Men Win Gold; Olympic Spots Secure

Another night and another Gold Medal final here at the Pan American Games and another win for Team USA. This time it was the Men's squad taking on Canada and coming away with a 7-3 victory. While not quite as crazy as last night's win the impact is just the same. Team USA comes away with a Gold Medal and a spot in the 2012 Olympic Games. This is great for both teams as now they no longer have to worry about qualifying and can just focus on preparing for the Olympics. Sometimes it is considered a given the teams will just go to the Olympics no matter, but as this tourney showed, it has to be earned.

This match was notable as Tony Azevedo played his first game for Team USA after battling some muscle issues in his back. He picked a great game to play in as he scored three goals in the match. The real story was the defense. The stat sheet won't show it but the United States completely shut down Canada's offensive attack. Many of Canada's shots never even got to the net thanks to aggressive field blocking and those that did were generally blocked by Merrill Moses. The team didn't score their third goal until the final moments of the game so for most of the match Team USA held them to just two scores. Just an outstanding defensive effort and over time the goals came when they were needed.

So both teams are London bound which should make for a very exciting 2012.
luchador wrestling at the MPC

Prior to today's game over at the Main Press Center they were holding a wrestling match, not Olympic wrestling but more WWF/WWE style. If anyone is familiar with Rey Mysterio (sp?) wearing the colorful mask, that is what all these wrestlers were wearing including a diminutive wrestler dressed in a chicken costume. It made for a quite a scene. Being a big wrestling fan back in the day this was fun to watch, and unfortunately my bus was leaving or I would have checked out more.
Pretty funny to see this set up in the press center

Well that just about wraps up my time in Mexico as we head out tomorrow. The last week and a half went pretty fast. Don't forget www.usawaterpolo.org for all the important info about these Pan Am Games. Also check out our social medias twitter.com/usawp and facebook.com/usawp. Thanks to everyone that followed along on the blog, we will see you next time at the next major water polo championship for the National Teams. Could be the Olympics or something prior...see ya then!