play against the best teams in the world and have some success against them along the way,” Schroeder said.
When the final horn sounded, Schroeder thrust his hands over his head in celebration.
And the combination of good timing and a bit of serendipity has the Americans hoping folks back home will jump in the pool and support them the next few days.
“If the focus is on the pool, that’s great,” Bailey said. “All of our guys started out as swimmers, so we kind of know what they go through. But we all figured out that water polo is much more fun than swimming.”
And for the American water polo teams, the fun appears to be just beginning.
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