USA Women Given First Defeat by Hungary

(Photo: Jeff Cable, Jeff Cable’s Photography Blog)

The Team USA Women’s Water Polo team saw their first defeat of the preliminary round on Wednesday, July 28 in a close game against Team Hungary. Throughout the four quarters the teams spent a lot of time swapping goals and the lead.

In the sprint at the top of each quarter, Hungary was the faster team, with Rachel Fattel only winning the third sprint. This is usually an area in which the American women excel.

Early in the first quarter after Hungary got on the scoreboard first, the Americans got a power play at the other end which saw Hungary’s goalkeeper Alda Magyari save Alys Williams attempt, Maddie Musselman hit a post. USA was lucky to remain in the offensive end of the water, the result of a turnover by Hungary but again Magyari was up to the challenge. A turnover foul called on Hungary gave the Americans one more chance, and Musselman finally got one past Hungary’s Magyari to tie the game. Maggie Steffens put Team USA up by a goal with 2:06 remaining. With one minute left on the clock, Stephania Haralabidis hit the post while on the power play then at the other end Stefffens was whistled for a centre forward position exclusion giving Hungary the extra player, which they capitalized on at 0:28. There was still time for USA to try and get the go ahead, which they tried. Paige Hauschild unfortunately missed the net with two seconds on the clock and the teams were tied at the end of the period.

One aspect of the game that appeared to be different from their earlier tilts was the aggressiveness of Ashleigh Johnson outside of the goal. In some situations her move worked but there were a couple of times in which it left a gaping net for Hungary to shoot at. Another deficit for the Americans was their inability to get a goal while on the extra player. They had three opportunities in the first quarter and were unable to finish on any of them.

The second quarter saw Hungary put up two goals in 51 seconds. The first was just a good active shot by Rita Keszthelyi at 7:18. Nine seconds later Makenzie Fischer took a turnover foul which allowed Hungary to swim right back unto the Americans’ end where Hauschild was whistled for an exclusion at 6:46. Thirteen seconds later Hungary was up by two goals. Team USA was able to tie it on a counter attack at 2:30 after having cut Hungary’s lead in half earlier with their first extra player goal of the game at 5:49. Two more goals were scored—one for each team—to go into the end of the half tied at five goals.

It looked like the USA was turning the game around in the third quarter. They converted three extra player opportunities for three goals while Hungary was only able to get a single goal in the period, itself during the power play. This put Team USA up 8-6 going into the fourth quarter.

Hungary wasn’t going away though. By 5:37 they had tied things up. Melissa Seidemann once again gave USA the lead with her first shot of the game. While Williams was out on an exclusion though, Hungary notched their ninth of the game to knot the score once more. Once again Team USA would be stymied by the post while on the extra player at 1:31. Hungary’s centre shot at 0:45 of the fourth turned out to seal the deal and handed Team USA their first loss of the games.

Note: If you love the photo, be sure to check out more by visiting Jeff Cable’s Photography Blog here.