Greetings From Beijing - A USA Water Polo Blog

Men Win Gold; Olympic Spots Secure

2011-10-29T19:15:00.000-07:00

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!

USA Women Win Gold; A Finish For The Ages

2011-10-29T07:21:00.000-07:00

For those that did not see last night's game the box score or write ups do not do it justice. The USA Women were in a hole 7-3 in the third quarter and when the dust settled, after an epic shootout, they had won the Gold and were headed to the 2012 Olympic Games with a 27-26 victory. The only comeback I can compare it to is when I witnessed Monmouth University men's basketball team come back from 20 points down in the second half to earn a berth to the NCAA Tournament, both at the time seemed equally as improbable.

In the women's match it was a back and forth first quarter that gave way to Canada taking over in the second quarter to build a 5-2 lead. Team USA's offense was struggling in the third quarter when Courtney Mathewson broke through with a score. That, to use a basketball analogy, seemed to take the lid off the goal. Mathewson was able to score a few more, Lauren Wenger added a goal and it was tied 7-7 in a matter of minutes.

Sometimes a team will exert such energy to complete a comeback they often don't have enough left to get over a hill, this was a concern here as Canada went up 8-7 on a goal with less than two minutes to play. Again some how the United States found a way as they drew a power play with less than 40 seconds to play and Kami Craig barred one in to tie the match. It once again seemed this might not be our night when Canada drew a five meter penalty with 11 seconds to play. For those that don't follow water polo a penalty shot, much like in soccer often favors the shooter. I'd be the conversion rate is somewhere around 80 percent. No matter because Betsey Armstrong stepped up with a block to force over time.

Two-three minute overtime periods later, as is standard in water polo, and we were on to a shootout. Shootouts generally go five rounds and if it is not decided by then it will go to one-offs with each team getting a chance. As you can imagine this game was still knotted after the first five shooters. The sixth shooters both hit and then on the seventh try Mathewson missed. Canada could take the game with a make, but again when a stop had to be made, Armstrong was there for the block and the game went on. It went on and on, not quite til the break of dawn, but still really long. On the 20th round of shooters we would get a decision. Maggie Steffens hit for the USA and Canada's shot barred out and a delayed realization set in...this thing was actually over and Team USA won. Cue the pandemonium from the USA bench as everyone was into the pool celebrating the Gold Medal, a berth to the 2012 Olympics, and perhaps the greatest water polo match anybody has ever seen.

"I told the girls this is the greatest game I've ever been a part of, maybe the most courageous, most mentally tough group of girls during one game that I've ever seen." -- Adam Krikorian, USA Head Coach

That pretty sums it up. We'll try and do it again later today, perhaps it less heart palpitating fashion, when the USA Men go for Gold against Canada at 5pm cst/3pm pst. Follow along on twitter @usawp or check out the live streaming here. http://deportesus.terra.com/road-to-2012/2011-pan-american-guadalajara/live/3/#3

Double Gold Medal Games On The Way

2011-10-27T21:20:00.000-07:00

Well thus far everything that could be hoped for in terms of success at the Pan Am Games has happened. Neither the men nor the women have lost a game and now both have advanced to the Gold Medal final thanks to the men defeating Cuba 12-2 earlier today. After two games that were physical and perhaps closer than expected Team USA came out today fired up. Right out of the gate the team was pumped up after goals with each player scoring getting his teammates fired up...something you don't always see in the first and second goal of the game. Before you knew it the squad was leading 8-0 and on their way to victory.

In the final they will meet Canada, who was able to come back to over take Brazil in the final. The two will get together to close out the water polo action at 5pm cst on Saturday. Back to the pool tomorrow for what should be a stellar matchup, the USA Women vs Canada. That is also set for 5pm cst. If you can get to the computer to watch the streaming I would recommend it, there is also the twitter following option. Here is the webstreaming link if needed. http://deportesus.terra.com/road-to-2012/2011-pan-american-guadalajara/live/3/#3

Got a nice picture of a slam dunk on the break

After the water polo I headed over to the basketball venue to check out some of Brazil vs USA in men's hoops. A bit of a sloppy first half from what I saw. The United States eventually pulled it out 88-77 and I got to see a couple of nice dunks...a nice little change of pace after a week of water polo. While the pool has had the mascots and the scuba steve mascot at the basketball court there was a group of guys playing drums and bongos sitting high in the stands and then there was the random vuvuzela going in the crowd as well. Made for an interesting environment.

Big day tomorrow, a berth to the Olympic Games on the line...get pumped!

Brazil in the half court set

Women Will Play For Gold

2011-10-26T19:30:00.001-07:00

This goalie is in trouble as Team USA heads to the Gold Medal Match

Just one game on the docket today but an important one as the USA Women dispatched of Brazil 13-1. After a bit of a slow start they got things cooking in the second half and especially the fourth quarter. The defense has also been on point as thus far the team has allowed just 8 goals through four games which is pretty ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as the 76 goals scored over four games. All that is history now though as the Gold Medal game is at hand at 5pm cst on Friday.

It will be USA vs Canada, the match most predicted. For all the lopsided games these two teams have taken part in thus far in the Pan Ams this game promises to be a real battle. As Coach Krikorian said today it wouldn't be a shocker if it were a one goal game. The two teams played at World Championships this past summer in Shanghai with Team USA winning handily but there wasn't nearly as much on the line as there will be Friday night in Guadalajara. The winner earns a berth to the Olympic Games, second place has to sweat it out until April when they take part in the Olympic qualification tournament in Italy, a road neither team wants to travel.

As for tomorrow it is back to men's water polo action as they try and do what the women did today, pick up a win and move into the Gold Medal game. The men take on Cuba at 3:30pm cst with eyes on advancing to the final and also claiming a berth to London. As usual full updates available on twitter @usawp.

In other news cool story posted today on teamusa.org by Aimee Berg on the four water polo players trying for their fourth Olympics. That would be Tony Azevedo, Ryan Bailey, Brenda Villa, and Heather Petri. Berg also checked in with Terry Schroeder as he is a four time Olympian in his own right, although he did not get to play in 1980 due to the boycott. Check it out here http://www.teamusa.org/news/2011/10/26/meet-water-polos-senior-class/45226?ngb_id=3

At the pool before the USA women's game there was Mexico in action playing for fifth place. Talk about a crowd, so awesome to see that many people at a water polo match. The photo does not do it justice how packed the place was. It helps that Guadalajara closed all schools for the two weeks of the Pan Am Games to ease the traffic and let kids check out all the sports. Pretty cool idea if you ask me.

Packed house for the Mexico match

Also if anyone is wondering, yes they have been showing Beyonce videos on the scoreboard during halftime. Also Nicki Minaj...Super Bass to be exact.

Back tomorrow with more...Go Team USA!

Headed To The Semifinals

2011-10-25T21:43:00.000-07:00

Group play completed today and both teams have accomplished the first step of winning the Pan Ams, winning group play. The women continued their dominating run dispatching Puerto Rico 19-3 to set up a semifinal match with Brazil on Wednesday at 3:30pm cst. The men's team found themselves in another close match before pulling away against Argentina for the win 13-7. They actually trailed at one point in the game, the first time either USA team has trailed in this tournament. Their victory sets them up with a semifinal match against Cuba on Thursday at 3:30pm cst. All these games are scheduled to be streamed live at the live stream link provided in a previous post. Also you can follow along on twitter @usawp.

The men's game was more interesting than the women's as it was back and forth and almost had a bit of a rumble. Things got physical towards the end of the third quarter. After the Argentina coach was shown the door with a red card the two teams got tangled up in transition leading to both teams meeting near mid tank for some words. Cooler heads prevailed but the result was a 4 minute major penalty for Argentina leaving them a man down. That allowed the USA to take a close game and blow it open with a flurry of goals early in the fourth quarter.

Awesome photo of Tim Hutten from Getty images

So the win or go home type matches start tomorrow as we've gotten to the exciting part of the tournament. In the lead up there have been quite a few articles posted lately, many focusing on women's team captain Brenda Villa with her Mexican ties.

Here is one from TeamUSA.org - http://www.teamusa.org/news/2011/10/24/preparation-and-focus-key-for-women-s-water-polo/45180?ngb_id=3

Here is another on Brenda from the AP - http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/25/2472072/us-water-polo-captain-villa-at.html

Here is another on men's goal Chay Lapin being the latest in the Long Beach pipeline - http://www.presstelegram.com/sports/ci_19180157

As I get more links I'll send them along. In other news I took the wrong bus to the venue today breaking my streak of not getting lost in Mexico. Thankfully I was able to rally a cab after ending up at the volleyball arena and make it to the pool just before the opening sprint. I really should have gotten some Rosetta Stone going on before departing, but live and learn.

Excellent dinner tonight at the hotel, a steak pepito which is like a steak, guacamole, beans, tomato, cheese, and onions on a baguette. Very good. Never heard of it before, I'll probably get it again.

Back tomorrow with more.

Close & Not So Close

2011-10-24T19:47:00.000-07:00

In-game entertainment has arrived!

Today was an interesting day at the pool. We can start with the basics in that both teams again won and are now each 2-0 headed to the final day of group play. The USA Women throttled Puerto Rico 24-4 while the USA Men edged Brazil 8-5. I think many people expected the team to breeze through group play so the Brazil game was definitely a surprise and that led to the interesting day.

We started things off with the women cruising to victory just goals coming from every angle in a game that was over nearly as soon as it started. Then you had the men's game which was intense, a one goal game at the end of three quarters. While I know the team wasn't a fan of their effort today from a purely spectator standpoint it was more interesting to watch than the blowouts that had taken place thus far.

Good support by other sports here at the Pan Am Games which has a mini Olympics feel to it. Athletes from USA Track & Field and USA Field Hockey were in the stands cheering on our teams which is always nice to see. It reminds me to get out and see some other sports as well, basketball is on tap later this week so that could be good to check out.

During a quarter break in the men's game the first sign of in game entertainment reared it's bedazzled head as a team of dancers in different outfits came out. All seemed to be wearing traditional Mexican attire save for one person that was dressed as Scuba Steve, you'll get this if you've seen Big Daddy with Adam Sandler. My guess is I just don't get that joke but it still made me laugh. In game entertainment in foreign countries is often a great source of comedy. I was able to snap a quick photo of the group as they were heading off the pool deck.

Scuba Steve is in the building

Tomorrow is our last double header as both teams are in action the Women against Cuba, a surprise at the World Championships and the Men against Argentina. After that we go into the semi-finals and finals so we are nearing closer to the big time matches.

Back tomorrow with more.

36 Goals In One Day!

2011-10-23T16:33:00.000-07:00

Today at long last was the start of water polo competition here at the Pan American Games and our USA teams did not disappoint coming up with big wins. The recaps are available at usawaterpolo.org but the USA Women opened the day with a 20-0 victory over Argentina. The men followed in the afternoon with a 16-3 win over Venezuela. Both are back in action tomorrow and Tuesday with doubleheaders, just by chance on the schedule that they will play back to back.

In today's first game it seemed like we might not have a game as with an 8:30am start time scheduled we got to about 8:15am with no sign of Argentina. They had the wrong time for the game and came in sleepy-eyed for the game. The lack of a proper wake-up call showed as the United States dominated throughout in a match that was never close. In the men's game there was no late arrival but the result was similar. Despite a small rally by Venezuela in the second quarter Team USA won in convincing fashion. Tomorrow the women tangle with Puerto Rico while the men take on Brazil which should bring a pretty fired up crowd.

Also great news, live free streaming of the matches has been located and you can check out all the water polo action at this link - http://deportesus.terra.com/road-to-2012/2011-pan-american-guadalajara/live/3/#3 - and also official stats and boxscores are available here http://200.57.183.69/ENG/ZZ/ZZS103A_WP@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ENG.htm - I know that link looks crazy but it works.

That really accounted for most of today, it was an early day as I was on the bus before the sun came up, the one advantage being we made record time to the pool. Just like everywhere else the roads in Guadalajara are empty at 7am on Sunday morning. I've included a photo to show the situation where you catch the bus everyday. Basically you wait for a volunteer to hold up the sign for the venue you are headed to and then like diligent sheep you follow them to your bus. You then hope the bus you are getting on is not an old school bus but maybe a newer bus, it is always at toss-up.

Bus-stop action - follow the signs

With the women playing at 8:30 and the men playing at 2:30 I stayed at the pool and saw some of the other games including a bigtime contest between Mexico and Brazil. A pretty large crowd came out for that one and Brazil pulled out the win, which was perhaps a surprise to some, personally I think it would be cool to have a match against Mexico to see what kind of huge crowd would come out.

Brenda Villa continues to conduct interviews with local media and there is hope to get her on some local tv stations as well.

If I haven't mentioned it Guadalajara has some of the coolest cop cars I've ever seen. One is a dodge charger with a battering ram on the front and then they have cool pickup trucks with a wolf type logo on the side. All of the cars just look like they are ready for action which is a good sign.

Well that is all for now, going to hopefully find somewhere that showing Sunday Night Football on NBC, and I don't mean soccer. Saints vs Colts coming up. Go Saints! Back tomorrow with more.

cool cop cars in GDL

Let The Games Begin

2011-10-22T19:46:00.000-07:00

The start of the tourney is upon us, and for me much like the players, I'm ready for the games to begin. There is only so much non game stuff you can do when the purpose of a trip is to play some important games. So with that said it starts tomorrow morning (Sunday) at 8:30am local time, aka Central time in the USA with the Women taking on Argentina. That is followed by the men playing Venezuela at 2:30pm. Three straight days of games before the semi-finals so as gold old Jim Ross used to say "business just picked up!"

As for today it was a practice session for both teams at the competition pool. The finishing touches (and I'm using that lightly) were put on the pool. The ref ramps and other things were still being installed but it sounds like everything will be ready to go tomorrow.

More updates after the games, follow along at twitter.com/usawp for live tweeting during the matches. Recaps posted at www.usawaterpolo.org.

In Mexico The Nextel Is King

2011-10-21T19:31:00.000-07:00

Remember those Nextel phones with the walkie talkie feature? Some of you old diehards may still have them along with your pagers (doctors exempt). The big thing about them was you could ping fellow Nextel users and then do some free walkie talkie action. With iphones and android phones and blackberries these seem like ancient history. Not in Guadalajara, the Nextel is alive and well as you hear the constant cacophony of the "beep-beep" among phones. I've been given a Nextel to communicate with coaches/staff etc and it is pretty convenient. The thing is I always think my phone is going off, but it isn't. I'll be honest I don't get beeped alot and I'm ok with that, I'm new to the Nextel game. Give me some more time down here and I'd probably be chirping all day long, it would probably get annoying, you'd probably have a time tough reaching me among all the other chirps. So now you know about that, coming to Guadalajara, get a Nextel.

The main venue for swimming/synchro/diving/waterpolo

On the water polo front, I visited the competition venue today, the Scotiabank Aquatic Center to get the lay of the land with both teams practicing there tomorrow. Synchronized swimming was finishing up today so the water polo course was not put in place so I'll get a better idea of that tomorrow. That said a nice place, ample seating and right next to the tennis venues so alot going on. They have a big vendor area with food stands, shops, and some carnival type games that make for a fun atmosphere.

After hitting that up it was back over to the village as a local newspaper was interviewing Brenda Villa. This interview was in Spanish rendering me useless. Brenda tells me it went smoothly and it seemed to be an enjoyable conversation going strictly off nonverbal communication.

This photo was pure luck, you'll notice a real person's legs underneath that mascot poster

The bus ride to the village had me sitting next to a journalist from Cuba, I believe he was a television producer and it was interesting to hear about the various teams from Cuba. Our women play Cuba on day three of group play. Back at the main press center there was alot of commotion as that building is housing the boxing venue so the crowd was picking up. There was also a mariachi band playing that had two gentleman demonstrating their skill with lassos, it was pretty cool. Unfortunately nobody did the classic lasso dance where they are mock tugged towards the rope tosser, in this case it could have legitimately happened with a person being wrapped up but I digress.

Here is the amazing lasso guy twirling and jumping at the same time, to music. Impressive

That is pretty much all to report for today. Also day one of the Rock-tober 12 and under Classic is in the books in Denver. Full results available at usawaterpolo.org.

A final note, a big shoutout to whoever developed the tv station AXN. This is an English speaking station that shows tv programs and movies you likely know. As I write this I'm watching the throwback film Mad City starring John Travolta and Dustin Hoffman. When abroad, dial up AXN, you won't regret it.

More tomorrow following the practices at the main venue.

How About That Bus Ride In?

2011-10-20T21:33:00.000-07:00

Well today was mostly about buses. Riding on them, waiting for them, watching them crash into other cars. Today was a chance to see the women's team practice but this involved getting a bus to the village and then a bus to practice and then repeating that to get back. That alone accounted for several hours.

It was easy enough getting to the village catching the hourly bus. Got a chance to scope out the village, check out some of the photos, and also grab some lunch. They have a food court similar to that of the main press center. They also have a few different stores set up and a stage for daily concerts. The apartments for the athletes are cool as the different countries have decorated their windows with flags of the respective countries. There is also a gigantic tent that serves as the dining hall.

practice pool in Guadalajara

After scoping all of that out we loaded on a bus and headed about an hour away to practice. On the way our bus rear-ended another car. I was unlucky enough to smash into the seat in front of me but walked away with only a scrape underneath my eye, people will wonder what fight I got in and I will make up a new story every time because that is fun.

usa housing at the pan am village

We got to the pool, an indoor facility that had our team practicing the same time as the men's team from Canada. Our men practiced this morning and took part in a scrimmage. Both teams will get a chance to practice at the competition venue on Saturday. The pool area is getting used for everything, swimming, synchro, diving and water polo. For example in Shanghai swimming and diving had their own facilities. So scheduling is key.

Tomorrow I'm going to check out the competition pool and will hopefully have some photos to post. The day closed with some fun as I was able to have dinner at an authentic mexican restaurant. A cool place with outdoor seating and a 12 piece mariachi band. A pretty cool experience.

