Gwangju, South Korea - July 17 - The USA Men's National Team suffered their first loss at the 2019 FINA World Championship dropping a 17-7 decision to defending gold medalist Croatia.
Chancellor Ramirez (Pasadena, CA/UCLA/NYAC) scored two goals to lead the offense with
Alex Wolf (Huntington Beach, CA/UCLA/Bruin) and
Drew Holland (Orinda, CA/Stanford/Olympic Club) combining for eight saves. Team USA closes out group play on Friday when they meet Australia at 7:10pm local time/6:10am et/3:10am pt. The match will air live on Olympic Channel and can be streamed by
clicking here (cable login required).
Croatia stormed out to a 4-0 lead in the first before
Johnny Hooper (Los Angeles, CA/California/LA Premier) got Team USA on the board late for a 4-1 deficit after eight minutes. In the second quarter the United States cut the margin to three goals at 6-3 and 7-4 on tallies from
Hannes Daube (Long Beach, CA/USC/North Irvine WPC) and
Alex Obert (Loomis, CA/Pacific/NYAC) but would get no closer. Croatia expanded the lead in the third going in front 10-4 and ending the period with a goal with one second left to lead 13-6. In the fourth quarter it was Croatia outscoring Team USA 4-1 to build a ten goal advantage on the way to the 17-7 victory.
Team USA went 2/9 on power plays with no penalties attempted while Croatia was 3/7 on power plays and 1/2 on penalty shots.
For more on the USA roster at the FINA World Championships,
click here for the roster announcement. For more on broadcast coverage,
click here.
Scoring -
Stats
USA 7 (1, 3, 2, 1) C. Ramirez 2, H. Daube 1, J. Hooper 1, A. Obert 1, A. Bowen 1, B. Hallock 1
CRO 17 (4, 5, 4, 4) H. Benic 3, M. Jokovic 3, J. Vrlic 3, A. Vukicevic 3, A. Buslje 2, A. Setka 1, J. Garcia 1, L. Loncar 1
Saves - USA - A. Wolf 6, D. Holland 2 - CRO - M. Bijac 11, I. Marselic 5
6x5 - USA - 2/9 - CRO 3/7
Penalties - USA - 0/0 - CRO 1/2
