Team USA Men's Water Polo: An Olympic Cinderella Story

For those who want more action in the pool, look no further than Team USA men's water polo squad, currently in the semifinals and guaranteed, at worst, a shot at the bronze.

The United States is not a world powerhouse in water polo, at least on the men's side. The sport is typically dominated by Eastern European teams, such as Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, and Montenegro, all who are participating in the Beijing games.  Water polo is the second or third most popular sport in these countries behind soccer and sometimes basketball.

The brief history of USA men's water polo is that they have been terribly inconsistent and just plain not good.  To make a comparison so that the general sports fan can get a grasp of how Team USA has performed historically, think of the Seattle Mariners from Major League Baseball or the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League.

Both teams have had a few seasons in which they were as good as any team in their league and players who were well known stars, like Ken Griffey, Jr. or Ichiro of Seattle or Boomer Esiasion and Corey Dillion of the Bengals.

The men's water polo team has not taken a medal at the World Championships in the event's history, which started back in 1973.  The best finish ever for the men's team was fourth in 1991 and their last Olympic medal was a silver at the 1988 Seoul games.

A side note here is that the current US coach, Terry Schroeder, was on that 1988 runner up team. He was also on the 1984 silver medalist team in Los Angeles and competed in an amazing total of four Olympics.  

In the last world championships the US team managed only a ninth place finish, and to some it would be considered a success in Beijing.  In the 2000 games the men's team finished eighth, and then in the 2004 Olympics the men finished fifth.

Another hurdle that has made this Olympics a success even before the games are done is that since the 2004 Athens games the US team has had three head coaches, which is quite rare.

One coach was Ratko Rudic, an Eastern European coach who was to bring success to the US.  Shortly after Athens, however, he left the team and is now Serbia's head coach.  Then there was Ricardo Azevedo who was the head coach at Long Beach State and is the father of current US standout Tony Azevedo. His work with Team USA was short-lived.

That leaves us with current head coach Schroeder.  He has been on the job for just over a year.

This US team does have star power and it starts with three-time Olympian Tony Azevedo who is only 27 and has been on the national team since he was a junior in high school.   Azevedo is one of the top feared shooters internationally and must be taken into account wherever he is in the pool.

Azevedo has been a star since high school where he won player of the year four times. His team won the state championship for four years straight in the toughest high school classification in the United States.

He then went on to Stanford where he won two national titles, but what is most impressive is that he won the Peter J. Cutino award for four straight years.  That award is the equivalent of the Heisman Trophy, so this was quite a feat.

The US team made progress by finishing second in the FINA Super League. This is the equivalent to the World Championships, but with a format like a short season in any other sport with playoffs at the end.  Even after finishing second, the team still had skeptics.

The team is ranked ninth in the world going into the Olympics, and optimists had the team making the medal rounds to get at least a sixth place finish.  In Game One USA came out strong and defeated host country China 8-4 in a game that saw the US allow China to hang around. 

The next test game was against fifth ranked Italy and the US played similarly: letting the Italians hang around, but ultimately winning the game 12-11 because of the many errors the Italians made.

The US lost their next game which was no surprise, defeated by Serbia.  But the shock was that the score was a low 4-2 thanks to first-time Olympian goalie Merril Moses.

Another big shock came when USA beat No. 1 world ranked and gold medal favorite Croatia 7-5.  The game was hard-fought, and once Team USA had the lead they kept it.

The Croatians were not happy losing to the Americans, and during the last minute they took out their aggression by fouling the US very hard each time they touched the ball or attempted to drive to the goal.

That win along with a few other scenarios, including the very questionable performance that had Serbia losing to Italy and starting their back-up goalie, allowed USA to win their group and move on to the semifinals.

Other coaches noticed the same thing about Serbia. If they had defeated Italy then they would have been in the group of Montenegro and Hungary, all three of which were considered gold medal favorites.

Now with Serbia "losing" that game they get to play Spain. If they win this will be the easier path, but it shows a lack of respect for the US team.  Coach Schroeder says it best:

"They're thinking it's an easier path to the gold medal. It's a little bit of disrespect...There's motivation for us. If Serbia gets that far, we'll be ready for them."

This is one of the true underdog stories for the United States. Water polo has been around for over 100 years and the US has only one gold medal. This was won at the 1904 St. Louis games, but that was because other teams did not come due to the violent play the US engaged in.

If Team USA wins a medal in water polo it would be a remarkable story for a team that was ranked ninth in the world prior to the games.