USA Men Top Romania 14-12; Advance To Play Croatia In Semi-finals Of FINA World Cup
7/30/2010 12:00:00 AM
Scoresheet
recap courtesy waterpolo-worldcup2010.com
In spite of their different Olympic rankings, the two sides, USA and Romania faced today showing equal strength and gave life to the most exciting game of the tournament so far. This was clear from the first period when the only two goals, one per side, were scored on penalty shots. Both the second and the third period ended also on a tie, with both team trading four goals per quarter. In the last fraction the United States managed to bring home victory thanks to their ability to convert into goals some extra-man opportunities.
Romania’s Negrean and Iosep and USA’s Bailey were the top scorers, with 4 goals each.
Game scorers and highlights:
1st Q.: 5:01 Bailey (US) on penalty; the goal was allowed with some hesitation by the referees (but for the Romanians the ball did not enter the goal); 3.29 Georgescu (R ), also on penalty (1-1).
2nd Q.: 6:56 Bailey (US) scored his second goal on x-man; 5:24 Hutten (US), action goal from two metres; 4:49 Negrean (R) from outside on x-man; 4:00 Sharf (US) on x-man; 3:28 Iosep (R) two men-up; 2:07 Negrean scored his second, also on x-man and equalised (4-4); Romania’s #8, Matei, was excluded from the rest of the game with substitution as there were eight players in the water at the same time for Romania and penalty shot was allowed to the USA: Azevedo converted (4-5); at 20 seconds to the end Chiovenau shoot a missile form the distance and scored a great goal, resetting the tie (5-5).
3rd Q.: 6:16 Bailey (US) pushes his team up once more scoring his third on action (5-6); 5:12 Azevedo (US) scored his second from outside (5-7); then a fantastic lob shot from the distance from Negrean (R), who also completed a hat-trick, gave more hopes to the home team; 3.34 Negrean scored his fourth, on expiration of the superiority time, tying at 7-7; 0:48 Varellas (US) on extra-man put his team again the lead (7-8); then, with 32 seconds to the end, a penalty is allowed to Romania: Iosep scored his second converted tying once more (8-8); but with just 7 seconds to the end Bailey (US) scored also his fourth goal (8-9); with less than a second to the end (0.6 seconds) a clear penalty was allowed to Romania: Iosep converted again (3rd goal for him) and Romania catch a new tie, at 9-9.
4th Q.: 6:58 Hutten (US) netted his second goal on superiority; 6:15 Azevedo (US) scored his third on a lob shot centrally from outside, putting the USA two goals ahead; 5:58 Radu (R) lessened the gap with a goal in superiority (10-11); 5.11 Powers (US) , on expiration of superiority (10-12); new superiority and new goal for the USA, with Wright at 4:02 (10-13); 3:11 Josep scored his 4th on extra-man (11-13); 2:30 Hutten scored his third on superiority (11-14), game over; 1:16 Cretu (R) scored the last goal of the game on extra-man (12-14) . The crowd applauded his team and, unhappy with the game directors, heavily booed the referees.
Scoring
USA 14 (1, 4, 4, 5) R. Bailey 4, T. Azevedo 3, T. Hutten 3, M. Sharf 1, P. Varellas 1, J. Powers 1, A. Wright 1
ROU 12 (1, 4, 4, 3)
Saves - USA - M. Moses 13
Mens' National Team