I leave you now with a photo of the women's team posing with the mascots and also some links on how to possibly watch water polo at the Pan American Games.

http://www.espnmediazone3.com/us/programming/espn2-livesame-day-tape-event-schedule/

http://www.espnmediazone3.com/us/programming/espn-deportes-livesame-day-tape-event-schedule/

Pan Am Mascots with the Women's National Team

Getting To Guadalajara

2011-10-19T20:06:00.000-07:00

Today was the travel day to Mexico for me and it got off to a banner start when I was upgraded to first class for free. Anyone who has flown first class knows how great this is. Tons of room, seemingly better food, real silverware, and of course an unwarranted sense of entitlement. All in all a fun trip, just made me wish I could ever score a upgrade on a super long flight with flat beds etc. But I digress.

Anyway made it into Guadalajara and a very helpful group of volunteers got me over to the Expo area where I am staying. Alot going on here as it is the site of the main press center and ticket stands and just a whole bunch of commotion. At the same time the Men's National Team began their third day in Mexico while the Women's Nat
ional Team arrived today. Both teams are still in the Pan Am village which I hope to check out tomorrow.

That's a real glass on a plane and that is also Ferris Bueller's Day Off paused (not exclusive to first class)

Both teams will practice tomorrow leading up to the games starting on Sunday. The match schedule has changed slightly from what was posted on usawaterpolo.org earlier. Here is the link again and keep in mind these times could change once more. http://usawaterpolo.org/press/2011PanAms.aspx

With this new schedule the second and third days will see Team USA essentially play doubleheaders with the women going at 12:15pm and the men following at 2:30pm. With shuttle buses coming every hour I am not mad at that schedule one bit.

This man was enjoying a meal at the press center food court, lots of choices here

Still no word on specific water polo broadcast times on both tv or streaming. Hope to have some photos up tomorrow of the village or competition pool or both. Also don't forget on the age group side of water polo the Rock-tober 12 and under Classic gets going this weekend in Denver. More info on that at www.usawaterpolo.org.

Here is a photo the women's team took before they departed Colorado Springs

Ready For Guadalajara

2011-10-18T14:55:00.000-07:00

The USA Men's National Team has already arrived in Guadalajara and the Women's Team will head their tomorrow after processing today in Houston. I'm also headed to Guadalajara tomorrow so I will have more of an update tomorrow evening with the whole set up. For those curious on information we have a schedule and rosters on usawaterpolo.org. Here is the link for that http://usawaterpolo.org/press/2011PanAms.aspx. The schedule is unofficial but seems to be what everyone is working with at the moment.

In addition at that link there is information on tv coverage. Right now there is coverage on ESPN3 and ESPN Deportes planned. but when and if water polo will be shown is not known. Same goes for the online streaming with Terra, sports are planning to be covered but there is currently no schedule for when water polo might be shown.

You can follow along during the matches on our twitter, twitter.com/usawp. I'll be posting game results there, scoring etc.

For first timers to this blog it is called Greetings From Beijing because it began at the Beijing Olympics, hopefully that avoids any confusion. Go Team USA.

Here are some nice news links leading up the Pan Am Games.

Brenda Villa Talks Water Polo Training - Stack.com - http://blog.stack.com/2011/10/06/london-2012-olympic-medalist-brenda-villa-talks-water-polo-training/

Water Polo Team Focused On Victory At Pan Am Games - USA Today - http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/story/2011-10-12/U-S-womens-water-polo-team-and-Pan-Am-Games/50744982/1?AID=4992781&PID=4166869&SID=1u7ozsxww6si9

Betsey Armstrong's Goal Is To Make Waves At Pan Am Games - Detroit Free Press - www.freep.com/article/20111009/SPORTS17/110090484/Jo-Ann-Barnas-Betsey-Armstrong-s-goal-make-waves-Pan-Am-Games?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Sports

Men Take Sixth; End Of The Road

2011-07-30T06:01:00.001-07:00

Well we have come to the end of the FINA World Championships, for water polo anyway. The men lost a tough one today to Spain by a single goal to end up in sixth place. A surprise that both teams would take sixth after they each came in ranked fourth and first respectively. That said there is now some definite motivation moving forward. In the game against Spain the men got down 4-0 early and it was a tough hole to climb out of. They got back within a goal several times but couldn't get all the way back.

With the water polo match done early in the day we were able to check out some swimming, pretty cool venue here in Shanghai. Micahel Phelps took gold in the 100 fly and Missy Franklin (a name on the rise to be sure) won the 200 back. They have an awesome entrance for the swimmers, very pro wrestling style. Two walls with videos playing on them slide apart and the swimmers come out of the opening with their name and country displayed on the video wall. It adds to the whole light show they have going on.

That is going to about wrap things up for this edition of "Greetings from Beijing." For the diehards that join us in non-Olympic years, thanks for reading. Back in October at the Pan American Games. I can only hope posting is easier there and this blog will be way better looking with photos, longer posts etc.

Don't forget Junior Olympics live webcasts at waterpolo.teamusa.org/live this coming Tuesday, August 2 and Sunday, August 7. Also a Junior Olympic highlight show airing on August 23 on Universal Sports. Don't miss it.

6th Place Finish

2011-07-29T07:53:00.001-07:00

The 2011 World Championships are in the books for the USA Women and they finished in sixth place. For a team that won the last two World Championships and was ranked #1 for the last two years this was not where they wanted to be. Reality had set in a few days back after the Russia loss that there would be no medals this time around but the finality of it all still stings for the group especially with a loss today to Australia 10-5. Again a run of goals did in the team, this time in the second and third quarters and before you knew it a one goal lead was a five goal deficit. I think it will provide some great motivation moving forward and there are still some huge things to accomplish including qualifying for London and then if that works out the Olympics themselves. Some exciting things on the way.

In other news we had a nice dinner with the women's team and the family that came to support them. Always good to get everyone together. I also was able to get out to one the local stores in the area where they were selling bootlegged movies, some that are even in theaters now such as the latest Harry Potter flick. You can definitely tell it is a guy in a theater holding a camera, at least from the demo movie they were showing but still impressive they have these things. Also saw some vintage Pokemon cards. I thought Pokemon was done with years ago but apparently they are are still alive and well in Shanghai.

One last game tomorrow the men taking on Spain for fifth place. Hopefully they can keep up their strong play as of late. Another update tomorrow.

Revenge Against Germany

2011-07-28T06:23:00.001-07:00

Today the USA Men much like the women (their tourney runs have become quite similar) came off a heartbreaking quarterfinal loss to rebound with a win. The difference being the men got some measure of revenge defeating Germany who had beaten them to open the tournament. The victory sends the USA to a match against Spain on Saturday for fifth place which will close out competition here. Just two games left, can't believe it is just about done...actually I can, it seems like we have been here for quite a while. Today's game was fun to watch as Germany made things interesting towards the end, hopefully there can be another positive outcome on Saturday to build for things headed towards the Pan Am Games. The USA Women take on Australia tomorrow which is always a good game. Even thought it is for fifth place I'd expect nothing less in this one.

Not much else to report, I watche some swimming today on tv, not in person, unfortunately timing did not work out. Incredible race between Lochte and Phelps for anyone that saw the 200IM final. .16 separating the two of them...pretty much fingertips at the wall...should make for a very interesting build up to London. I have a feeling we will be hearing a ton of Lochte vs Phelps over the next year. Tried to watch a dvd today on the hotel room dvd player and was told that it did not play American dvds. I found this odd since the Samsung dvd player looked like something I would get at Best Buy and the screen said in perfect English "disc error." As Ron Burgundy once said, I guess I'll just have to take you, at your word. Some potential to get around the city in the final days here with all the matches early the rest of the way, we'll see how that goes.

But the other big news is getting ready for Junior Olympics. They start on Saturday. We'll be doing a live webcast of all the platinum division Gold Medal matches on Tuesday and Sunday, boys and then girls, free of charge on teamusa.org. Should be alot of fun. So if you are interested make sure to tune in to waterpolo.teamusa.org to see myself and Pat Beemer call all the action.

Women's update tomorrow...

Back On The Horse

2011-07-27T07:38:00.001-07:00

The Women were back in action today and returned to form with a nice 8-4 win over Canada. They advance to take on Australia on their final day of competition on Friday. Figures even with the tough loss to Russia they'd still meet two of their bigger rivals in this tourney in Canada and Australia. USA controlled this game throughout and now they'll try and finish things off strong with Australia, a team they beat to claim the Gold at the World Cup last summer in New Zealand. Things got a little chippy towards the end of the match which should add some intensity to an already intense rivalry come the Pan American Games this fall. The men are back at it tomorrow against Germany looking to avenge a loss earlier in the tournament and also hoping to get stay in contention for fifth place.

There is a neat little British themed pub here on the hotel grounds that can be a fun place to relax, they have tvs showing the games and American/British music playing like the Boss who we pay homage to in the blog title and then of course the Beatles. Today also marked one year until London. Crazy to think that if things go well one year from now this blog will be coming to you live from London. But first some qualifications to take care of. Swimming continues to roll on, I'm hoping to get out and see some races before it is all said and done. The big talk around here has been Ryan Lochte beating Michael Phelps in their recent showdown. The swimmers themselves seem to be taking this with a dose of reality knowing each race can be different and of course there are still major events to come.

The music in general has stepped up in Shanghai. After two weeks of instrumentals of the same Lionel Richie song (not joking) today we got some actual songs with words we knew during dinner. Also at the pool, the in pool dj who has been unable to really get things going has started to break out the pop music as of late including Usher and Mobb Deep. Perhaps she didn't want to go out too heavy early and instead save some stuff for the stretch run. What her true strategy is I will never know.

Back tomorrow with more.

Tough Day At The Pool, Part 2

2011-07-26T08:57:00.001-07:00

Well for the second straight day a USA team went down in the quarterfinals as the men lost to Hungary in a nailbiter. Such a great game to watch and it seemed as if the USA would find a way to pull it out in a rematch of the Gold Medal game from Beijing.Unfortunately that was not the case. While the team misses out on a medal at this tourney and a chance to qualify for London if games like today can be a regular thing you have to like where things are headed. Still a depressing couple of days for each team. The women get back at it tomorrow aiming for fith place with a match against their old friend Canada. This could very well be a preview of the Pan Am final match so should be interesting.

In other news went out to an actual restaraunt here in Shanghai after weeks of eating at the hotel. The food here has been great but it was nice to mix it up. Checked out M on the Bund which as you might imagine was on the Bund. A great view of the city skyline and some good food as well. Nice change of pace. The heat has not changed, it remains somewhere between hot and gross most everyday. Not going to miss that when we depart on Sunday.

Back with an update of the women tomorrow

Tough Day At The Pool

2011-07-25T06:06:00.001-07:00

Days like today are never fun. Both our men and women come into this tournament with the plan of winning all of their games. While thus far we have seen some ties and losses none meant the end of the road in the way of winning medals until today when we started the quarterfinals. The Women's squad lost today to Russia 9-7 in a match they seemed firmly in control of in the first half only to have it go the other way in the second half. The loss means that the team won't play for a medal which in the last 11 years has not happened very often, in fact it almost never happens. This will be the first World Championships the team doesn't finish fourth or better since 1998 and also halts a streak of having won every major FINA title in the last two years. I think the loss kind of magnifies the success, it is a little more surprising since it rarely happens. That said the big prizes are still out there to be had, a berth to the Olympics this fall at the Pan American Games and then hopefully the Olympics themselves next year.

The men are on deck tomorrow with a great opportunity to put themselves in a great spot to secure an Olympic berth. A win and they are into the top four, provided Serbia can also get into the top four that will assure the USA of an Olympic berth which would be a huge step to get out of the day. For a little clarification the top three men's teams earn Olympic berths but if the winner of the World League Super Final, who also earned a berth, were to finish in the top three, then the top four get to head to London. With Serbia already booking their ticket for 2012 by winning World League it opens things up if they can keep winning.

In other women's news both Australia and the Netherlands lost in their quarterfinals and Canada/China will be added to that mix making for one heck of a 5th-8th bracket.

That is about for today, Eastbound and Down Season 2 which I've long been waiting to see is scheduled to be on HBO Pacific later tonight so at least the day can end on a positive note. Back with men's action tomorrow.

Onward and Upward

2011-07-24T05:53:00.001-07:00

The first of the win and advance games took place tonight with the Men's team crushing Canada 17-4 to earn a spot into the quarterfinals against Hungary at 2pm on Tuesday. They have now put themselves in the same spot as the women, in a quarterfinal match, playing at 2pm, only the women are tomorrow and the men will go on Tuesday. Either way it is getting exciting now because these are the money games. No money is changing hands that I know about but you get the idea. This game was similar to South Africa, over somewhat early and then just an onslaught of goals.

As for what else has gone on today I have made efforts to secure the doll of the mascot here at the World Champs, I try and get a mascot doll everytime I go to an event. Usually as a gift, or maybe when I make my bed I have a nice army of mascot guarding it? No but really they are gifts. Now thanks to Jim C who has already made it home I've secured a few, in my efforts for one more I have run into a roadblock. They never seem to have them. Also they have this odd system set up where you have to buy a drink to get a doll, you can't just buy the doll. So I have to buy a 10 dollar apple juice, yes for all the bargains here that is the price for a bottle of great lakes apple juice. Are they factoring in the cost of the doll? Probably, which doesn't make much sense. Souviniers (sp?) in general have been lacking.

Some of Coach Schroeder's blog has been making it into the LA Time Fabolous Forum blog which is pretty cool. Here is the latest entry for those interested - http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2011/07/united-states-mens-water-polo-world-championships-london-olympics.html

Well that is all for now, hopefully back tomorrow with another winning entry.

Fabric Market Madness

2011-07-23T08:22:00.001-07:00

After being in Beijing back in 2008 and experiencing the Silk Markets there I had a pretty good idea what I was getting into today going to the fabric market with some of the women's team. For those unfamiliar it is a huge indoor flea market type setup where you can get suits made, buy dresses, coats, knockoff bags, purses and much more. The name of the game is negotiation. You never ever pay the first or even second or third price the vendors throw at you. It starts usually with a calculator, you say what you want, they type a number, you counter, they laugh at you, they counter, you counter, and eventually you settle on something. I used this strategy to get a t-shirt for five american dollars. The clerk was not happy with me but it was nothing personal just business.

After an hour or so there we all came away with some cool stuff. Today at the hotel they were showing Toy Soldiers, I highly recommend this movie to anyone who likes good action movies from the 80s starring a young Sean Astin and a perpetually fired up Lou Gossett Jr. A prep school for kids who've got nowhere else to go gets overtaken by a group of terrorists and then things get interesting, perhaps it is available on netflix. The theme with movies shown here is this. Big name stars in movies that often tanked at the theater, with a few exceptions, one being Toy Soldiers.

Then after that it was time for the women's practice outdoors at a local college. Since this was there off day after earning the bye this was the only practice of the day and they did some work before taking part in some drills with Greece who was also sharing the pool.

A late night compared to most as we did not arrive back to the hotel until 1045 or so. Back in action tomorrow with the Men in a crucial game vs Canada. They are all big now, win and advance, lose and play out the rest of the bracket. Live updates on twitter.com/usawp. Hopefully back tomorrow with as Bob Murphy would say, the happy recap.

20-Somethings

2011-07-22T04:16:00.001-07:00

Today was a great day for the Men's National Team as the never trailed in a convincing 20-3 victory over South Africa. The win assures the team of remaining in a contention for the final four and they will meet Canada in the crossover on Sunday. Canada is a team they are no stranger too having played them twice in SoCal this past May. Interesting they have to come all the way to Shanghai to play them again. For those following computer issues it looks we are going on loaner computers the rest of the day, if you would like to know what type of computer to never ever buy just ask me next time you see me and I'll be happy to tell you.

One awesome thing that happened at the game is that crazy nosebleed graphic came up and I did catch it with a camera but of course can't share it with you at the moment, however hopefully one day soon. I think we can all agree this has just been a bad trip for my technology. Hopefully Pan American Games are much better. If anything I don't believe twitter and facebook are blocked in Mexico.

The LA Times Fabolous Forum blog ran some of Coach Terry Schroeder's blog the other day, this was after the loss to Italy, which was to say the least, deflating. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2011/07/coahc-terry-schroeder-discusses-uss-8-5-loss-to-italy-in-water-polo.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LAT_Sports_Blog+(The+Fabulous+Forum)

His blog entries often appear in the Ventura Star as well. Credit to Wayne Bean who does alot of work in the Thousand Oaks area getting promotion for the Men's National Team and totally on a volunteer basis.

At the hotel today they were showing Hawaii 5-0 old school episdoes. While I'm a big fan of the new version I had never watched a full episode of the old style. Funny that Kono is a man, which I had heard about and also that they were full suits while running onto the beach. I just can't picture that happening in real life but who knows. There is a channel here called AXN that along with ESPN has been a savior. It shows a variety of American shows such as House, Chuck, CSI, NCIS and more. If I haven't mentioned it before the ESPN channel also shows Yankees baseball every morning on the YES Network. I probably have said this but the days blur together.

By virtue of the women winning their group tomorrow is an off day of competition so could be a chance to get out and see some more of the city, maybe the pistachio dude will come along too.

Anothe random note I had a Vitamin water purchased here, tasted kind of similar. My other drink samples were a pepsi max and what I believe is a lipton iced tea, they will get sampled soon.

Women's US Open gets going this weekend in Nor Cal, good luck to everyone playing there and all the USAWP staff making that event happen.

Back tomorrow with some more.

Bye Into The Quarterfinals

2011-07-21T05:23:00.001-07:00

The USA Women won tonight over Kazakhstan 14-4 in a pretty convincing win. After a close first quarter they blew the game open over the final three quarters and the outcome was never in doubt. The win gives them the top spot in Group A and a day off from competition earning a bye into the quarterfinals where they will likely tangle with Russia. Russia has to get past Cuba first but the odds are they will do just that. On the men's side of things they are back in action tomorrow with a noontime opening spring against South Africa. They'll need a win tomorrow assure themselves third in the group and the chance to move on into a crossover game. Early projections could see them matching up with Canada but first the business of tomorrow.

