USA Men Take Sixth Place At FINA World Championships With 11-10 Loss To Spain
7/29/2011 12:00:00 AM
Shanghai, China - July 30 - The USA Men's National Team took home sixth place at the 2011 FINA World Championships following an 11-10 loss to Spain. The loss bumps the team down from fourth place to sixth in the world headed into the Pan American Games this October in Mexico. A slow first quarter that saw Spain outscore Team USA 4-0 eventually doomed the squad as a second half rally fell just short. Peter Varellas (Moraga, CA/Stanford/Olympic Club) led the offensive attack with three goals while Merrill Moses (Palos Verdes, CA/Pepperdine/NYAC) went the distance in net stopping 10 shots.
Spain came out of the gates on fire scoring on an outside shot just thirty seconds into the match for a 1-0 lead. Over the remainder of the period they would add on three more goals, two coming out of two meters for a 4-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. In the second period the United States broke through when Tony Azevedo (Long Beach, CA/Stanford/NYAC) hit for a power play score to make the match 4-1 in favor of Spain. The Spanish got one back 90 seconds later on a power play to go back up four goals but that was answered at the 3:31 mark when Brian Alexander (Santa Ana, CA/UCSB/Olympic Club) scored on a counter attack to close to 5-2. Spain again had a comeback with a power play goal in front of the net to take a 6-2 lead but the United States came back with just :38 to play in the period as Peter Hudnut (Encino, CA/Stanford/NYAC) tossed in a power play goal from the near side for a 6-3 game at halftime.
In the third quarter Team USA started to inch even closer and it got started with Varellas sending in a laser from the outside to get the score to 6-4 in favor of Spain. Moses came up moments later with a big stop on a backhand and that was followed by Alexander burying his second goal of the day from distance to make it 6-5 with 2:57 to play in th third. Spain scored on their next possession to go back up two goals at 7-5 but Varellas rocketed a shot off the goalie's head and into the cage for a power play score with 1:10 remaining to make things 7-6. Spain had the last word in the third quarter putting in a power play goal with :38 to play in the period and it was 8-6 in favor of the Spaniards going to the fourth.
The back and forth battle would continue throughout the final quarter and Spain struck first with a power play score right as sides were coming even for a 9-6 advantage, their largest since the first half. Ryan Bailey (Long Beach, CA/UC-Irvine/Newport WPF) got free inside moments later for a goal to get it back to two at 9-7. Spain answered with a precision shot to the corner from deep to go up 10-7 but then Varellas found the corner of the cage as well to make it 10-8 with 4:27 left in the match. Momentum swung not long after as Spain killed off a USA power play then came down the other end and scored on a lookaway shot for an 11-8 lead. On the next possession for the United States Adam Wright (Seal Beach, CA/UCLA/NYAC) delivered a goal from outside to draw within 11-9. He came back in the waning seconds hitting a five meter penalty shot and it was just 11-10 Spain with :24 left in the match. The United States pressed Spain for the remainder of the clock but a USA exclusion allowed Spain to easily run out the clock and come away the winners at 11-10.
Team USA went 3/8 on power plays and 1/1 on penalties while Spain was 4/7 on power plays and did not attempt any penalty shots. Varellas, Bailey, and Azevedo all tied for the team lead with 11 goals apiece scored in the tournament.
Scoring - Scoresheet
USA 10 (0, 3, 3, 4) P. Varellas 3, A. Wright 2, B. Alexander 2, T. Azevedo 1, R. Bailey 1, P. Hudnut 1
ESP 11 (4, 2, 2, 3)
Saves - USA - M. Moses 10
6x5 - USA 3/8 - ESP - 4/7
Penalties - USA 1/1 - ESP 0/0
Flash Quotes
"I think the biggest thing we know we're not 100 percent. Coming away in the 5th/6th place it's not a great result but it's okay. We are definitley on our way back up, we know we can beat any team." Brian Alexander, Attacker on what he takes away from this result
"Well I wouldn't say concerned, I wouldn't be happy about it because we don't want to be sixth, we want to be first. Just knowing we aren't at 100 percent of where we need to be in our training. We have alot ahead of us, 363 days from today are the opening ceremonies for the Olympics. We are going to be working hard and training hard, this is a good marker to let us know where we are now." Brian Alexander, Attacker on if Team USA fans should be concerned with the result
"We just know that we are one goal behind Hungary right now, one goal behind Spain right now, there are just little things we need to work on; our training, our fitness and we definitely are going to do that when we get back home." Brian Alexander, Attacker on positives to take from World Championships
"(The) takeaway is that we are close to that top tier, but we're definitley not playing with hand grenades where close doesn't matter unless you make that next step. We've gotta go back home and get the next year together and work hard together and learn to really play for each other and become better as a team. I think the breakdowns today were just not doing the simple things well. Not making our passes to center, getting caught between a zone and a press. We have to be able to do those little things in order to succeed. The energy wasn't there at the beginning, obviously, we can't go down 4-0 against a good team, we did a nice job clawing our way back but it just takes too much energy to get all the way back." Terry Schroeder, USA Head Coach
"There's alot of positives, I think we gave Hungary everything they could handle, we came back and beat Germany after they kicked our butts pretty good in the first game. We made positive steps in the right direction for what we need to do to get back to the podium in London." Terry Schroder, USA Head Coach on positives of the tournament
"We had hoped to come away with a medal here but it is obviously a very tough tournament. There are eight teams, nine teams that are all pretty close and you've got to be on top of your game to have a chance to medal and we were a little off. In this non-Olympic year we had two weeks before World League and two weeks before World Championships, a month together when it's kind fragmeneted and you're trying to push through alot of things and get everyone on the same page, it's not enough time. I'm looking forward to this next year when we have the time together and have everyone home and we can put the work in and see how far we can take it." Terry Schroeder, USA Head Coach
Mens' National Team