Paris, France - August 7 - The U.S. Olympic Men's Water Polo Team staged a major rally, defeating Australia 11-10 in a shootout, to confirm a spot in the semifinal round at the Olympic Games for the first time since 2008.
Adrian Weinberg made two blocks in the penalty shootout and a penalty shot block in regulation as part of an 11 save effort.
Alex Bowen and
Hannes Daube added two goals apiece in regulation plus penalty shot scores.
Marko Vavic delivered the game-winner in the shootout as the final shooter for the United States after the squad came back from a three-goal deficit. Team USA now advances to meet Serbia in semifinal play on Friday at a match time to be announced. TV coverage will also be announced as soon as it is available.
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Australia opened the scoring on the first of four goals from Luke Pavillard before
Johnny Hooper tied the match moments later at 1-1. Australia retook the lead at the 4:27 mark to go in front 2-1. Late in the first quarter
Max Irving scored for Team USA but the game was stopped for VAR. In the review officials awarded a brutality call to
Johnny Hooper and took away the Irving goal. The brutality call gave Australia a penalty shot, which they scored, and a four-minute long power play. At the end of three the Aussies led 3-1. They pushed that lead to 4-1 early in the second quarter on another power play before Bowen stopped the run with a score to make it 4-2. Australia came right back with another score on a power play for a 5-2 lead. Both offenses went quiet for several minutes until
Luca Cupido broke through on a player advantage goal for a 5-3 game headed into halftime.
Team USA was able to limit the damage during the four-minute exclusion and then used the third quarter to battle all the way back. Weinberg offered some foreshadowing of his shootout heroics, turning away an Australia penalty try with 5:57 to go in the third.
Ryder Dodd rattled the cage to get Team USA within one at 5-4 and then Daube converted a penalty to tie things at 5-5 with 3:25 left in the third. That was the score to open the fourth when Daube hit again, this time on a power play, to give Team USA their first lead at 6-5 with 6:03 to play. Each side had opportunities on offense no goals were scored until Pavillard came through with the equalizer to make it 6-6 with 2:43 to play. With under two minutes to play it was Pavillard again, this time giving Australia the lead at 7-6. The United States hung tough and with :32 left in the match, Bowen came through in the clutch with a power play strike to tie the game at 7-7 and force the shootout.
Through the first two rounds of the shootout both teams converted all their attempts. It was in the third round where things changed. Weinberg came up with the first of two saves in the shootout followed by a Bowen conversion. Weinberg did it again in the fourth round but Aussie goalie Nic Porter also made a key block to keep the game alive. It came down to the last round, after Australia converted it was up to Vavic who drilled the shot and secured the win.
Team USA went 4/11 on power plays and 1/1 on penalties while Australia went 3/11 on power plays and 1/2 on penalties.
Scoring -
Stats
USA 11 (1, 2, 2, 2) (4) A. Bowen 2, H. Daube 2, J. Hooper 1, L. Cupido 1, R. Dodd 1
AUS 10 (3, 2, 0, 2 (3) L. Pavillard 4, M. Maksimovic 2, J. Mercep 1
Saves - USA - A. Weinberg 11 - AUS - N. Porter 5
6x5 - USA - 4/11 - AUS - 3/11
Penalties (regulation) - USA - 1/1 - AUS 1/2
Shootout - USA - 4/5 - AUS 3/5