In other news my computer is struggling so I write this from the hotel lobby which is quite frustrating. But I guess it is better than nothing. Secondly after all of my talk about the crazy graphics during halftime of the games I was ready with the camera today and they didn't use the nosebleding one. I can only assume they are reading the blog and have taken it out of the rotation. Hoping it comes back on tomorrow.

That's all for now, sorry no photos either, stuck on the regular computer. On a side note those getting excited for Junior Olympics, very much looking forward to calling the action on the final day of boys and girls competition as well as the one hour highlight show slated for Universal Sports on August 23. Should be some great coverage of the world's largest water polo tournament.

Men Fall To Italy; Audience Participation

2011-07-20T06:19:00.001-07:00

The men's team lost a tough one tonight to Italy 8-5. There looked to be a comeback in the works in the second half and then it just didn't work out so now they fall to 0-2 with South Africa remaining. A win there will assure them of moving on to a crossover match. Some preliminary forecasting would have them potentially meeting Canada in a crossover game, but first things first, defeating South Africa. The only reason one might project beyond South Africa is they have lost their first two games 17-1 and 16-8. But like I said, let's not put the cart before the horse as they say. The women are back in action with a game against Kazakhstan at 5pm local time. USA Women will know where they stand in winning their group by the time they hit the water as Hungary-Netherlands is the game before the USA-KAZ matchup. Looks like the dutch would have to be Hungary by more than nine goals to really foul things up for the USA. But again the USA needs to get past Kazakhstan first.

In other news I checked in with the pool dj today. Not sure if I have mentioned her before but if not, my apologies. They have a dj on turntables sitting poolside. She has yet to scratch records and in all honesty I'm not sure how much dj'ing she is really doing. I tried to speak with her which proved futile as she does not speak English and I do not speak Mandarin so through an interpreter I asked if she would be scratching any records etc. They didn't seem to catch my drift so we all just smiled and I departed.

Outside of the DJ who by my count has played a pitbull remix, the original "killing me softly," and the macarena (talk a bout a mix, yes I will get you her business card!) there are also these amazing jumbotron features. In America we often the kiss cam, here in China they take jumbotron courting a little slower. It is the hug cam, the enthusiastic announcer will encourage people to hug and then if he is feeling spry he will encourage a kiss...nothing forced though. They also don't let the camera linger if the people aren't into unlike in American stadiums where even complete strangers are forced to kiss or a guy gets punked out by the girl sitting next to him.

When the hug cam isn't going there are some other captions as they pan the crowd. One will be when a guy and a girl are up and it just says, "The Beauty and the Handsome". Then there is another for guys that says "Lady Killer" and the absolute tops is the one for a pretty girl. I can't even remember what the phrase is because I'm so distracted by the graphic. The graphic is of a guy with a nose bleed out of both nostrils. By nose bleed I mean complete faucets of blood coming out of his nose. This is totally new to me but it is jarring everytime I see it. I will have a photo soon and I also like to add I'm in no way making this graphic up and it has also led to some people suggesting that a pretty girl is a real nosebleeder. I guess saying "pretty" was getting too boring.

Back tomorrow with a report from the women's match.

Men Fall To Italy; Audience Participation

2011-07-20T06:16:00.001-07:00

Big Win Over Hungary

2011-07-19T07:07:00.001-07:00

The USA Women got it done tonight with a big 16-7 victory over Hungary. A back and forth game turned into a lopsided affair in the second half at Team USA pulled away for the win. This keeps the squad in great shape to try and win their group and get a bye through the the first crossover round. One last game in group play against Kazakhstan on Thursday at 5pm. The men are back in action tomorrow against Italy looking to rebound from their opening round defeat to Germany. Nothing else too exciting to report today, mostly a day spent at the hotel. It is interesting that on the tv here you can see the New York Yankees play almost all of their games. They seem to be the de facto home team for the country as they are on the ESPN affiliate most mornings (night time on the East Coast). Funny that you can see more of the Yankees in China than California.

Back with more tomorrow.

Cell Phone Adventures/Germany Match

2011-07-18T07:09:00.001-07:00

Unfortunately the men's team lost tonight to Germany. A slow start really doomed them, getting down 5-0 and 6-1. They had a great comeback and it seemed like they might get all the way back but it just wasn't meant to be. Full recap available now at usawaterpolo.org. Also today a nice article on the men's team was published in the LA Times. Helene Elliott profiled the squad and the sacrifices they are making to chase the dream of Olympic Gold. Check out the story here http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-elliott-us-water-polo-20110718,0,3951824.story

One other interesting note from tonight's game, the coaching staff wore suits on the bench, something you don't see everyday in water polo. They are easily the early front runners for best looking staff of the tournament but it is still way too early to call a winner on that.

Earlier today I made a trip to get a local cell phone. It just became necessary after having to borrow phones to communicate with people. It was quite interesting trying to buy one at a local store. Luckily I stumbled across a person that had a laptop out with translating software so we were able to type messages to each other while standing right next to each other. It all worked for the best and I'm now the prouder owner of a little nokia cell phone.

The dj at the pool started to scratch some records today or at least mock scratch records. I also picked up some random snacks at a local convenience store. This included cheetos with beef flavor and lays chips that have something to do with a tomato, haven't tasted them yet. The cheetos were just ok.

Women are back in action tomorrow against Hungary. I'll be sure to have another post, post game.

Tournament Is Underway; Oriental Pearl Tower Visit

2011-07-17T06:26:00.001-07:00

Today got off to an early start with the USA women opening competition at the FINA World Championships with a match against the Netherlands. A back and forth match saw the two squads end in a 7-7 tie. Both teams had a chance to win it in the end but it was not to be and now each has a day off before the next match. Team USA will take on Hungary on Tuesday. Full updates on usawaterpolo.org. The men get their World Championship journey started tomorrow with a game against Germany at 6:20pm. Again for those wanting to follow along twitter is your best bet, twitter.com/usawp will have goal by goal action.

After the game and handling reporting etc it was a chance to check out some of Shanghai. This included a trip to the Bund Area which is a big walkway along the river that was packed with people. It's a great place to hang out and take photos of the rest of Shanghai in the background including the Pearl Tower. From there we ventured over to the fabric market where you can get all kinds of clothes including suits made from scratch. It is kind of like the silk markets of Beijing, but without the variety, it was really just clothes in there. From there it was back into the city to visit the Pearl Tower and venture all the way to the top, 350 meters above Shanghai, as you can see from one of the photos you get a great view of the entire city. The line wasn't terribly long which is always nice but they really jam those elevators making it a close experience with everyone else on board.

Then it was off to a local mall which was really very much like an American mall minus some insanely inflated priced, for instance a t-shirt in the Adidas story went for about $85 US dollars. We generally reserve those prices for Ed Hardy in America, so that was surprising to see.

I leave you with something awesome at the game today. During breaks they had a dj sitting on the officials table with two turntables handling the music. That is definitely a first at a water polo match, two turntables and a microphone...

Update with the men tomorrow

Game Day Has Arrived

2011-07-16T15:09:00.001-07:00

Well after several days of practice it is time for the games to begin. The USA Women get it started later this morning with a match against the Netherlands at 9:30am local time which is actually an ideal start time for everyone in the USA -- 9:30pm est/6:30pm pst. Unfortunately I wouldn't get used to this as many of the future games are later in the day Shanghai time. Then tomorrow the men get going with Germany at 6:20pm which does not translate into a good hour in the West. Right now the best way to follow along with the games is via twitter.com/usawp. I'll be doing goal by goal updates technology willing. Universal Sports is set to cover the semi-finals and finals of the tourney should the teams reach that level. Or if you know someone with a slingbox that is hooked up to China tv channel CCTV 5 then do that, but I'm guessing there aren't many of you out there.

As for what happened on Saturday in Shanghai, I saw the men scrimmage Australia where they looked pretty sharp. Then it was another trip into the city part of Shanghai to pick up some materials that had been delivered for the teams. We also saw a glimpse of an area called The Bund which looks really cool and hopefully will be visited again in the near future. When we stopped at the hotel to pick up the delivery we were in the elevator with someone else who spoke perfect English, only to find out they were from New York, what are the chances. They were living in the hotel. Now some might argue that a person from New York couldn't possibly speak perfect English but hopefully you get my drift.

I leave you with a mention of the photo you see above. It is the pistachio dude, he has traveled all the way to Shanghai to support the National Teams. He is also the mascot of American Pistachios a new USA Water Polo sponsor, probably how he found his way onto the pool deck.

Update after the match, Go USA!

KFC Mania & CCTV

2011-07-15T06:54:00.001-07:00

As I write this, old episodes of 24 are being show on local tv, well done Shanghai, well done. One of my all time favorite shows. Today was a busy day. It started off with the Women's National Team practicing at the practice pool in the competition venue. This was their longest practice thus far going about two hours, but it was also their only practice for the day instead of the usual two they had been doing. Some pretty standard stuff going on as the team nears closer to the opening match with the Netherlands. Upon return to the hotel Coach Adam Krikorian and Betsey Armstrong were requested for a sitdown interview with CCTV, which I think is kind of like a CNN for China but with multiple platforms and channels. Hopefully their interviews will be airing tomorrow in advance of the first game. It was a legit set up with two cameras and a host and about 10 crew members milling about.

After that it was an adventure in a taxi cab into the real city part of Shanghai which was pretty cool. It was a better chance to get a look at the Chinese driving I grew so fond of in Beijing that includes scooters on sidewalks, using your horn on the regular, and scooters driving the wrong way on major roads. Scooter drivers have a fearlessness not seen in many other places. While in the city area it was a great time to pop into a local mall and check out a wide variety of food places. We hit the motherload when one mall contained a Pizza Hut (as usual fancy, not joking), Burger King, Carl's Jr., and Dairy Queen. I took photos of most places which I will try and post at some point. China blocks blogger here so email posting is the only way limiting the photos. We also checked out a KFC to see what they had going on. They are on every corner and are roughly half the size of a Best Buy and are loaded with people. People look at me weird when I take photos of the menu at fastfood places and then don't order anything but I remain unfazed.

We returned back to the hotel after that with a mental note to do some more exploring in this area later. Upon arriving at the hotel it was noted that longtime friend of the blog Jim Cullingham, also USAWP Director of Officials, had arrived in Shanghai. A quick chat to check in with him and that concludes the day. Tomorrow we are just about there, opening ceremonies in the evening, but first the men will practice earlier in the day.

Last but not least a great article on ESPNW.com by Amanda Rykoff came out today profiling Jess and Maggie Steffens from the Women's National Team. Check it out by following this link - http://espn.go.com/espnw/news-opinion/6769208/for-steffens-water-polo-family-affair

More updates tomorrow.

--
Greg Mescall
Associate Director of Communications
USA Water Polo
714-500-5455
gmescall@usawaterpolo.org
www.usawaterpolo.org
www.facebook.com/usawp
www.twitter.com/usawp
www.youtube.com/usawp

Polo In Every Pool!

I GoodSearch and GoodShop for USA Water Polo

It's Not The Heat, It's The...

2011-07-14T05:40:00.001-07:00

Well you know where this is going, it's hot out here in China and it is also humid. Weather.com tells me today it was 89 degrees but will feel like 99 degrees which to me means it was 99 degrees out. Sometimes I can be saved the science lesson and just be told what the final result temp will be. But I digress, today was a day of men's and women's water polo. In the morning the men got their first crack at practice in the competition pool. Some basic stuff there to get loosened up. In the evening the women held a two quarter scrimmage with China at a local outdoor pool that finished just in time before the rains came. The sky looked pretty ominous for most of the scrimmage and not long after we got on the bus it started to come down. It was good to see some game action albeit in a practice format. The pool was stuck at a 30 meter course, women usually go 25 meters, so it was a little extra workout for the ladies on both sides.

In between that I checked out some of the village at the aquatic center. Basically all the venues are in the same area save for open water swimming. They form kind of a loose perimeter with some shops in the middle. There is also a stage set up which we can only hope will be filled by a musical performance from Lil Wayne, although I'm not holding my breath. The shops are still coming together and once they open I will check them out and report back on prices. A quick glance noted that popcorn will be going for 25 rmb, a bit steep for my taste.

One bummer about our location, in the expo area of town is that there is not much going on. It's a huge area of Expo buildings and the expo was last year so now most of it sits idle. The positives are that we hit zero traffic driving to the competition pool which in China is a miracle. The negative is there isn't a ton within walking distance. I hope to see more over the weekend.

Already it is getting to be time to gear up for the games with the Women taking on the Netherlands Sunday morning at 9:30 local time. The men are up the next day with Germany. Also worth nothing that Universal Sports will have coverage of the semi-finals and finals of the tournament. Most cable systems have it and the channel hits DirecTV on July 27.

I've included a couple of photos. One is of the swank bathtub in the hotel with a tv mounted in the wall. The other is of a building known as the mansion, it houses mostly offices for the event but they made it possible so the outside of the building can play video. Pretty ridiculous.

More updates tomorrow

Back In The Water

2011-07-13T06:07:00.000-07:00

Today was our first full day in Shanghai and it brought a trip to the competition venue at the Oriental Sports Center for a couple of practices. As you can see from the photos it is a pretty awesome venue. Kind of similar to the pool in Beijing for the Olympics in the layout and the way the venue is dressed. Still pretty impressive and a venue worthy of a World Championship. There is just a friendly mob of volunteers that are around every corner to help you out, often three-four people to answer any question you might have so that has been very helpful as well.

This was also the first full day of having several teams around, most of the teams know each other so it is alot of chatting among coaches and athletes saying hi to one another. In some cases they have been competing with each other for years and some are even old teammates from days in club water polo in Europe.

As for the water polo action today, the first practice was more to get loose after a long travel day with some swimming, passing etc. In the afternoon it turned to more water polo with some shooting, 6 on 5 drills etc. It was also a chance to get a lay of the land and see how the post game media situation works which looks like it should be pretty smooth.

The Men's National Team arrived today as well so hoping to check in with them tomorrow and see how things are going on their end. Also potentially some exploring to be done of the surrounding areas. Opening ceremonies are Saturday with the games getting started on Sunday, looking forward to getting this party started.

Arrival In Shanghai

2011-07-12T07:28:00.001-07:00

After a nice 13 hour journey from Los Angeles to Shanghai I have arrived at the 2011 FINA World Championships along with our Women's Senior National Team. Our Men's Senior National Team arrives tomorrow. Today was pretty much entirely a travel day. We arrived at the airport, made our way to the hotel, had a dinner, a meeting and that is about it. Tomorrow brings two practice sessions and a look at the venue which should be pretty cool. Very smooth service by the volunteers at the airport in getting us in and out of baggage claim. Also props to the hotel we are at that is just all around solid. Hoping that the time change doesn't absolutely destroy me. More coming tomorrow. Also here is a photo of the volunteers at the airport and the Women's National Team and staff.

Getting Ready For Shanghai

2011-07-07T15:07:00.001-07:00

The 2011 FINA World Championships start next week in Shanghai, China. First game is on July 16. Get pumped for another tournament of blogging enjoyment.

Good As Gold

2010-08-22T14:03:00.000-07:00

USA Won Gold! A great win over Australia 6-3...USA jumped out to the big lead and then hung on in the second half. Full recap at usawaterpolo.org. Here are a few links to some stories. And of course a team photo.

http://www.gazettes.com/sports/wilson/article_83e8fe3a-adb7-11df-9815-001cc4c03286.html

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2010-08-22-757864604_x.htm

Well that brings an end to our time in New Zealand. Thanks to all those that checked in daily and read up on the blog. We'll see ya next summer for blogging action.

Going For Gold

2010-08-21T06:08:00.000-07:00

Another big win tonight by Team USA as China was defeated 10-9 in another back and forth battle. The win secures a spot in the Gold Medal match on Sunday against Australia. This is what the whole trip was about, getting to this game, and now the chance is here and against a classic rival like Australia. It has all the makings of a great game. Apologies to all those looking for a webcast but it appears that just isn't in the cards this time around. I've been looking into some Ustream options but I'm not sure it's going to be feasible.

As for the match China did take the lead at one point but after that the United States buckled down and was able to keep the Chinese two goals down for the most part. Nice game again by the defense and three goals by Courtney Mathewson (see interview below) led the way among more balanced scoring.

Australia defeated Russia by a goal to get into the title match as well. Over the last two weeks the Aussies have seemed to have our number a little bit, we'll see if that can't be turned around tomorrow in the most meaningful game in the aforementioned two weeks.

Another late match meant some time to check out the city and also attend practice. In the morning we went over to the QE2 pool for the practice and got a chance to get in and pass the ball around and take a few shots on goal. As I knew I’m in no kind of water polo shape but it was fun to pass the ball and shoot on a goalie. We also attempted to ride some of the water slides at the center but that was a no go which was a bummer. That did leave time to sample the diving boards which are always a good time, especially those with extra bounce.

I definitely want to get in some more and shoot the ball around, if not tomorrow at some point in the future. After that it was a chance to hit up the city. I also picked up some postcards and sent them off hoping they will find their destination.

At the end of the day after the match it was time to celebrate Assistant Coach Heather Moody's b-day with a dinner among the coaching staff. While we are at, worth mentioning Kelly Rulon's b-day was earlier this week and we had a pretty good cake as a result. I may have mentioned the cake before, if not, it was a good one.

As for the dinner it was at a place called Sticky Fingers. For those in the rap game you can be assured Onyx is heavyweight and still undefeated. For those not that last reference will mean nothing to you. Anyway, everyone had nice meals and a good time had by all. Movie quoting continues throughout, it seems to reach a height each day that can't be matched.

It also good to see some of the colorful characters strolling the streets of New Zealand. There must have been a big party that let out during our dinner and everyone that attended got to walk by the eatery we were at. High comedy.

So last full day in New Zealand tomorrow, hopefully it is a good one with a title hanging in the balance. The games are early in the day with the official closing dinner tomorrow night. Then it's on a plane around 10am Monday morning to make the trip back home. Another update tomorrow with all the results of the big match. Don't forget to follow along at twitter.com/usawp as I'll be providing goal by goal updates.

