Paris, France - August 1 - The U.S. Olympic Men's Water Polo Team made a strong second half push, re-taking the lead against reigning Olympic silver medalist Greece, before falling 13-11.
Alex Bowen and
Max Irving each scored twice to lead the offense.
Adrian Weinberg recorded eight saves and added his first Olympic goal. Team USA now stands at 1-2 in group play with two matches remaining. Next up for the United States is a meeting with Montenegro on Saturday at 4:35pm local time/10:35am et/7:35am pt. The match will air LIVE on USA Network and Peacock and will re-air on USA Network at 8pm pt.
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Irving opened the scoring for Team USA snagging a 1-0 lead early. Greece tied it up moments later and that opened a see-saw first quarter.
Chase Dodd gave Team USA the lead at the six-minute mark and again Greece tied it up. The next two goals also came from Greece as part of a three-goal run that saw them go up 4-2 with 2:52 to play in the quarter. Team USA battled back with an
Alex Bowen penalty shot score to get within one at 4-3. Then with time winding down in the quarter
Adrian Weinberg let fly scoring from his own goal on a shot that skipped past the Greek keeper, giving Weinberg his first Olympic goal and tying the match at 4-4 after one.
Greece scored two in a row to start the scoring in the second quarter and built a 6-4 lead with 2:20 remaining in the quarter. Irving came back with another score at the two-minute mark to make it a one-goal game. That was short-lived as Greece came right back with a goal to go back ahead by two at 7-5. With just seconds to play Team USA drew a penalty and
Marko Vavic converted to make it a 7-6 game going into halftime.
The United States opened up the second half in strong fashion as
Dylan Woodhead connected in close to tie the match at 7-7. Then with 5:36 to play
Ryder Dodd put home a rebound on a power play attempt to give Team USA their first lead at 8-7 since they were up 1-0. Greece tied the game moments later but Bowen came back with another penalty shot goal to lead 9-8 with under five minutes to play. Greece took the momentum back surging to close out the third. They hit for three straight to take an 11-9 edge into the fourth quarter.
Both sides were quiet on offense early in the fourth until Greece broke through at the 4:26 mark to go ahead three at 12-9.
Luca Cupido got one back for Team USA to make it 12-10 but their rallies would get no closer. The two sides traded goals in the final moments and Greece secured the two goal win.
Greece turned in a strong performance on the power play going 5/10 but more importantly limiting Team USA to 1/11. The United States went 3/3 on penalties while Greece was 2/2.
Scoring -
Stats
GRE 13 (4, 3, 4, 2) S. Argyropoulous 4, I. Fountoulis 3, K. Genidounias 2, E. Kalageropoulous 1, N. Papanikolaou 1, D. Nikolaidis 1, A. Vlachopoulos 1
USA 11 (4, 2, 3, 2) A. Bowen 2, M. Irving 2, A. Weinberg 1, M. Vavic 1, H. Daube 1, L. Cupido 1, D. Woodhead 1, C. Dodd 1, R. Dodd 1
Saves - USA - A. Weinberg 8 - GRE - E. Zerdevas 16
6x5 - USA - 1/11 - GRE - 5/10
Penalties - USA - 3/3 - GRE - 2/2
