Tokyo, Japan – August 2 – The U.S. Olympic Men's Water Polo Team dropped their third straight match at the Tokyo Olympic Games, falling to Greece 14-5 as they closed out group play with a 2-3 record. Alex Obert scored two goals and Drew Holland added 7 saves in net. Team USA now moves on to the quarterfinal round on Wednesday where they'll meet the winner of Croatia and Spain. A replay of the USA-Greece match will air as part of Olympic coverage on NBC today at 12pm eastern/9am pacific and on NBCSN at 8pm eastern/5pm pacific. To stream a replay of the match, click here. Schedule and broadcast information on the quarterfinal round will be shared as soon it is available.
Greece was the aggressor early in
this one as they opened up a 2-0 lead before Alex Bowen found the back of the
net to cut the deficit down to one. Greece answered with two more goals to
close out the first quarter in front 4-1. Greece took a 5-1 lead early in the
second quarter but Team USA returned fire with two of the next three goals. Ben
Stevenson hit first, followed by Obert and it was a 6-3 game going into
halftime.
Team USA looked to keep the momentum
going as the second half started with a goal from Max Irving for a 6-4 game
with 5:55 to play in the third. That would be as close as things would get as
Greece scored five of the next six goals in the period. Kostas Genidounias
delivered two of his five goals on the day over the next few minutes for an 8-4
lead. After Obert scored to make it 9-5, Genidounias added one more in the
period for a 10-5 lead. Greece tacked on another goal not long after to build
an 11-6 advantage going to the fourth.
Greece put the match away in the
final period holding Team USA scoreless while adding three more goals. The last
came from Ioannis Fountoulis, his fourth of the day, to put Greece up 14-5 with
3:45 to play on the way to the win. Team USA continues to excel at drawing
power plays, but struggled to convert going 2/14 while Greece was 4/7. Greece
went 2/2 on penalties while Team USA did not attempt any penalty shots.
Scoring – Stats
USA 5 (1, 2, 2, 0) A. Obert 2, A.
Bowen 1, B. Stevenson 1, M. Irving 1
GRE 14 (4, 2, 5, 3) K. Genidounias 5,
I. Fountoulis 4, S. Argyropoulos 2, C. Kolomvos 1, A. Vlachopoulos 1, D.
Skoumpakis 1
Saves – USA – D. Holland 7 – GRE – E.
Zerdevas 10
6x5 – USA – 2/14 – GRE 4/7
Penalties – USA – 0/0 – GRE 2/2
Greg Mescall
Director of Communications, USA Water
Polo
Michael Phelps Teaches Swimming
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