Semi-finals Coming Up Next; Don't Mess With Texican

2010-08-20T00:56:00.000-07:00

A banner day today on two fronts, a win over Hungary and a trip to sample the Texican. First the important news, the United States defeated Hungary 10-5 to advance to the semifinals of the FINA World Cup. They play tomorrow at 7:30pm local time against either China or New Zealand with it likely being China who is undefeated thus far.

The USA defense continues to get better as the days go along and today was no different as they limited the offensive minded Hungarians to just five goals. After a back and forth game early on things opened up in the third quarter in favor of Team USA and they never looked back after that. Check down the bottom for a quick chat with USA goalie Betsey Armstrong.

Prior to the game it was a nice day in Christchurch, the sun was out and it was time to try the Texican. Along with team manager Jen who was also intrigued by this sandwich we headeded out to try that and the Bandit as well. Well what to say about the Texican. Basically its a Whopper with this mexican patty on top that is crunchy on the outside and filled with kind of a corn salsa/refried bean type deal. I can honestly said I've never had anything like it before, and it was decent. Not sure it'd be my favorite meal but I might eat it again. Jen had similar thoughts, we split the Texican, which is always a safe move for an unknown fast food sandwich. I also sampled the bandit which is really just a bacon cheeseburger with some bbq sauce, something pretty standard. One note about sauces here both bbq and ketchup, a bit sweeter than what you might get in the USA. That crispy hat this hamburger is wearing is what makes it a Texican

Another oddity of the BK was the interior design was like a 50s car show motif, something you might see in a McDonalds, also the fries were very suspiciously like McDonalds. With a McDonald's being next door I think they are owned by the same person and share some resources, but that is just a guess, I have no evidence.
The Bandit...for some reason it's blurry
After that it was a walk back through the town square where Jen picked up a kabob wrap, it looked pretty good to me. On certain days they have all these carts that sell random food. Kabobs, fish/chips, chinese food etc.

In other news I watch GI Joe/Taking of Pelham 123 for the ninth time this week as they remain on loop with such classics as He's Just Not That Into You and Knowing. You probably wouldn't guess this is a BK

Big day tomorrow, USA with a chance to win and play for Gold, keep in mind they haven't won this event since 1979. Stay tuned.

Back In The New Zealand Groove

2010-08-19T04:17:00.000-07:00

Team USA thumped New Zealand tonight 18-8 but the game was a little closer than that at least early on. New Zealand has some good players that play college ball in the USA but eventually the United States was just able to wear them down. A close game, 3-2 after the first, turned into a blowout by the second half. Everyone got to play and nearly everyone got to score.
Next up is Hungary and they will be tough. They are known as great shooters and they live up to their reputation. USA and Hungary haven’t played a ton as of late, last meeting in 2009 which at least from my standpoint is kind of refreshing to see somebody new. Of course anyone that came to World League saw a bunch of Hungary as they were there as well. This is essentially the same tournament as World League just replace the Netherlands with New Zealand, and replace La Jolla with Christchurch, no biggie.

It was a 7:30 game today so plenty of time before to get out and go around the city and the sun was out which kind of counter balanced the 40 degree temps. After a run around the park in which I kind of got lost but not really I visited Pita Pit. This is a chain in America that makes sandwiches inside Pitas and it is really good. It was good to see the Pita Pit consistency remains even in New Zealand. I know everyone has been wondering and it’s official tomorrow the Texican gets ordered, a full report with images tomorrow evening.

The candy below is awesome and from what I can tell only available down here.

I also walked around and found this awesome sports bar that fellow blogger Kevin Owens (waitingforgodunk.blogspot.com) had tipped me off to that is built like a stadium with tiered seating. This was my idea for a sports bar but somebody has clearly stolen it. Anyway I have made a mental note to go back and check it out. I also tried some of Mrs. Higgin’s cookies, I think this is like Mrs. Field’s for Oceania. I wasn’t going to stop but I saw a long line and figured everyone must have known something about these cookies that I did not know. It turns out they were good.

I went in to another All Blacks rugby store, these are like pizza places in Manhattan, one on every corner. A guy in there chatted me up about American football. Here is where wording can get confusing. So we call soccer soccer and football football. In Oceania countries soccer is football, or Aussie Rules football is football, or rugby is sometimes called football, nothing is called soccer and netball is somehow popular. So when I want to make a point about American football I generally have to say American football NFL to get my point across. Luckily the guy in the store had spent some time in Michigan so he knew the deal. He was thrilled the rugby is getting bigger in the USA and lamented New Zealand’s efforts at ice hockey.

Otherwise not much else eventful going on today, I did get a photo of something pretty cool here known as diagonal crossing. At intersections when you press the button to walk, when the green image of a person walking comes on you are eligible to cross in any direction you’d like, traffic is stopped in all directions. This means the diagonal cross is available, it feels so wrong but is such a good timesaver. I bet this also cuts down majorly on accidents in crosswalks.
The greater than signs are lanes for the diagonal cross

Well big match tomorrow with Hungary 4:30pm local time, now it’s time to win and advance and the first step starts tomorrow. More after the match. Here is a postgame quick chat with Annika Dries.

First Loss Of World Cup

2010-08-18T01:24:00.000-07:00

The USA lost tonight to Australia 7-5. While the group play doesn’t mean a ton it’s never fun to lose but now time to get ready for the next match in New Zealand. This match will close out the group play and then we’ll get an idea of our crossover opponent for Friday. In the match against Australia it was back and forth with the Aussies haviing a great second quarter, then the USA coming back in the third before Australia had a solid end to the fourth.

Defense was very strong for Team USA which is always a good sign. If it seems like the United States and Australia have already played about 100 times this year there is a reason for that. That played twice at the World League Super Final in La Jolla and then twice last week in the Sydney tournament, then tonight and I don’t think people would be totally blown away if they had to play once more before all was said and done.

Today was a pretty rainy day in Christchurch so not a whole lot going on, a trip to the library was in order to find out the internet was not working. Other than that we saw some of the end of the other games and the hotel served up perhaps their best meal all week. I think we were all in agreement that they pulled out all the stops tonight with chicken drumsticks, special mashed potatoes housed inside potato skins, and some kind of wonderful apple cobbler type deal.

That’s really what it gets down to once you get into the heart of the tournament, the hotel, the pool, the meals, and the netball. Netball was on tv tonight and the production value was high, I really felt like I was watching an NBA telecast minus the whole NBA part. Basically netball is basketball for those who hate backboards, like wearing uniforms that are a cross between field hockey and indoor volleyball outfits, and like to score completely uncontested baskets. As I might have described in a prior post its just a hoop on top of a metal pole.

I could look up the rules but I’d rather just watch a few minutes and observe what I think is happening. First off it’s the same size as a basketball court more or less and the ball looks like a soccer ball but bigger. There are a bunch of whistles that seem to signal offsides or holding. The most mind boggling thing is often times players get wide open chances to shoot the ball sometimes from even two feet away. This usually happens after a whistle. Update: Nobody plays defense. If you get near the hoop you are allowed to shoot wide open and the other team just prays you miss.

I still don’t know if you can dribble or not or maybe long passes are the preferred method of moving the ball. It can get a little physical under the hoop. Whatever is going on in this game, people like it. It’s on regular tv and they have a pretty strong crowd at the Canterbury Christchuch Arena. They do a whole pregame show with interviews and lineups and the whole bit.

Shuttling between this game is another show called New Zealand’s Top Model. You know the drill with this show, it’s basically what we have in America but with New Zealand people and now that I think of it there was an Australian Top Model. This begs the question when are we going to get a World Top Model. I think they should pick the top 13 models or whatever it is and load then on an army cargo plane blindfolded. Then they get dropped out of the plane with parachutes and land in a country that is not native to any of them to live in a really nice mansion and do model stuff. That would be interesting.

We’ll see New Zealands top water polo players tomorrow at 7:30pm, or 12:30am on the west coast (19 hours behind), another update coming then. Also tentative plans have been made to sample the Texican. Stand By.

One Down

2010-08-16T22:55:00.000-07:00

The games began today in Christchurch and it was a great start for Team USA as they defeated Russia 14-10. Despite allowing that many goals the defense was pretty solid and of course the offense was strong throughout. The team got an early lead and never really relinquished it. Four goals for Lolo Silver and three for Kelly Rulon marked the big scorers for the United States but it was really a balanced effort.

As positive as the win was it's also important to not to get to high with highs or too low with the lows as it were. The first three games in group play don't have a great deal of effect on the end result as all the teams will get a crack at the quarterfinals. Still it's better to be playing well and after one game that is the case.

Next up will be a match with Australia at 4:30pm local time on Wednesday. Tonight the Aussies squared off with the host New Zealand in a match of rivals. Probably not as intense as the All Blacks vs the Wallabees in rugby, but maybe close. Or, maybe not.

Prior to the match I visited the local Christchurch library for the use of their free internet, it's also where I'm typing up this latest post. It's not far from the hotel and did I mention the free internet. If internet was a currency in New Zealand I'd rather have that than money. If I had that and candy bars I'd be the wealthiest person in the country. Those two items are costly.

A nice argument broke out in the library, typical library stuff I guess. Two guys were just cursing at each other and one really wanted the other to join him outside for what we can presume would have been a fight. That's usually what everyone means when they say let's take this outside, which got me excited, but there was no fight to be seen and everyone just kept working away in the library.

You'll notice yet another new heading to the blog. Blog artist Kevin Murawinksi came through as he does annually with some new artwork for the blog. Our title this year represents the insane time difference that we are dealing with down under and how at least for the folks back home, things here are happening in the future or tomorrow. So hence water polo tomorrow. That's it for today here is a photo of the team during introductions.

Opening Ceremony & More

2010-08-16T03:22:00.000-07:00

Well the tournament is just about here, we get things started tomorrow (Tuesday) with Russia at 3pm local time. I’m also told the event just might be webcast but trying to hammer out some details on that. I mentioned yesterday the roster would be posted, here it is now if you haven’t been over to usawaterpolo.org.

FINA World Cup Roster
Betsey Armstrong (Ann Arbor, MI/NYAC)
Brenda Villa (Commerce, CA/Commerce)
Kami Craig (Santa Barbara, CA/Santa Barbara WPF)Elsie Windes (Portland, OR/Tulatin Hills WP)
Kelly Rulon (Point Loma, CA/NYAC)
Annika Dries (Laguna Beach, CA/SET)
Melissa Seidemann (Walnut Creek, CA/Stanford)
Lolo Silver (Long Beach, CA/NYAC)Emily Feher (Santa Ana, CA/NYAC)
Maggie Steffens (Danville, CA/Diablo)
Courtney Mathewson (Anaheim Hills, CA/NYAC)
Juliet Moss (San Jose, CA/SJ Splash)
Anne Belden (Newport Beach, CA/Bruin)
Kiley Neushul (Goleta, CA/Santa Barbara WPF) (alternate)

Otherwise today was a practice day and a chance to check out the city before the opening ceremony. I had some time to walk around Christchurch and see the local Cathedral. I like that they call it this because Christchurch church would just be silly. This was a very cool church, it had a tall tower (think rumpelstiltskin) and then the church beneath it with some very decorative art and some ancient flags as well. The town is very British – New Zealand like Australia is a commonwealth of Great Britain so makes sense.

I also went to the local supermarket. As you can tell by now I love checking out foreign stores to see what they have from America and what they have on their own. This store had a lot of things that were local to this part of the world in the way of products. By this I mean they had chips and cookies and stuff but it was just all their own name brand.

Two things they did have was Oreos (I’ve found these to be a truly global product) and soda like Dr. Pepper. Although Dr. Pepper was almost offered as like a delicacy among other specialty drinks. After the story I stopped in at a foot locker as I had to see what was being offered. A nice selection of sneakers and shirts but I was just blown away by the price of things. Granted the money is a bit different here with the US dollar being worth a bit more but there is no reason a pair of Nike Air Max’s should have a list price of 239 dollars unless we are in China. Factor in a conversion rate that makes those kicks around 175 and that is still about 75 more than you’d ever pay in the United States.
My immediate thought was that if I lived here I’d be an ebay junkie just getting everything off the internet, I’m guessing people do this unless there is some serious import taxes on foreign shipping, which also wouldn’t surprise me.

As one man told me today New Zealand runs on rugby kind of like American running on Dunkin only one of these things will keep you in great shape. The World Cup of rugby hits New Zealand next year and it is a huge deal. The stores are already selling gear and there is a large countdown clock in the town square. The team of New Zealand the All Blacks are also a big deal. Think the New York Yankees of rugby, everyone knows about them and you can get their gear anywhere.

My walk almost got me past a series of fast food joints including McDonalds (they call it Mackers here, even in commercials – to clarify the store says McDonalds they just call it Mackers for slang perhaps how we might say Mickey D’s). Also passed a Burger King where they are offering the Texican sandwich, this may get sampled in the next couple of days so stay tuned.

The final activity of the day was a special New Zealand ritual to welcome all the teams for the tournament. We all took buses to a special building, kind of like a chapel for a ceremony called a Haka. This involved special songs and chants, dances, and the singing of the National Anthem. New Zealand has two official languages in addition to sign language and they are English and Maori. The Maori culture is what we experienced on this night. It was kind of like something you might see in Hawaiian culture, very energetic lots of moves, some stomping and overall a good time. They invited up players from each team (props to team trainer Lance for getting up there) to try out some of the moves and we were also welcomed by the mayor of Christchurch.
Well that is all for tonight, game report tomorrow…let’s go USA!

Another Day, Another Plate Of Italian Food

2010-08-14T23:57:00.000-07:00

I like most pasta dishes and good thing because we are getting alot of it at the hotel. Makes sense for the players to carb up, exactly what I'm carbing up for remains to be seen. Today was a pretty routine day, up early to the gym a few meals, a practice over at the pool and dinner. Nothing too eventful to report back except that the team has named the roster for the FINA World Cup and it should be posted on usawaterpolo.org at some point in the next 12 hours or so. This will be the group of 13 that begins play on Tuesday against Russia.

We shared practice time with Russia today as each side was getting ready for the upcoming face-off. Tomorrow I'm hoping to get out and check out the city a little bit prior to the opening ceremony event tomorrow night. I managed to make my way over to the park which bore a striking resemblance to Clove Lakes Park for those who have had the privilege of visiting New York City's fifth borough, Staten Island. A few lakes, some geese hanging out...very SI.

You'll notice some new graphical work atop the blog today, it is kind of cutting off some of the text so I will try and get that remedied. I have posted a photo of the pool below, little known fact to blog readers the FINA Cup was last held in Christchurch back in 1988, which is incidentally a great year to move to New Jersey. However it was not held in the pool you see, this one is fairly new, but the pool it was held in back in '88 they now use as a diving tank. The diving tank area has turned into a flurry of activity. There is a diving tank and then next to that is just several yards of shallow pool with all kinds of sprinklers and other fountains and slides, basically the kiddie part of a water park located indoors. I'd say this was something I'd never seen before but they had the same thing in Sydney. It seems to be a common thing to have a rec center and then attach a pool for competition but also a water park type pool for kids.
Even the local gym (think 24 hour fitness, work out world, etc.) had a pool and in their pool area was a place for kids to get water dumped on their head. This morning at the pool an older woman was just standing under one fountain getting soaked with water for a good five minutes, this is when I wish had the camera.

Programming Note - coming up soon is the USA Men's match vs Montenegro airing on Versus. Be sure to set the DVRs for August 19 at 4pm eastern/1pm pacific.

I'll leave you with a bonus photo in a photo of a photo. Here is Bruce Springsteen when he did the bridge climb in Sydney. Back tomorrow with more...

Welcome To Christchurch

2010-08-14T04:12:00.000-07:00

We have arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand after a roughly 3 hour flight this morning from Sydney. Tack on a two hour time change and we got in around 1pm or so. We are now as far out +12 as you can go on the time differential before crossing over the date line, for those keeping score we are 16 hours ahead of the East Coast, 13 ahead of the West. It's weird because we are actually closer to California, home for the majority of the team, yet we are further away in a time sense.

On the way out from the airport to our hotel we passed by the USA Antarctica Base, this is where planes stop to refuel and get food before heading on to Antarctica. According to our bus driver the Christchurch airport is one of if not the closest airport to Antarctica which is kind of ridiculous as it makes you truly realize where we have traveled to.

After settling into the hotel which is right in downtown Christchurch, picture something East Coast, kind of like Cambridge, it was time for practice. We headed off to the pool located inside a larger athletic facility and it's pretty nice. I hope to get some photos posted tomorrow but internet is not a strong suit here in NZ and it's pretty pricey just to be online. Tomorrow is another day of practice but also a chance to walk around the city a bit and see what's what.

For those that are fans of the fast food adventures, well a new country brings the return of Burger King. A little researching discovered that somebody in Australia owned the rights to the name Burger King and would not give it up so they had to invent the whole Hungry Jacks just for that country but with essentially all the same food. Pretty interesting.

Everyone here is super friendly thus far and we are looking forward to getting the games started on Tuesday with Russia. While at practice I had a chance to roam around and find the basketball courts which also served as netball courts. Netball is like basketball in that involves a ball and a hoop with a net. However there is no backboard and the hoop just stands at the top of a pole and then there is a red line in an arch away from the hoop, kind of like a three point line. Anyway, the game is a less physical version of hoops from what I was told. Hopefully I'll see a game in action. Also rugby is huge down here. The Super Bowl of rugby is coming (it's not really called the Super Bowl) to Christchurch soon at their main stadium and the All Blacks are a well known club with a team shop right by the hotel. On the way in from the hotel there was a local team practicing similar to how you might see a local high school practicing football in America.

Well that is all for now, more updates tomorrow.

Bridge Over Un-Troubled Water

2010-08-13T04:15:00.000-07:00

Today brought our final day in Sydney but also an off day and a chance to explore the city which was great. It was a great weather day and we jumped on the ferry in Parramatta (where we have been staying) and took the ride down to harbor in Sydney. You dock right in the middle of all the action with the Opera House to your left and the Sydney Harbor Bridge to your right. The main order of the day was completing the bridge climb.

