Paris, France - July 28 - The U.S. Olympic Men's Water Polo Team fell behind in the first quarter and couldn't rally as they lost to Italy 12-8 to open play at the Paris Olympic Games.
Hannes Daube scored three goals in the loss with
Adrian Weinberg adding eight saves in his Olympic debut. Team USA returns to the pool on Tuesday when they take on Romania at 4:35pm local time/10:35am et/7:35am pt. The match will air LIVE on USA Network and stream on Peacock.
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Daube got things started for Team USA with a power play strike in the opening moments to grab a 1-0 lead. Italy had a strong response running off four straight goals to take the lead at 4-1 with 3:24 to play in the opening quarter.
Alex Bowen came back with a power play strike of his own late in the quarter to make it 4-2 after the opening eight minutes.
Team USA clawed back to within one at 4-3 on a
Max Irving extra man score in the opening two minutes of the second quarter. Both offenses were fairly quiet in the period as Italy added a goal with just 10 seconds to play in the period to secure a 5-3 edge at halftime. The two teams traded goals to open the third quarter before Italy surged to a five goal lead, scoring three unanswered to finish the third in front at 9-4. A similar scenario played out to open the fourth as the two sides traded goals with Daube adding two more, but Team USA could never halt the Italian attack. Irving delivered on a penalty to make it 12-7 with 3:23 left, but the United States ran out of time to come all the way back. A
Johnny Hooper power play strike with :26 left in the match rounded out the scoring.
The United States went 5/12 on power plays and 1/2 on penalties while Italy went 2/4 on power plays and 1/1 on penalties.
Scoring -
Stats
ITA 12 (4, 1, 4, 3) T. Gianazza 2, F. di Fulvio 2, M. Iocchi 2, E. di Somma 1, L. Bruni 1, N. Presciutti 1, A. Velotto 1, A. Fondelli 1, G. Echenique 1
USA 8 (2, 1, 1, 4) H. Daube 3, A. Bowen 2, M. Irving 2, J. Hooper 1
Saves - ITA - M. del Lungo 9 - USA - A. Weinberg 8
6x5 - ITA - 2/4 - USA - 5/12
Penalties - USA - 1/2 - ITA - 1/1
