LOS ANGELES – Experience is thoroughly on the side of the United States’ men's
national water polo team, which will travel to London this summer to complete
the logical next step of its recent resurgence under sixth-year head coach
Terry Schroeder.
Having
earned a silver medal in Beijing four years ago that left the team with an
accomplished, but gnawing feeling, after they had medaled for the first time in
20 years in a 14-10 loss to Hungary in the final to fall one win short of its
first gold since the 1904 St. Louis games, this veteran United States
team’s mission is clear.
“I think
what’s keeping them fresh is they know that this is their last chance and they
came so close last time, and they’re a little bit upset with that,” Schroeder
said.
“The silver
medal was good, but they know they’re one step away from where we want to be.”
Attacker
Tony Azevedo and center Ryan Bailey are poised to become the first American
men’s players to appear in four Olympic Games and are part of a group of six
players who are on their way to playing in their third Olympics. At the recent
Four Nations Tournament in Thousand Oaks, Calif., the Americans opened with
a 9-8 win over top-ranked Italy, followed by a win over Germany and a tie with
Montenegro in which the average player’s age of each of the team's 29
goals was a shade under 31 years.
As for the
current configuration of talent and accomplishments, 2012 represents perhaps
the last prime opportunity for a mature core that has forged together a dogged
reputation to hear "The Star Spangled Banner" played at the medal ceremony.
“What’s
keeping us fresh is that damn gold medal,” said Azevedo, the team’s captain and
leading scorer with 17 goals at the Beijing Olympics. “We want it so bad, and
we all have a bitter taste in our mouth from 2008, not winning that, and we’re
back for more.”
It’s a team
that has established a sturdy and stingy reputation on the shoulders of a trio
of sizable defenders, 6-foot-6 Layne Beaubien, 6-foot-7 Jeff Powers and 6-foot-4 Jesse Smith,
all of whom will be playing in their third Games. The team allowed only 31
goals in pool play, tying Croatia for the lowest total in the tournament.
Though Serbia had outscored the United States by 13 goals in their group, the
Americans held the Serbians to just five goals in a semifinal victory to
set up their gold medal game against Hungary. In the 2011 World Championships,
the Americans didn’t allow 10 goals in a game until an 11-10 loss to Spain in
the fifth place game, their sixth game of the tournament.
“If we’re
going to have a chance to get back to the podium and win a gold medal, we’ve
got to be focused on our defense,” Schroeder said. “Merrill Moses in the cage
is one of the best in the world, and if we can put some good shot blockers out
in front of him, we’re going to do well.”
Peter Hudnut
returns to the defense after a year and a half hiatus in which he earned his
MBA at Stanford, while Beaubien is now two years removed from a back injury
that required surgery and forced him to miss all of 2010. They’re part of a
US team that sacrificed a year’s salary of playing overseas to lift weights,
swim and train knowing that at last year’s World Championships, the final,
the third-place game and both semifinal games were all decided by just one goal.
“That’s why
every day we’re training. That’s why we decided – all of us – to sacrifice
money and stay home and train full-time, because we knew it’s going to come
down to one goal here or there,” Azevedo said.
The extra
time together will allow the team to build on many of the intangible traits it
hopes will carry it to gold in London. Based out of Cal Lutheran University and
Oaks Christian High School in Thousand Oaks, Calif., the team had built up
endurance through two-a-day pool conditioning sessions along with excess time
in the weight room prior to welcoming several major international opponents to
town for some pre-Olympics tune-ups.
“We’ve been
swimming and lifting non-stop for three months, and we want to play,” Azevedo
said after their win over Italy at the Four Nations Tournament.
Along with
confidence, there’s also the analysis of what they’d like to improve upon in
the four months of preparation leading up to the Games.
“You know, its
consistency,” Azevedo explained. “We, sometimes, like we were against Serbia in
the [semifinals], are amazing. We beat the best team in the world at that time –
and by five goals – and we go back and lose by four to Hungary. So, it’s consistency.
We’ve got to make sure that every game we’re here, we’re taking care of
business and making sure that we’re focused.”
The
expectations for this year’s team have matched the commitment of the
individuals, as the United States – perhaps with a chip on its shoulder despite
its steady upward trend over the last 15 years – has finally reached the stage
where a silver medal brings moderate disappointment. Ranked sixth in the most
recent polls, they’ll travel to London expecting to win the country’s first
men’s water polo medal on European soil since 1972, and the team’s first gold
medal since Tug of War was an Olympic sport.
“I think it
would mean the world to all of us,” Schroeder said of what a gold medal would
mean. “USA Water Polo hasn’t won a gold medal for 100 years, so if we can do
that, it’s not going to be easy, but I think we’ve got a good shot at it.”