We had some time to kill before it was our bridge time appointment (we booked in advance) so there was time to walk over to the opera house and check that out, take some photos and just kind of check out the whole scene. I can compare it to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore for those that have been but just add in a huge bridge overlooking the whole scene.

After some photos we stopped for lunch at a local pub for some hamburgers. One of our group ordered a drink with “bitters” in them, which was new to me. It was basically a way of having a kind of soda with this flavor added in. It tasted kind of like a mix and orange soda and a Sprite type soda, not too bad.

With lunch finished it was time to climb the bridge which easily ranks up there with one of the coolest things I have had a chance to do. It is quite a process to get ready for the bridge. You watch a video of how it will all go, sign your life away on some documents, get into your jumpsuit and get your safety harness hooked on along with some radios to hear the climb guide, and your hat and some other stuff. Basically anything that goes up on that bridge with you gets hooked on somewhere, even sunglasses.

I didn’t put much thought into my fear or no fear of heights this just seemed like something really awesome to do. That said the first step you take out on the catwalk type stairs where you can see straight down lets you know you are up pretty high. After that initial moment you basically just focus on walking and climbing and taking in all the great scenery. The guide told us you walk about a mile total between getting out to the middle of the bridge and then climbing all the way to the top.

As you are climbing along there is traffic running over the bridge so it shakes, and as you get higher it gets windier so there are some gusts, but eventually you adjust and move forward. Our group was paired with a lady from Chicago and three people from France and we made our way to the top. The view along the way is great as you can see all over Sydney and then at the top you feel like you climbed a mountain or something, but much easier. Still, it’s just a great view and the guide stops to take a few group photos. Unfortunately you can’t bring a camera up there which is probably the safest thing, so you rely on their photos. As you can see here are some of the photos from atop the bridge.

After we got down and basically went through our climb debriefing including handing back in our harnesses, etc, we met up with some other coaches to start heading back to the hotel. Along with the way we stopped for gelato, not just an Italy thing. From there it was on to the train to make our way back. The trains are nice, put them at a higher level than a subway but lower than an Amtrak in design. All in all a very busy but great day. Tomorrow is an early one as we head to New Zealand on a 7am flight, I’ll be sure to get some updates going on our first day in Christchurch.

Second Place Finish: Next Up World Cup

2010-08-12T05:58:00.000-07:00

As many expected the final of the six nations tourney came down to USA and Australia. The tourney which was billed around the ten year anniversary of the 2000 Olympics, which featured USA and Australia in that final, lived up to the hype. Unfortunately for Team USA it was again Australia on top, winning 10-8, however the circumstances were much less higher with this being a friendly tune-up for next weeks World Cup. Still, nobody likes to lose. Some positives were the recognition prior to the game of Brenda Villa and Heather Moody who played on that 2000 USA Team. Then add to that Villa, Kami Craig, Anne Belden, and Lolo Silver being named to all the tournament team with Craig being named MVP. The members of the all-tourney team

Tomorrow is an off day before we travel to New Zealand on Saturday with competition beginning early next week against Russia. We plan to check out the city of Sydney, hopefully get up to the top of the harbor bridge and see some of the other sites.

Since we had the late game today it provided a chance to go see some other sites including Bondi Beach which was awesome. My good pal or mate as they'd say down here Russell from Australian water polo and FINA fame was my tour guide to what is perhaps the most iconic beach in Australia. A haven for surfers the beach is not huge but looks awesome as it is kind of a cul-de-sac of ocean water which seems to be perfect for surfing waves.
Off to the side of the beach is a chapter of Bondi Beach polar bear swimmers. They have an in-ground swimming pool that is fed by ocean water and is literally in the ocean save for a concrete wall. Imagine swimming laps and have waves crash into your lane, that is the situation here. We also checked out a few other sites and some great viewing points including an area labeled "The Cut." This provided some great views out on the ocean as well. It's crazy to think we came from the other side of the same ocean but it was so very far away.

Our travels took us down to a bay/marina type area and Doyle's Wharf a well-known fish eatery. I didn't know of it before but now I do and apparently it's really well known. I'm not normally one for fish but it seemed as if fish and chips were in order and it was pretty good, at least as good as fish is for me. We also met some local Australian people hanging out at the wharf that were very complimentary but of course wanted Australia to be victorious in the upcoming contest.

Our journey back to the hotel involved swinging past a castle that is lived in by a four time water polo Olympian for Australia. Pretty cool looking place especially since castles seemed pretty rare. Well that is all for now, more sites to see tomorrow. Also for anyone interested in the other results of the tourney be sure to stop in at australianwaterpolo.com.au.

On To The Next One

2010-08-11T04:40:00.000-07:00

A win tonight for Team USA 12-10 over Greece, and with it a trip to the championship bout of the six nations tourney. Team USA will take on the host Australia, the two played earlier this week with Australia taking a one goal victory. Expect another tight match as when the two teams get together the games are almost always close. Also be sure to watch live at australianwaterpolo.com.au if you are so inclined to battle the massive time difference.

Tonight's match was a real back and forth affair with each team making a run until finally the United States came up with the last run, of course check usawaterpolo.org for a complete look at the game.
Other things to report on, checked out a local fitness center today that was pretty solid. They had a huge cardio theater, think of a giant movie theater, wipe out the seats and put tiers of cardio machines. On the wall where a large screen would be, put several flat screens showing everything from news to rugby and you have this setup. Definitely something that should be brought to the United States if it isn't there already.

I also stopped into a 7-11, yep they have those here. Really there are a bunch of similar stores. You know what is really expensive here? The answer is candy. In the store the "deal" they were offering was two twix bars (four bars total for twix veterans) for 4.50 which in your most ripoff convenience store in America you wouldn't find a price that high. I'm told it has to do with being an island nation and getting things shipped in etc. The photo below is from a vending machine, but you get the idea.

The driving on the other side of the road somewhat applies to walking as well on the sidewalks. On a walk today I noticed people will defer to the left where as anyone that went to high school where I did, you are explicitly told to stay to the right as you walk down a hall or in this case sidewalk. No collisions to report just yet.

TV is a bit different, the local station was promoting two movies coming on next week, Friday the 13th and Roots...let me know the next time you see commercials for those two movies in the same hour airing on regular television.

Tomorrow we have the late game, not starting until 7:30pm local time so hopefully it will give some time to do some more exploring and picture taking etc. The hotel has treated us to some early 2000s rap music during most meals, mixed with current rap, old techno, and never before heard house music, it really adds something to the mood of most meals. Hopefully it carries over to the title match.

I leave you with a postgame interview with Brenda Villa following the match.

10-10 Good Buddy

2010-08-10T05:12:00.000-07:00

USA and China played tonight for what seemed to be the 17th time this summer, but actually by my count just the fifth. It ended in a 10-10 tie which is always kind of an anti-climatic end but in these friendly tournaments always a possibility. For full results of course hop over to usawaterpolo.org, it was a great game for Anne Belden who scored three goals in the tying effort.

The pool facility is pretty amazing in it's own right. To imagine 17,000 fans going nuts in this place back in the 2000 Olympics must have been pretty amazing. Australia has been bringing back members of the 2000 team all week long to celebrate in the anniversary of their Gold Medal. The entire aquatic facility is huge with a diving tank (where the water polo is being played) a couple of large competition lanes, an entire mini kids water playground and a lot more. It's all set in the middle of the other Olympic venues such as the soccer stadium and basketball arena.

Tomorrow brings a match with Greece and from there it will be determined if USA makes it into the title match, right now they are in the mix for it. Food note for tonight, at Subway the foot longs are seven dollars, not five, which totally ruins the song. Good night.

Into Australia...We lost alot of good power strips out there

2010-08-09T20:40:00.000-07:00

I have arrived in Australia right in the middle of competition in Sydney, had to see the end of JOs, and for anyone that witnessed the 18U Gold in the Platinum, what a great finish, a shootout. There are photo and video at facebook.com/usawp so check that out. Anyway, Australia is hosting a six nation's tournament celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the 2000 Olympics held right here in Sydney. This whole tourney is a warm up to the FINA World Cup that gets started on the 17th in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Thus far the tourney has gone well for Team USA winning twice over Canada and Russia while losing just once to Australia. They play China tonight, an udpate to come. The Chinese just arrived after a few travel issues so they will get thrown right into the fire.

You may think good timing for the USA however history has shown us that is not always the case. Earlier this summer in Northern California China was again delayed on travel arriving in the United States just in time for the contest and what did they do? They won, so nothing is set in stone, but we knew this.

As for the travel to Australia it was great. I have to give a thumbs up to Qantas, granted this is my only time on said airline but going off that alone it was good. Anytime there are monitors in the headrests, especially for 15 hours, I'm going to be happy with your service. Those planes that fly internationally are huge. I have to imagine it is what it feels like to be on one of those Star Wars ships or kind of like a cruise ship in the air, minus the refillable soda cups, and I do mean soda, ask around.

Foreign travel also means bringing the correct power adapters, which I did. This did not stop me from shorting out the power in my room about 10 minutes into checking in. As it turns out I also knocked out the power to the person next door so sorry to them. For future reference don't plug a power strip into an adapter unless it says it can convert the energy, just having a strong belief it was convert is not good enough. Now we all know, you're welcome.

I got a quick tour of the entire Olympics venue from 2000 and it is pretty awesome, I'll be taking pictures of the pool and anything else I see that seems worth posting. Also fast food note, and you know they'll be many, here in Australia there is McDonalds but there is also Hungry Jack's which is like Burger King's cousin. The word Hungry Jack is written beneath two buns just like the old BK logo, I'll work on a photo. Here, feel free to peruse their menu http://www.hungryjacks.com.au/

Oh and for those who are wondering why we are still rocking the Rome logo, we are working on a new Australia/New Zealand/Oceania theme so hang tight.

Tough Way To End In Rome

2009-08-01T13:07:00.000-07:00

The men lost today to Croatia in the Bronze Medal game. This one seemed to be going great in the first half as the team had amassed a lead but Croatia came back in the second half and was able to pull out the victory. A definite bummer to the end of what was a great tournament for both teams because the men were so close to a medal, something that had never been achieved before at a World Championships.

That said over the last two years the men have accomplished one thing, and that is returning the USA men to among the elite in international water polo. They are in the top four for the second straight year and that is pretty good especially when you consider the company that was left out of the top 4 in this year's World Championships.

Well that about puts a bow on this edition of the USA Water Polo blog at the FINA World Championships. Thanks to our photographer Alberto Lingria who supplied us with amazing images for the blog, the website and future issues of Skip Shot. Also to Alan Abrahamson of Universal Sports who took some time out of the swimming madness to give water polo a look.

Next up on the usa water polo calendar outside of tomorrow's JO finale will be the men's and women's junior national teams in action. The Women's squad will be making their way to Siberia (fun) and the Men's squad will be going to Croatia. Be sure to follow along in the usual spots on twitter and usawaterpolo.org for updates on those teams.

Ciao!

Now It's Official...USA Women Are World Champions

2009-08-01T05:57:00.001-07:00

Well after some debate and a protest filed by Canada the result that happened last night stands, the USA Women's National Team are winners of the Gold Medal and the 2009 FINA World Championships. This marks the second consecutive World Championship for the women after winning in 2007 in Melbourne. They are also alone in an exclusive club of nations that have won three World Championships. Pretty impressive stuff, also consider that Brenda Villa and Heather Petri were part of all three of those title teams.

A great scene last night of the team receiving their medals and celebrating around the pool. Some videos of this are currently making their way onto the USA Water Polo channel on Youtube at www.youtube.com/usawp.

That said there is still one more medal to pick up before we head out of Rome and that is the Bronze Medal for the men who are starting against Croatia in about an hour or so. A medal here would be a first ever for the men at the World Championships and if the men are to win the United States would be the only nation to medal in both men's and women's water polo at this event. They accomplished that feat last year in Beijing with a pair of Silver medals.

As for my time here in Rome, it is winding down, headed back to the USA tomorrow morning and I will say I am looking forward to it. Rome is a great place but I think anywhere after nearly three weeks can grow a little routine. That said it was fun to see the sights and hang out with water polo folk. Shout out to everyone who has come through and read the blog and posted comments etc.

A great sign that this event is coming to an is the level of exhaustion of other media members. Just walking into the press center today I saw two cameraman passed out in their chairs perhaps waiting for the next event to shoot.

Well, I'll be back with an update after the men's game go USA. Here are some videos from last night.

Gold Medal...We Think

2009-07-31T17:20:00.000-07:00

Quick update for those that saw the USA Women won the Gold Medal tonight defeating Canada 7-6. A wacky game that saw players rolled from each game. Canada is protesting the defeat based on one of those calls in the second quarter. So for now the celebration is on hold until this can get squared away tomorrow morning. Will have an update then. More info on the usawaterpolo site if you are interested

A Real Spain

2009-07-30T15:29:00.000-07:00

I could really do the Spain/pain play on words thing all night, in fact I have about 10 different ones picked out for the home page but finally had to make a pick. But in all seriousness I was hoping to have a more positive headline after a win by the men's team that would send them to the gold medal game. Instead it was a tough loss 7-6 and now they will meet up with Croatia (losers to Serbia) for a shot at the Bronze Medal.

This game was just close throughout and really Spain scored last and that proved to be the winner. Team USA started off quickly with two straight goals but once Spain tied that up it was just more a back and forth. Not a ton of exclusions called, some contra fouls that leave you wondering but other than that just didn't go the USA way on this night.

So they remain with a chance at history still, the men's program has never medaled at a world championships. A bronze would be very nice.

Women with a big match tomorrow for all the marbles as they say. USA-Canada for the Gold. The two met in the World League Prelim in Southern California and split the two official matches, perhaps some of you got a chance to see those in person.

Canada has been a wrecking crew here in Rome knocking out some of the big guns in this tourney and they seem to be playing real well. But, so are the USA women. These two teams are so familiar with each other as they seem to play several times every year if not in tournaments, than in common training. You can also pretty much pencil in USA-Canada for every Pan American Games final while we are at it.

I'll be over at the pool somewhat early tomorrow to figure out the postgame setup as medals will be dealt out and hopefully some more media make their way through.

Now I leave you with some random photos that I had meant to post earlier in the journey, as can you believe it, this thing is almost over. Only two more games. I nearly had to file for dual citizenship here in Italy.
This is not the entrace to Alice in Wonderland, but a secret driveway at St. Peter's

"I don't want to be a product of my environment, I want my environment to be a product of me"

This is one of those street performers that paints themselves and holds one position, or it's a statue inside the Vatican, your choice

Hella Good Win Over Greece

2009-07-29T15:08:00.000-07:00

So currently on the usawaterpolo homepage it has the headline Hella Good. This has a few meanings and in case anyone isn't aware of Northern California slang, the music of No Doubt, or nicknames in Greece I'll explain. Hellas is another name for Greece, it was used back in the day until eventually Greece took over but much how people still refer to John Cougar Mellencamp, now he's just John Mellencamp or something like that.

With that you have the other uses of Hella in California and as I understand generally the northern part of the state meaning really cool or really good in this case. No Doubt even has a song with that in the title. So those two combined and maybe there is some word play there involved.
A closer look at the water polo pool...pre game

Anyway this is all in discussion of a big win by the women's team over Greece, 8-7. The win sends the team to the Gold Medal game against Canada. A nice all-North American final here in Italy for the World Championship. The women hope to claim their third crown this decade having won back in 2003 and 2007.

Before the game I was saying to some co-workers how I looked at the stats and everyone on the USA team, goalies aside, had scored a goal except Elsie Windes. Then what does she do, Elsie scored five goals. To add to the fun everytime the USA scored they played Born in the USA, by Bruce Springsteen, who has made his mark in this blog already. Little does Italy know this isn't the most pro-American song but it's the thought that counts.

Men back in action tomorrow for their chance to do as the women have done and go on to the Gold Medal match. They take on Spain at 9pm local Italy time. From there they will take on either Serbia or Croatia in what should be one heck of a match. Hopefully those two tire each other out in their semi-final match. a photo that I meant to include...phelps pre-race from the other day

Last night, we got an opportunity to hit up another authentic Italian eatery. Nice place for dinner even though I didn't understand what was going on in much of the menu. I just listened to other people order and then took some out of column a and some out of column b if you will.

That's all for now but check out a postgame interview with the aforementioned Elsie. Let's go USA men tomorrow!

Butterfly In The Sky...I Can Fly Twice As High

2009-07-28T15:35:00.000-07:00

Another night and another USA Water Polo team headed to the final four at the FINA World Championships. For only the third time the men's program goes to the medal round in this event and will look to come up with their first ever medal. They knocked down Germany earlier today in an 8-5 victory that including a big third quarter that put the game away. Eight different players scored eight goals for the win and that third quarter had five of the tallies.

Germany took an early lead in the first, the game was tied at halftime and then in the third the United States just pulled away and didn't look back. With big named teams falling all over the place the other matchup that was decide Thursday's semi-final opponent was Spain-Canada. Spain seemed to handle the Canadians with ease and are headed as well to the final four.

On the men's side 2008 Gold Medalist Hungary got dumped out today by Serbia while Montenegro was bounced earlier leaving some of the general powers that be out of the medal mix here in Rome. On the women's side the the Gold Medal winner from Beijing, the Netherlands are out of the mix along with stalwarts Australia and Hungary.

As they say this is why you play the games, because obviously anything can happen. Thankfully neither USA team was swept up in the bad luck that seemed to plauge other squads.

In other news we got a chance to see Michael Phelps swim today in the 200 freestyle finals. Unfortunately he came in second place but I don't take much stock in this with all the swimsuit craziness going on right now. Basically we are a few modifications away from jet ski races, which would be fun to see in this close quarters but that is for another day. I had gotten so use to seeing Phelps win it was kind of surprising he didn't, kind of like when Tiger misses a big putt or something, you just expect it to happen.

Regardless, he has a few more opportunities to pick up some hardware so all is not lost, but he definitely didn't seem thrilled about the Silver Medal but as Ricky Bobbby's daddy says, "If you ain't first, you're last."

Finally bonus points to anyone who can name what tv show theme song the title of this blog post came from. That's all for now.

Super Slo-Mo Internet

2009-07-28T01:12:00.000-07:00

We have been transported back to 1998 and the time of dial-up internet connections and free AOL 60-day trial cds that you could use as frisbees. I bring this up because that is how slow the internet is here at the hotel at certain times. Due to the overwhelming amount of people staying here the old internet just can't take it and has slowed to a crawl. It reminds me of being on AOL back in the day and waiting 3 minutes to hear the "You've Got Mail" sound effect. Anyway long story short that is why this blog is coming several hours after the fact.

As we know by now a big win by the USA women over Spain. Trust me they beat Spain, despite what you may have read on the USA Water Polo website that made it look like at least for the first quarter they played Greece again. That guy needs to check his facts, jeez. Speaking of Greece, however, the women's team will be playing them in the semi-finals on Wednesday. It is likely at 9pm but this seems to be more of a reservation and does not guarantee a table for dinner. Meaning the time could change so we will wait and see. For example the men's game was supposed to be at 9pm tonight but now it is at 3:20pm.

Back to the game against Spain. First quarter was a bit of a struggle but after that it was pretty smooth sailing. In talking with Coach Krikorian, Spain was a team that the USA hasn't seen a lot of so it took a little bit to adjust. Great defensive play throughout stopping some power plays and then Armstrong in goal getting a hold of two five meter penalty shots was pretty nice.

Lob shot was in full effect last night as well as Brittany Hayes delivered a couple along the way. A pretty impressive stat is that the women now advance to the medal round for the 10th straight time at a major FINA Championship. This includes all Olympic Games, World Championships, and World Cups since 2000. What is also stunning is the teams that have been knocked out thus far including Australia, the Netherlands, and Hungary.

Similarly on the men's side, Montenegro has been bounced out of the top 8. As for the men they ready to play Germany, kind of a surprise as many thought Montenegro would occupy that spot, but that's why they play the games. I'll check back in after the men's game. Below is a postgame chat with Betsey Armstrong after the win over Spain.

Cross Our T's And Dot...Our Lowercase J's

2009-07-26T15:18:00.000-07:00

So somewhat of an uneventful day without a USA game to be had. We headed over to the pool earlier tonight to try and see the swim team win Gold in the 4x100 relay. The men's team won it, we got there just in time to see them get their medals, so while I did not see the race, I trust, based off the medals, they did indeed pull it out. Team USA getting their medals

After that we got to watch Italy-Serbia or Srbjia as they spell it in Serbia, in a very intense water polo match. Serbia ended up winning but Italy kept it close behind their super pumped up crowd. It's a shame both Italian teams won't get a chance to play for a medal in this tourney because I'd like to see how crazy the crowd would get if a title was on the line.

Funny thing in driving around Rome they have these billboards for Retro TV that is coming to the Fox station. This must be important because I have seen many billboards and also commercials on television. Basically they are just going to be showing a ton of old shows that were hits in America such as A-Team, Charlie's Angels, or Diff'rent Strokes to which they call My Little Friend Arnold. That is at least how I translated it.

Lost In Translation

Speaking of translations, we went into a movie/cd store today and it is interesting to see what some movies get called when they are in different languages. For example, Slumdog Millionaire is just called The Millionaire. I guess there isn't a great translation for slumdog. Also much like in the USA, they are caught up in the Michael Jackson fever over here. His greatest hits as well as entire collections were on sale.

One of those retro tv ads that FOX has going on

Also finally made it into the Adidas and Nike stores. These were dominated by soccer (football) jerseys for the most part. As for the shirts they were designed with the Euro look in mind, meaning super short sleeves and everything just being two sizes smaller than listed.

To update an earlier post it appears as if the men will play at 9pm on Tuesday evening against Germany but I will confirm that tomorrow. Also a shoutout to all those taking part in the Junior Olympics. In addition to those that develop and maintain the JO schedule, a salute, as that is one of the more amazing documents in sports today. Boys action is currently underway but girls will be starting later this week. Also don't forget about the JO Expo and College Meet & Greet that is happening for the girls later this week. More information on that on the USA Water Polo Website.

Ciao for now.

Wash And Wear

2009-07-26T05:16:00.000-07:00

Following yesterday's big win over China it was time to find a laundromat. Let's just say that for the pricing of having laundry done at the hotel I could have put a nice down payment on a Fiat that is so popular here in Italy.

I found some laundromat off the beaten path but with a very helpful woman who was also watching water polo matches on the lone television in the place. It's not your normal self service laundromat. You can operate the machines yourself but there is also this woman their to keep an eye on things and will pretty much do your laundry for you. She spoke just about zero English, combined with my awesome Italian this was a bit of struggle.

When it doubt resort to complete hand gestures and sound effects. I motioned that I would like my clothes to go inside a washer machine and then make their way to a dryer. She understood this and let me load the up the washer. She took it from there and an hour or so later I was on my way with nicely folder clothes. This is a nice change from the laundromat at home where the owner yells at me when his machine eats my money.

Today is the first day since last Saturday without a game as the men have a bye and are back in action on Tuesday. They are waiting to play Germany, a suprise winner over Montenegro earlier today. USA defeated Germany in the final game of group play at the Olympics last year.

As for the women they play tomorrow against Spain at 9pm.
Women's Team Photo at the World Championships

Swimming has fired up now in week two of the World Championships, hopefully I'll get out to some races and maybe see if Phelps is still dominating the rest of the world.

From one blog to another, USA goalie Merrill Moses has recently updated his blog from Rome so head on over to usawaterpolo.org to check that out. Also the S & R Sport Junior Olympics got going yesterday so look for some recaps and some videos from northern California on the USA Water Polo website. Lastly for those that are members Skip Shot magazine should have hit your mailboxes this week, hope everyone is enjoying that. A new issue will be on the way this fall.

Wire-To-Wire Winner

2009-07-25T05:13:00.000-07:00

The Women's Team came out with a big win over China today, a much needed win as well. A loss here would have sent the team to the bottom of the bracket to play out for a lower finish. With the win they remain in the mix for a gold medal here in Rome. Overall a solid game throughout as the team never trailed and got strong production from all over. Petri and Rulon scored three goals each and the defense was on point as well.

Take into consideration that China had 11 chances in the man up and then an additional 5-five meter penalty shot and still came away with the win. A good deal of credit to Betsey Armstrong for making some crucial saves and the rest of the team defense with some field blocks and good pressure.

China continues to improve for a relatively young team and should be in the mix in coming years. Next up for the women is a match with Spain on Monday, now it's the win and continue strategy here. A loss will still leave games to play but from now on you must win to have a shot at a medal.

Men have the day off tomorrow after winning the group and are getting ready for either Montenegro or Canada on Tuesday.

Some interesting notes from the pool that has doubled as a complete sauna. They have a frog mascot that comes out and people can kiss this frog for a t-shirt. You then get a t-shirt that says you kissed the frog. After every goal they blast a few seconds of music usually the same thing but sometimes we are treated to the 'Happy Days' theme song or 'Yellow Submarine" from the Beatles.

Also before each game they have a huge voice come over the loudspeaker that yells "Are you Ready?" I have heard that this tends to disrupt the synchro teams that are competing at the next pool over. Probably tough to balance a human pyramid in the water with some loud voice throwing off your concentration.

By the way if you have a chance look up some synchro video, whoever thinks they have good core strength or is flexible, try some synchro. Then there is the makeup, which I want to find out how they remove it, because I think it is the same strength of paint they use on the Golden Gate bridge. But all in all it is pretty impressive stuff.

Had some legitimate Italian pasta yesterday. I don't want to push anyone off the ledge but thus far I have yet to have much Italian food where I was like "wow, this is amazing, I couldn't get this anywhere else." I'm not sure what I was expecting but I guess the reputation for Italy is that the food will be just so good you won't know what to do with yourself. Still waiting for that moment.

Two other goals today, attempting to find the laundromat, which should be an experience all in it's own, and of course going back to the Hard Rock. Here is a postgame interview with Heather Petri from after the China game...enjoy

A Win and a Day Of Rest

2009-07-24T05:55:00.000-07:00

The Men's Team was back at it today with another victory, this time over Romania. With the win the men earn a day off on Sunday and will be back in action Tuesday against a team to be determined but most speculate Montenegro.

It will be interesting if it is MNE since the two teams have seen quite a bit of each other in the last month including the FINA World League Super Final in Montenegro and the men's team training there before coming to Rome.

In this game it was a low scoring affair and Layne Beaubien provided alot of the punch putting up another three goal game. The clincher came in the final minute and a half when leading by just a goal the USA had a two man substitution. It looked to be a broken play until Tony Azevedo took the ball and fired it past the Romania goalie for the two goal lead that led to the win.

So with that it's three straight wins over Italy, Macedonia, Romania and now a day off.

As for me, another day roasting in the heat and we have another tomorrow as the women take on China at 11:40am. USA referee chairman, and hard rock cafe expert Jim Cullingham has dubbed these type games, barbecue games, and that sounds about right to me. So we will be grilling ourselves out at the pool again tomorrow for a very important match.

Well that is all for now...hopefully the internet is back up and running at the hotel.

Greece Is The Word

2009-07-24T02:12:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay in posting as the internet at our hotel has been overwhelmed by all the athletes that have now arrived. I write to you now from the media center at the World Championships venue. It's basically just a maze of rooms with media from all different countries working on stories or editing photos. It's nice because there is air conditioning, free water, and the water polo games are on tv.

As for last night's game, a big win for the women. They came out and played well from the start in bouncing back from a loss to Russia in the previous match. It was an odd game that had a ridiculous amount of exclusions, 30 in total but the offense was with the United States most of the night and they came away with the win.

A slow first quarter that saw just two combined goals and then a second quarter with only four more goals, gave way to a second half that saw both teams get in an offensive groove. Nicest goal of the night was probably Alison Gregorka (who had 3), taking a lob pass from Lauren Wenger to beat the Greek goalie.

Towards the end of the game, two questioned remained. Would we actually see 30 exclusions? and, The USA has a ton of people sitting with two kickouts, who will be the first to go? The answers are yes we did see 30, and Brenda Villa. Too bad she had to be the one to go, but the game was in hand and with all those kickouts the fact somebody didn't get red flagged earlier is kind of amazing.

After the USA game most everyone hung around to see Italy and China, as the loser of this game takes on the United States. Well, as you know by now Italy won, so it will be China on Saturday. The USA and China are no strangers to each other as they battled in the Olympics last year with the United States taking the game. China seems to get better every year and they gave Italy all they could handle so it should be a good game. Most recently the United States and China battled in the World League Super Final, with the USA winning 9-6.

As for today the men are just a little while away from getting it started against Romania today at the pool. A win today is huge as it gives the men a day off. A loss and we will have to see who the men play.

On a side note, got an early report from someone who went to McDonalds and they said it wasn't good, but the jury remains out for me. We also hopefully have a re-visit to the Hard Rock Cafe, one of the great Italian tourist locations, in the next day or so.

Talk to you after the game. Oh here is a quick interview with Moriah van Norman from after last night's game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECEGA15MUpE

Enjoy

Yes We Vati-CAN! (updated with photos)

2009-07-23T08:09:00.000-07:00

A shot from high atop the rotunda of St. Peter's

Well after a postponement here and there we made our way to St. Peter's this morning and the Vatican. For those looking to visit these areas it is key to be up and going early. We got down to St. Peter's by about 8:00am and cruised right in without waiting in any lines. It is tough to describe St. Peter's but just think of it like the church to top all churches. It is just huge and everything is in place seemingly perfect as possible with statues and paintings and marble floors throughout.
Here was a painting inside the Sistine Chapel, this is why you should never point at someone

Tremendously tall ceilings dominate the whole place and as you walk there are basically small altars throughout where I would imagine many different masses could take place. There are also some areas that are off limits for only those that are with the church. The ceilings are great because even time was taken to decorate those meticulously with paintings and painted trim and windows, etc. Really whether it is part of your religion or not it is something to see just from a history and structural standpoint. Inside St. Peter's umbrellas and water are ok, pocket knives are out of the question and everything else is at your discretion

From there we went to the rotunda of the building at the very top of St. Peter's. This was a journey. The options are 500+ steps and then 300+ steps or an elevator and 300+ steps. We plunked down the euro to get on the elevator and what a wise move because those 300+ steps were not your garden variety steps. It was spiral staircases that got more and more narrow ala the Statue of Liberty for those who have been and then the hallways slanted in different directions ala Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory for those who have been. Finally we reached the top and unlike the ending to "Vanilla Sky" it was worth the wait. You get to see all of Rome in a full 360 degrees as you can walk around the rotunda. It was great and made for some great photos. Another look from the top of the rotunda

We trekked down the stairs, slightly easier but perhaps inducing more diziness by the time we reached the bottom and then headed over to the Vatican. One cool thing that I'm sure many people know is that the Vatican is it's own country so you can mail postcards and will have the stamp of the Vatican post office on there. I did not do this but just letting you know it's out there.
So once inside the Vatican the main place everyone heads for is the Sistine Chapel not to be confused with the Sixteen Chapel. We did likewise but first stopped to check out some Egyptian artifact action, it was pretty cool and like everything in there very old. On the way to the chapel you pass through a host of decorative carpets you will not find in Ikea. They have all kinds of scenes depicted on them.

Once you get into the Sistine Chapel it is pretty amazing as well. Just an amazing paint job by Michelangelo and to stick with it for all those years to get it done. I think of how much I hated painting my room back in the day and that was just a simple coat of blue. They really try and limit photos and talking in there by "shushing" the crowd but that doesn't work too well because the place is jammed with people and cameras are going off like crazy. They get an "A" for effort though. Outside of St. Peter's on an off day for the pope

So that was the extent of the journey to St. Peter's and the Vatican, definitely something to see if you are ever in Rome, as Ferris Bueller said, if you have the means I highly recommend it (picking one up). (photos coming soon) Back later with some discussion of the women vs Greece.

Mace-Don't You Wish Your Water Polo Team Won Like Mine

2009-07-22T12:25:00.000-07:00

Well as the headline might infer with some poetic license from the Pussycat Dolls the men's team was victorious today over Macedonia 13-6. The score was not a good indicator of how lopsided this contest actually was. The USA men never really struggled in this one opening up a big lead early and then just cruising the rest of the way. This is nice though because they didn't have to really grind this game out so they should be fresh and ready to go for Romania on Friday.

The Romania game is an important one because with a win the USA will win their group and then get a game off and a full complete three days without a game. In this scenario they will likely play Montenegro but nothing is set in stone. Likewise if they lose and do not win their group Australia is a possibility but that also is just speculation.

Nice game for the Long Beach, CA connection of Azevedo and Bailey as they combined for six goals and dealt out some key assists along the way. So it's back in the pool on Friday for the men's first day game as they take on Romania at 12:10pm

Women are back to work tomorrow evening at 7:40pm when they take on Greece in an important game. With one loss and one win they'd like to finish as high as possible in the group standings and then see what awaits them.

Other than that kind of an uneventful day. Was able to see an early match over at the pool featuring Montenegro and Croatia. It ended up not being much of a game as Croatia rolled Montenegro.

Back in action tomorrow with the women's report. Ciao

I'll Have The Crispy McBacon Please

2009-07-21T13:40:00.000-07:00

After the women's game this morning it was back over to the pool to check out the Netherlands vs Spain. Why was I there? Do I enjoy ridiculously colorful swim suits? Or perhaps people yelling things in Dutch? These are two of my secret joys but I was actually there to see USA ref Steve Rotsart in action. We support all forms of the United States here in Italy whether they be players, coaches, refs, or new jersey based rock stars.
You don't find too many people that can pull off the white pants, white shirt, white shoes

It was a real back and forth battle with the game ending in 15-15 tie. Interesting note here is that the former Head Coach for the Italy women is now the Head Coach for the Netherlands women. Anyway so we saw that game, during which I got to talk with a person involved with the Irish National Water Polo Team. Unfortunately Ireland doesn't get much action in these major events as they don't often qualify for World Championships or Olympics. They struggle with funding and get very little support from their government. Also, everyone who is big and strong ususally plays rugby or soccer (football in these parts). I did discover that I'm elgible for dual citizenship so you may see me in at goal at the 2012 games just getting lit up like a Christmas tree.

After that we headed out to see a few other sites in Rome including the Pantheon and McDonalds. I was also interested to see a Foot Locker and a Nike store. The Foot Locker was selling Dodgers and Yankees jackets as well as some sneakers (aka tennis shoes in california) for 150 euro, which in any country is a ripoff.
Outside of the venue, there is actually a waterfall going behind me, tough to see

I do want to go back to the Nike store though just to see what is in there, as well as the Adidas store which was next door. We also found a McDonalds. Now before anyone gets riled up, we didn't eat in there, we just went in to check it out and see if anything new was on the menu. I'm happy to report there was something new, the Crispy McBacon. This just sounds good. It also reminds me of a discussion the other night with the men's coaching staff that bacon has never made anything bad, it's only an enhancer. Everyone agreed on that.
Lots of soccer jerseys in there from what I could tell

Anyway this McD's had this sandwich (pictured below) as well some shrimp. Not as suprising as the McLobster which is available in the very Northeast part of the USA and was also an answer on Jeopardy recently. That is enough useless information for now.
I would like one of these and 60 to go for my friends back in the states

Men are back in action tomorrow against Macedonia at 5pm. Talk to you then.

A Re-Match With Russia

2009-07-21T06:52:00.000-07:00

During the women's team run to Gold at the FINA World League Super Final only one team was able to trip them up, Russia. Well, it happened again today as the USA women lost to the Russians 11-10 in what was an odd game. Outside of Russia leading 2-0 early on it seemed as if the United States was always in control and before you knew it the game was over and they lost.

The USA took the lead in the first half and was up 7-5 going into halftime. Then in the third quarter the two teams battled back and forth but heading to the final frame it was still an 11-10 lead for the good guys or in this case girls. Then in the fourth the offense which had been like Tom Selleck in an "An Innocent Man", just awesome, was stopped cold. Russia quietly used two exclusions to their advantage and scored twice to take a two goal lead. The USA had two chances in the final seconds but first turned the ball over and then on an exclusion with just one second left, ran out of time for a good look.

Positives to take from this is that they are still doing a great job on power plays again well over 50% and continue to get great production out of the center spot. Also group play is where, if you have to lose a game, this is the place to do it. So, Greece is up next on Thursday with the first late game of the tourney for the women at 7:40pm. Hopefully everyone has been able to watch the games thus far on UniversalSports.com.

The men's team was taking it easy today with just one practice after their big win over Italy last night. They are back in action with Macedonia tomorrow at 5:00pm local time. Again check in on UniversalSports.com and twitter.com/usawp for coverage. I will also work on some flipcam action so maybe we can have complete social network domination.

Headed back over to the pool shortly to watch USA ref Steve Rotsart in action. Most every country gets to bring a referee along, and even many countries who aren't here send a ref. With that in mind a ref from the USA will never be allowed to ref a USA game so you usually have to attend a random game to see them go to work. With that in mind I wonder what it would be like to see for example a USA-Russia game with each country having their own ref on that game. Just a thought.

One last note, shout out to USA center Kami Craig who celebrates her birthday today. Kind of a bummer to lose on your birthday, but there is always another game. With Kami in mind we dust off the legendary "Day in the life of Kami Craig," a video nobody is in anyway tired of seeing or hearing about.

Win In Rome...Beat The Italians

2009-07-20T16:10:00.000-07:00

Tonight is a night why it is fun to come to an event like this. The stadium was near capacity for the Italy-USA men's match to open the men's tournament. Just a couple of USA fans were scattered about the thousands of Italians and it was fun to see as they would start at "U-S-A" chant only to have the rest of the crowd go nuts. Shout out to Olympian Brett Ormsby and his club who were on hand cheering on the team with American flags.
Action from USA-Italy

During the lineups when the Italian team came up the home crowd kept a steady clap going throughout and would burst into a huge yell after each name was announced. None was bigger than that for Alesandro Calcaterra. After this name the crowd went beserk and he just smiled on the video board seeming to know it would happen. The national anthems were played and even though this tourney is giving the sample version of each anthem after they cut off the Italian anthem, the crowd continued to sing it until the conclusion.

As for the match, the United States repeatedly was able to quiet this crowd. The pinpoint execution on the man advantage was key for the United States tonight. Any water polo player will tell you that doing well in this area will put you in a good spot to win a game but tonight the United States did this exceptionally well. Add to that some strong defense and matching the physical play of the Italians and it was a complete effort. A great moment was late in the game with about 1:30 left and Tony Azevedo scores his final goal of the night for a two goal advantage for the United States. Following the goal Tony delivered his Tiger Woodesque fist pump and then just stared into the crowd for a good five seconds knowing he had put home the gamebreaker.
"So do you guys like come here often, or no?"

Some potentially tough games ahead in the group for the United States as they tangle with Macedonia and then Romania. Romania beat Macedonia 6-4 earlier today so they seemed evenly matched.

Water polo for breakfast tomorrow as the women take on Russia at 10:50am. USA is looking to avenge a recent loss to the Russians at World League. Thankfully neither the men or the women have a 9:30 game on their schedule. No matches should be taking place at the same time as high school first period, or depending where you are, second period. Still, you get the idea.

Speaking of high school since one of the only stations here that speaks English is a Fox station I am now caught up on season 3 of the O.C. Just so you know. Back tomorrow with a look at the women's game. Don't forget to follow us during the game on twitter at twitter.com/usawp as I'll be posting updates after each goal.

Big Win Over Kazakhstan...Big Show By Bruce

2009-07-20T05:06:00.000-07:00

The big video board at the pool

A big day yesterday here in Rome as the games finally got underway with the women hammering Kazakhstan 19-6. This was a tight contest in the first period as Team Borat posted three early goals to grab a 3-0 lead. Using some great center play the United States roared back to tie the game at 3-3 and then took the lead for good in the second quarter.

Outside of the lockdown defense in the remaining quarters the story here was the center play of Kami Craig and Moriah van Norman. These two just beasted whoever Kazakhstan decided to put on them defensivley. For reasons only known to Azamat Sagdiyev, Kazakhstan chose to single cover Craig or van Norman which led to goal after goal. Once that happened it started opening up things for everyone else and the goals came from all over. Brittany Hayes had a nice game as did Lauren Wenger and pretty much everybody. I was going to list everyone who had a nice game but I might as well print the roster.

Next up for the United States will be an stronger test in Russia on Tuesday at 10:50am in Rome time. Russia and the United States met in the Olympcis in 2008, with the United States winning in a walkover. In that tourney Russia had come in as a favorite, quickly lost their first two games, and then struggled the rest of the way finishing at the bottom of the standings. They figure to be a stronger team and defeated the United States 13-12 at the FINA World League Super Final earlier this summer. Russia knocked off Greece 14-9 in their first match of the World Championships.
USA vs Kazakhstan

For the men's team their tournament begins tonight against the host, Italy. While the stands yesterday were a mostly friends and family crowd, tonight is expected to be quite the opposite. The Italians are gunning for the United States having lost to Team USA at most of the recent major tournaments including the 2008 Olympics, and most recently at the World League Super Final where Team USA posted a 10-6 victory.

The game tonight is expected to be webcast on UniversalSports.com and we will be provided live updateson twitter at twitter.com/usawp so make sure to check that out.

Outside of yesterday's water polo action the big thrill of the day was getting to attend the Bruce Springsteen concert at the Stadio Olimpico here in Rome. Much like the Jersey Shore, "the Boss" is revered in these parts and fans packed this stadium that can hold some 80,000 people. I'm not sure everyone knew what all the words meant but they were singing along in unison to songs like Hungry Heart, Thunder Road, and Atlantic City. Bruce went all out for three straight hours and even took time to take requests from the audience. Many fans brought posters with songs they wanted to hear on them, Bruce collected some of the posters and then played some of the songs that were asked for.

A couple of differences from a Bruce concert I've seen at Madison Square Garden. Now, this may be different at other Bruce concerts such as when he was at Bonaroo, but here in Rome I had never seen the fan requests via posters. Also like most concerts in Europe they created that sea of people right in front of the stage that is usually not possible in America at arenas.

Overall just an awesome show.

Also, yesterday I made a walk down to the local supermarket, called In Grande. This was an interesting place as it was a two level grocey story. The store had most of the stuff you would look for including a mix of some things you can find in America like coke and oreos or things you can't find like "Simpsons" themed mini biscottis. I, of course located a can of Pringles and some Nestea.

Well, that's all for now, keep checking at usawaterpolo.org, our fan page on facebook which is growing every day and twitter for updates. Jenqui.

Warming Up With Germany

2009-07-18T03:18:00.000-07:00

I headed over to the pool this morning to check out the men's team in their scrimmage against Germany. A very informal game but good to see two teams competing after some days of just regular practice. Both teams were able to score pretty frequently throughout and I'm sure each coach saw some things to work on before the real games get underway on Monday.

Crazy to think that German goalie Alexander Tchigir is still going at it. He was a topic of discussion in Beijing as he made his first Olympics in 1992 and was back at it again in 2008. Well, in 2009 he remains in goal, some serious longevity. Keep in mind Head Coach Terry Schroeder played in the 1992 Olympics as well.
A shot of the scrimmage against Germany

Speaking of which, post practice I checked in Ryan Bailey who as was mentioned yesterday is at his sixth World Championships. Bailey mentioned that while he didn't get a chance to play much back in his first WC in 1998, they have gotten better as time has gone on. That said he also doesn't feel like he's that old. "Everytime a reporter talks to me they always mention how I've been around a long time and that they are impressed that I keep doing what I'm doing, but I feel the same as I always have. I don't know if my age is such a big thing, but I'm experienced and it's nice to be around for this amount of time," Bailey said.

Even after those years in the pool, he still has that excitement for the big matches,"(I) always have butterflies before a big game, but you just take a deep breath and get up there for the introductions, and hopefully after the first time somebody attacks you or punches you, you are ready to go." Spoken like a true center.

Men will be back in the pool tonight for another practice while the women practice just once today with the first game to be played tomorrow. The women will take on Kazakhstan at 12:10pm local time here in Italy. Check back here and on usawaterpolo.org for recaps. Also scores can be found as well on twitter at www.twitter.com/usawp.

More action from the scrimmage

It's Getting Hot Out Here For A Print Journalist

2009-07-17T13:48:00.000-07:00

Day Two in Rome was jam-packed. Still recovering from jetlag I woke up feeling as if I was drugged but I'm pretty sure that was not the case. Once awake I headed over to the World Championships venue to see the women practice. This venue is great, it's all the aquatics disciplines in one big area and easy to access all the sports. In the middle of it there is a little walkway of shops and boutiques that make up the village. One downer about this whole set up is there is absolutely no shade to be found anywhere, and you can be sure I was looking.

A high up view of the women at practice in the main pool

Along with being about 95 degrees out today there was a nice dose of humidity making sure everyone was sweating as much as possible. One awesome place is the media center as it is indoors and air conditioned, so that is a plus. As for the women, they started off with some warm up action in an adjacent pool and then crossed over to the main pool where the games will be played. They split the pool with China and worked on some game situations for the remainder of practice.

On the way back to the hotel, I talked with team captain Brenda Villa for a little bit as she prepares for her sixth World Championships. Pretty ridiculous that she has done that many, and not to make Brenda feel old but the first one was back in 1998 in Perth, Australia--yet she was only 17 years old at the time so that makes it all the more impressive. "I wasn't even 18 at my first one, I remember being in Perth, and not knowing what was going on and just trying to keep my head out of the clouds and just trying to perform and not get too overwhelmed. But once the whistle blows its just water polo, whether you are the 17 year old or the 29 year old," added Brenda.
A better look at the entire competition pool, built on a tennis court

Brenda is not alone as men's center Ryan Bailey is about to suit up for his sixth World Championships as well. As for the men, they arrived today from Montenegro and took the day to get acclimated. They have done a decent amount of traveling over the last month including two trips to Montenegro that involved stopovers in Belgrade, Serbia. Tomorrow they practice at the venue and will scrimmage against Germany, which should be good. The men open the tourney against Italy on Monday evening in what should be a less than friendly environment for the visitors.

Outside of water polo action I was able to get started on some of the sights of Rome taking in the Forum, the Coliseum, the Spanish steps, and the Trevi Fountain. After navigating some bus schedules we were able to make it to all of these spots. Eventually it got so hot out that people were trying to dip their feet in the Trevi fountain. There is one guard wearing a big hat that blows a whistle at them. It's kind of like lifeguarding only I don't think he's going in after anyone.

The Coliseum was the most awesome sight to see of the day. Like many of these historical spots it's amazing to think how old these structures are. Granted some earthquakes have wreaked havoc on a place like the Coliseum but you still get the idea of what it was and can imagine being there back in the day.

Some random notes-- cans of Coke come in more slender looking cans like the ones America would use for Red Bull. Also in place of Gatorade I have seen a drink called Energade, but it is trying to look just like Gatorade, nice try Energade, seriously.

Near the Trevi fountain we passed all the designer purse makers and fancy name brand stores that people know about such as Gucci, Prada, and Armani. The things in these stores were insanely priced, add to that it was in Euro money and it was laughable.
This man knows no limit for fashion

Well, that is all for now, be back later with some recap of the USA-Germany scrimmage. As always questions and comments are welcome.

In Rome

2009-07-16T07:28:00.000-07:00

After nearly a full day of travel that included a stop in the hometown Newark Airport, I made it to Rome earlier today. Important note, Rome is 6 hours ahead of the East Coast, and 9 hours ahead of the West. The first thing I've noticed is the difference in money. While a year ago in Beijing I was like John Goodman in "King Ralph" lavishingly spending with my Beijing currency, this year I'm like John Goodman when he was on "Roseanne" conserving and spending the Euro wisely. For a little math fun I converted 200 American dollars and was left with only around 130 euros. Take out some commission for the person who makes this transaction and I'm already down to 115. Awesome.

I toured a host of the backstreets of Rome as I was in a shuttle to my hotel and we had to drop someone else off first. This was worth the time though as I drilled our driver with questions about Italian pop culture, differences between America and Italy, and also picked up some simple key phrases to say to people. Otherwise I would have been relegated to what I remember from Goodfellas and I don't think anyone wants to go home and get their shinebox. The driver did tell me that there was this one guy who was really famous because he was the voiceover for any movie that invovled Sylvester Stallone, Robert DeNiro, or Al Pacino. Unfortunately he is not around anymore. That would have been a solid interview.

As for USA Water Polo activities the women's team is practicing tonight, unfortunately my scenic tour caused me to miss that, while the men arrive in Italy tomorrow. The men have been in Montenegro since this past weekend doing some common training. Tomorrow will be practice for both teams so I plan to check in with both of them and report back something of interest.

Two things to ponder...one of the stuards from my flight to Rome was a dead ringer for former WWF star Val Venis and secondly I hope to find an Olive Garden in Italy...more later

FINA World Championships Start Sunday

2009-07-13T10:08:00.001-07:00

Hello all, another summer and another major water polo championship. The 2009 FINA World Championships get started in Rome on Sunday, July 19 with the women taking on Kazakhstan. The men begin play on Monday, July 20 against Italy.

As usual you will be able to find daily recaps via usawaterpolo.org. But if that is not enough there will also be daily updates found on this blog, twitter, and facebook. Find us on twitter at twitter.com/usawp and on facebook by searching USA Water Polo and joining our fan page. I'm also drawing USA Water Polo member's phone numbers out of a hat and leaving detailed voicemails after each game. Ok, I made that last part up.

Comments and suggestions are always appreciated and if you are bored take a stroll down memory lane and look at the posts from the 2008 Olympics. I get to Rome at some point on Thursday, July 16 so the updating will begin in earnest then, but hopefully this wets your proverbial whistle.

Farewell Beijing

2008-08-25T09:45:00.000-07:00

Well it's the final night here in Beijing. In the morning I head home to the United States with our men's team and I am definitely looking forward to it. Three weeks was a long time, but it is something I would do again in a heartbeat as attending and working an Olympics is unlike anything else I have ever done.

Terry and Peter on the Early Show, yet it was taped at night, silly China

Even on the last day we had some things going on. First I made my way to KFC but didn't like the vibe in there and all the food looked weird. So I hoofed it on back to McDonald's for my second visit there of the day. You might ask why I would go twice, I had 90 yuan's worth of gift cards in there that only work in China so I might as well use em up.
Pretty Cool to wear a medal

After that I headed over to the Olympic village to accompany men's coach Terry Schroeder and player Peter Hudnut to the makeshift studio CBS has set up while they are in China. Terry and Peter were guests on The Early Show on Monday morning in the USA so that was pretty cool. Their set was in an office building but it was 20 floors up and the background had a tremendous view of the water cube and bird's nest. Pretty cool stuff to see.
Part of the dancing show at dinner

I made sure to get a picture with Hudnut's medal before they departed as I see no future where I may earn my own Olympic medal, perhaps I have a knack for canoe/kyak that has gone untapped. After that it was time for the USOC press officers closing dinner, no time like the last night to eat real deal chinese food. I of course was timid but this was quite a place. It reminded me of a theme park as you enter with a long walkway and several people in costume gretting you.

Finally an outdoor area is reached where our tables were set up for the meal. It was family style dining so various plates of food just kept coming out. There were all kinds of things, deer meat, duck hamburgers or duck burgers, chicken, fried rice, roasted almonds, edible flowers (yes flowers), weird puffy looking things that had apple flavoring, pork, spicy salads and anything else you could think of. As you might imagine my favorite part of the meal was the spriteNBC Water Polo Play-by-Play man/Bay Area Sports Guru Bob Fitzgerald and I at USA House

The waitresses were all dressed in very fancy outfits with giant hats that kind of looked like a graduation cap on steroids. Also at certain points in the meal a mini show would go on with dancing or this one guy who looked like a Mexican professional wrestler and would change his masks to various expressions as he danced.

Overall it was a good time and fun to hang out with my brethren from other sports without anyone worrying about an upcoming game or deadline. Finally we all headed out afterwards to an area called Hi-Ho or something like that which is basically a conglomerate of bars and stores surrounding a lake. It was a pretty cool area to say the least and I think I wish I would have stumbled upon it a little earlier in my trip here.
China McDonald's Cup

Well that is pretty much it and puts a bow on the 2008 Olympics for me. Thanks to everyone who read and checked in via email, facebook, texting etc. it made all the more enjoyable.

One final note, a sad day for our family as our veteran cat Chloe passed away earlier today. She was in the vicinity of 21 years old which is a tremendous lifespan for a cat and it was just a miracle she kept on going. I will miss her constant meowing for food that became a staple of her later years. RIP Chlo'

Silver Surfers

2008-08-24T09:31:00.000-07:00

Another medal is in the bag for the United States as the men's team picked up Silver earlier today after falling to Hungary 14-10. This is of course some deja vu from the women's team as they also had Gold in their sights and ended up taking home the Silver. While the men were initially bummed about losing the game I think the joy of winning a medal has set in, they have done something no men's team has done in the last twenty years, that is a heck of an accomplishment.

This game was a high scoring contest from the start which did not seem to bode well for the shooting machines that are the Hungarians. I had yet to see them play until the Olympics and while Croatia may have been ranked number one and Serbia a tough team as well Hungary just seems on another level. Their ball movement is like something from opening ceremonies, well designed and the execution is generally flawless.

Team USA went goal for goal with Hungary in the first half as Tony Azevedo was able to catch fire. However in the second half a real scoring drought emerged for the USA which spelled trouble as Hungary was able to keep it up on their offensive end. Regardless it was a fun game to watch and make sure to check it out today on NBC at 2:45pm east or west coast.

After the game the team had a nice reception at the USA house where they could hang with friends and family. In addition the closing ceremonies were on so it was a quality event all around. One nice part was when Coach Schroeder was asked to speak briefly. He re-told a story of being at a game in Los Alamitos two years ago and the USA was struggling at the time and he overheard two high school kids talking and one asked the other, "Were we ever good at this sport?" Terry said hearing that ate him up inside, but he proudly announced tonight that if he could talk to those kids he would tell them "Yes we were good and yes we are good at this sport." That drew a large applause from the crowd. The fact of the matter is, he is right. World rankings will now show that this team is second in the world, not too shabby.

From the Windows to the (Great) Walls

2008-08-23T04:29:00.000-07:00

Today was an early day for myself as I was out the door at 7am en route to the Great Wall. I really didn't want to pass up a chance to go and with things starting to wind down here at the games this morning was going to be as good a time as any. Some great help from a translator at the USOC got us a driver to takes us to the wall, a solid hour drive from BNU and then wait for us and bring us back.

My thoughts on the Great Wall, pretty amazing. It is something that if you ever find your way to China you must check out. It's funny living in the United States you figure most of the things we encounter on a daily basis are only a couple of hundred years old give or take but here is this wall that stretches for miles as far as the eye can see and it was built centuries ago. Put two fingers up for the Great Wall everyone

When you get to the wall and this experience may differ depending on what section of it you visit but you end up traveling through some rural areas of China to finally make your way to the Great Wall. Of course this has been over run with commercialism with vendors hawking t shirts and hats that said "I climbed the Great Wall." I of course could not buy this shirt as I had climbed nothing yet. Our driver helped us get our tickets and then you take a tram car ride-think ski lift -up way high into the air until you reach the wall.

Quick side note, I understand the wall was built for defense and with it's steepness on all sides who in their right mind would think of attacking? They would be done for. Anyway so the tram car gets you to the wall, you climb some ridiculously steep stairs and just like that you are on the wall. It's basically just a brick pathway with walls on each side and then every few hundred yards there is a building where the guards would hang out. Now all of this is deserted except for Great Wall staff but it is still amazing to walk along the wall and realize at one time people were patrolling this awaiting attacks.

The wall is not a leisurely tourist activity as you are walking up tremendously steep inclines, than down very steep declines, up steep steps, and sometimes the wall curves so you balance as you walk along. Now from atop this wall you can see for miles all over China, it's mostly just greenery as this part of the wall isn't near much but you can see a few small village type places in the distance.
Hello, is it me you're looking for, Cause I wonder where you are and I wonder what you do

After crusing roughly a mile or two of the wall it was time to get down because you could basically be up there all day walking this thing as it stretched 4,000 miles, no thank you. This was a real cool part. Visitors have the option to take the tram car back down or take the chute, we opted for the chute as it is much more fun. Picture a log flume from a water park with no water. Basically you get on this tiny cart and in the middle there is a stick that pulling back puts on the brake and pushing forward takes it off. You ride this cart all the way down this medal slide until you reach the bottom. This was very fun and also one of the most unsafe things I've done in a while, perhaps since eating that Big Mac three days ago. You really have to ride the break at points just to keep yourself alive as the speed really picks up. At various points along the journey there are workers stationed but they just yell at you through a megaphone to slow down, they can't really do much to help you. Basically it's not a good sign if the entire way down there are signs posted saying "Slow Down."

Obviously this blog post proves I survived and it was definitely pretty awesome. I would recommend this journey to anyone who makes their way to China.

Once I got back from the wall it was time for men's practice and our friends from Yahoo and NBC rolled in to do some interviews with coaches and players. Also AP reporter Mark Long was finally released from the Ying Dong Natatorium after 17 days in captivity as this was an off day and attended the practice as well.

The vibe from practice is that of a confident team, they know Hungary will be a challenge but they have met all the challenges thus far and are looking to pull off just one more win. In some great news the game will air in its entirety on NBC on Sunday at 2:45pm ET and PT. Make sure to tune in for that or set the DVR.

Other than that things are starting to come to a close here in Beijing, many athletes have gone home, BNU is not the bustling hub of activity it once was. All the blue Powerade is gone which is a dead giveaway it's almost time to go home and we haven't been given Rice Krispie Treats since Wednesday which led me to at least start packing one suitcase. The real test will come tomorrow as after lunch the dining hall is closed. I will be on my own for a day and a half out in the streets of Beijing scrambling for meals. I may finally poke my head in the KFC down the block and see what is going on or perhaps make my way back over the USA house where there operation is still going strong. If not the cheesesteak place down the block is an option, I saw Yahoo hoops writer Adrian Wojnarowski in there last week and he's still alive.

Well enough about me, big game tomorrow and another medal in the bag no matter what. Let's Go Team USA!

Going For Gold Part 2

2008-08-22T08:35:00.000-07:00

Earlier in this blog a comparison was drawn between USA Men (Marty McFly) and Croatia (Biff Tannen), well we gotta add Serbia (Griff Tannen, future world Biff) in the equation. Just like the sequence of the movies Marty took out Biff and now consider Griff dunzo as well following a dazzling 10-5 victory by the Americans. Start drawing the analogies to the 80 hockey team now, everyone else because this has been simply amazing.

The team has come together and played their best water polo at exactly the right time and now for the first time in 20 years they will have a medal to show for it. With their win they are assured of at least that and if nothing else USA Men's Water Polo is now back. This will cause other countries to take note, the latest being Serbia who hadn't dropped a match to the United States since Charles was in Charge. Ok perhaps not that long but Scott Baio aside it was a while and they picked a perfect time to wipe out the streak of losses.

It was just another complete effort, I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record with these men's recaps but they have found a formula that works and wisely they keep using it. It starts with defense and this is coming from everyone. Goalie Merrill Moses has been hotter than the Olympic torch as of late and tonight was no different as he loaded up 16 saves and came up with crucial block after crucial block. The rest of the squad was swarming, hands were up on defense and field blocks were huge as the Serbs were stifled on offense.

As for the United States offense they kept up the whole balanced attack idea for another night and it worked well. Tony Azevedo came through with three goals but Layne Beaubien got the scoring started, Jeff Powers finished and others mixed in throughout.

Credit as well should go to Head Coach Terry Schroeder. Somewhere in Westlake Village a Mao like portrait is being erected as he has believed all along this was a possibility, he got the team on board and the tangible results will be around 13 necks come Sunday. His goal was stated often and early, to get this team back to the podium, the job has been done and now there is just one more step, winning that Gold Medal.

It won't be easy, Hungary stands in the way. For those fleshing out the details of a 1980 hockey team comparison you can look at Hungary as the Russia of water polo in a way. They are really good, they have been really good for a long time, and they are twice defending champions of the Olympics. Team USA fits the hockey role pretty well, both hadn't medaled in some twenty years, both entered the tourney with not much expected of them by outsiders, and both have flipped their sport's world upside down by their tremendous results. Sunday will be a big day and we will see if the improbable run can continue for the men's team.

They will have media availability tomorrow which is likely to draw a crowd, we may need to reinforce the bandwagon for this one. Like a wise Oregon Trail player I will load up on extra axles and wheels just in case.

You think this post is done, we are just getting started. Today started off with a press conference at the Main Press Center, think football stadium of media activity. It was the closing press conference for the Olympic Games by the USOC and women's player Brenda Villa was invited to attend as one of five athletes on the panel. It was a good time as Brenda got to comment on her Olympic experience and a few water polo journalists got to ask a few more questions to satiate their thirst for Brenda quotes.
Brenda smiling after the track athlete suggested a 24 hour water polo channel

After that we made their way over to the Bank of America house to hang out for a bit. Brenda was there to meet up with friends and family I was there to inspect the place. Editor's Note - my mom works for Bank of America so I wanted to see what this place was all about. It was a pretty good setup with tvs to watch various events, free drinks, food and a tremendously helpful staff.

From there I ventured over to the USA house, there is a theme of calling places that aren't houses, houses, I don't totally understand but whatever. USA house has a great store to purchase some Olympic fan gear and also has good food. While walking from one to another I was taught another lesson in the non-existent traffic rules of Beijing. Cars were just driving on the sidewalk during my walk, some even decided to park there. As usual, nobody cares and they just go about their business.

In other news I had a tremendous taxi ride this morning to the main press center that was spoke of before. In a stroke of luck my driver spoke some English, words mostly not too much in the way of sentences. So we played a fun game of I point in things in the car and he says what they are in English. He was very good at this game. He knew window, radio, meter, drive straight, and he erupted in laughter at correctly describing a traffic jam that was ahead. His final act was pulling out the phrase "roll down the window." When I confirmed this was indeed an American phrase he was estatic and laughed wildly for the next ten seconds. I was sad to leave that cab.
"I got a great spot right outside"

Another fun story occured after the men's game while wiating in the lobby of the arena to depart. There is a small table of snacks and drinks for the athletes, with like anything else, a volunteer guarding it. Quick side note I found out they can sometimes work from 6am to 11pm, hence why I see some volunteers completely crashed out on benches at Ying Tung (Dong). Anyway so this table has some cookies and then mini snickers bars. Only they are labeled Energy Bars (plese see photo). As I took a picture of this the worker asked why I would do such a thing and I said because in America this is called candy, it would never be called an energy bar. I said too many of these "energy bars" and there would be alot of fat people with no energy in Beijing. This was perhaps more information than she wanted so I just instructed her to please google search the words candy and powerbar and it should clear things up. She thanked me for the tip. One World, One Dream right...

Here is the link for Pat Forde's article (below) from espn.com on the the grueling job that is being a center. Other quickies, tasted the orange chocolate chip cookies they were awful and went straight in the garbage can. Also shoutout to Burnsie who has become consumed by the Olympic spirit and is one of the blogs most avid readers. Also hope you all saw the women's team on the Today Show, I will post more photos of that at a later time. That is all for now.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=3545881

Lost in Translation

A Silver Lining

2008-08-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

Well by now you know the outcome of the game and it was a loss for the women's team 9-8 against the Netherlands. This was a tough one to take and I didn't even play in the game. I can only imagine how it must feel for the team as they have worked so hard to put themselves in this position only to have it not work out. That said they are still medalists, the problem in team sports is that you don't win the Silver Medal, you just lose the Gold in that final game that is played. History will discuss and show that a Silver Medal was won in 2008 in Beijing but when the final horn sounds those particpating don't really feel like they have won much. You can win the Gold or win the Bronze, but not the Silver and for some reason it just resonates differently than when Shawn Johnson pulls a Silver in gymnastics or something to that effect. Regardless it's a heck of an accomplishment and I even got to wear one of the medals, I will post a photo later.

Like most any great game it came down to the wire. The Dutch started off on fire and jumped out to a 4-0 lead which was really suprising. At no point in this tournament had a team come out like that on the USA and put them on their heels.

That said it was only a matter of time before things settled down and the team chipped away on the lead, before long the contest was tied at 5-5. The USA is too good a squad to let the Dutch just roll on with a big lead and not put a halt to it. Then in the second half it was a real battle of execution. At the end of the day the Netherlands were just able to make more plays, they had a phenomenal game out of Danielle De Bruijn who scored an amazing seven goals to anchor their attack.

USA had chances down towards the end to tie the game but shots were not falling and before you knew it the clock was reading zeros and the celebration was on for the team wearing orange, not red, white, and blue. Despite the loss these Olympics are another testament to the amazing success of the USA program, they are the only country to medal in three straight Olympics for women's water polo and as Coach Guy Baker said after the game, this group is always in the mix year after year.

As for now the team will enjoy the rest of their stay at the Olympics. They had a nice reception with friends and family at the USA house and team captain Brenda Villa was able to present Coach Baker with the order of ethos. Starting in these Olympics the USOC decided that coaches who coach a team to a medal deserve a medal themselves, seems like a good idea. So Guy was able to get a medal around his neck as well. It's interesting only in the Olympics does it work that way. In pro sports everyone gets to hold the trophy and get championship rings.

So suffice to say things are not as happy as they could be right now, but now we turn our attention to the men who have a big time game coming up against Serbia tomorrow at 7:40pm. If they win this game they will head on to the Gold Medal Game, if not it will be the Bronze Medal Game. Regardless they are headed to a medal game. Nice job by Pat Forde on espn.com writing a column on men's water polo and the rough and tumble play that is the center position. Ryan Bailey and JW Krumpholz gave some great insight to the battles they go through on a regular basis.

Well that is all for now, be back tomorrow with some preparation for the men's game. Shoutout to reader Dru Hill for checking on the blog front as well as Ralph V.

Media Frenzy, Taxi Madness, and Gold Medal Game on the way

2008-08-20T08:07:00.001-07:00

First things first I am told the Women's gold medal match will air at 10:15am on NBC on both the east and west coast so set your dvrs accordingly if you will be at the workplace. Also always keep up with nbcolympics.com they set the tv times for these games so that is the place to go, I swear I'm not keeping information from everyone.

The foot massage crew, girl's night out

As for today a busy day on the media front with the women's team headed to the Gold Medal Game and the men's team destined for the semi-finals. Men's practice was up first and there was a pretty good media crush there, NY Times was in the house as usual at Pete Thamel continues the solid coverage of both polo squads. We were also able to lure in Pat Forde from espn.com so look for a column by him. Yahoo sports stopped by, the last video they posted on the women's team registerted 600,000 hits, slightly more than this blog.

Men's team seems ready, it has been figured out they will take on Serbia after the Serbs rolled Spain today in their quarterfinal match. Those who have been following know that US men lost their only game thus far to Serbia 4-2, but I'm feeling they are due, they have been inching closer and closer to beating Serbia so hopefully now is the time. So we will see.
The best waiter at TGI Fridays Beijing

Women's practice followed, they had some folks from Reuters roll in as well as the AP. Big news on the Kyle Kopp media coverage update, we are closing in on a potential story in the Press Telegram. Hopefully we can get this thing done in the next couple of days. The women are undoubtedly fired up, this is what you practice and train for and by you I mean them unless you are one of them, then thanks for reading. So with that said things are getting more and more exciting by the day and I'm happy to report the water polo bandwagon is picking up passengers as we go along.

After the practices were done I had dinner part one at BNU where we celebrated the birthday of attacker (in a good way) Patty Cardenas and asst coach Heather Moody. There was some nice cake and everyone sang Happy Birthday even many of the staff who I found out have been imported from New York, I knew those accents sounded familiar.

Following that was a trip over to Ying Tung (Dong) to meet up with some other staff for dinner part two at a nice place that kind of reminded me of a Portugese eatery only it was not. It was one of those places where they just keep bringing out different styles of meat and if you don't want any more you wave them off, but if you want some you tell them to bring it on. They signal this by green and red rocks, green means go for clogged arteries while red means easy on the pepsi fuller, we packed the rubber sheets.

They had bacon wrapped in chicken which was great, pretty much if you wrap anything in bacon you can count me in. After dinner we had to go through the joy that is hailing a cab, today I was the winner. After searching for about 20 minutes I saw some people exit a cab so I took off down the block. As I did I ran straight into Susan's hand as she was trying to hail another taxi. Shaking off the smack down I rumbled down the block like Carwell Gardner (nobody will get that reference) and snaked about five other people for the cab as they loudly booed me. This is day 15 in China, I have learned if you don't take that cab you will never get one.

Finally we made it back for the lovely confines of BNU. Shoutout to reader Rootdog who checked in and made an alarming discovery. Chilis took the awesome blossom of the menu. Not to damper the Olympic spirit but this is an outrage. Yes I'm aware it's not good for you, but let me, John Q. Public make that decision, not you, Chili's bigwigs. Heck how much free promotion has this blog given you already?

Below I have posted some links for great stories following the women's teams victory. Hopefully I can track down some more for the men.

LA Times - http://www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/la-sp-olywaterpolo20-2008aug20,0,2343389.story

AP - http://hosted.stats.com/olympics/story.asp?i=20080819084131268264508

OC Register - http://olympics.freedomblogging.com/2008/08/19/oc-pair-helps-us-into-finals/

Boston Globe - http://www.boston.com/sports/other_sports/olympics/articles/2008/08/19/not_a_watered_down_rivalry/

NY Times - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/20/sports/olympics/20polo.html?_r=1&ref=olympics&oref=slogin

On to the Gold Medal Match !

2008-08-19T03:24:00.000-07:00

It was the Hatfields and the McCoys, Pepsi vs Coke, Macho Man Randy Savage vs Jake Roberts, Knicks-Bulls, Chilis vs Fridays, blue bag doritos vs red bag doritos, knowing when you've gone too far vs beating a dead horse, it was Australia-USA in women's water polo and it was a good one. Team USA had the last laugh in this one thanks to Brenda Villa putting one home with just a minute remaining to seal the deal.

It was a tense battle throughout, USA was down, they were tied, they were up, an ongoing theme of these Olympics. Few games will be easy and most will have you reaching for the Tums. This was no different. Staked to a three goal lead in the second half the Australians chipped away and melted that advantage down to nothing. USA did not give up behind some clutch defense. Goalie Betsey Armstrong made some stops in cage and the rest of the squad kept their hands up and kept working to not allow the Aussies to take a lead.

Then when something clutch was needed, something clutch happened, the USA following an Aussie exclusion got the goal from Villa. Her outside skip shot navigated it's way into the net much like a Beijing taxi cruises the Chaoyang District, you think your lost, but wait we're here. That set off the USA crowd into a joyous celebration, the defense held for the final minute and it was on to the Gold Medal match.

USA plays for the Gold Medal for the first time since the 2000 Olympics. They will take on the Netherlands at 6:20pm on Thursday Beijing time.

Big media day tomorrow for both squads as the men and women will have availability at their practices at Beijing Normal University. The men for those just joining the party are also in the semi-finals and will take on tomorrow's winner of Serbia-Spain.

Finally a shoutout to loyal reader Moo who has been checking in from his various posts on the Jersey Shore and the great state of Texas, as well new reader to the blog John surfing in from Luxembourg.

Another Big Win For Team USA

2008-08-18T02:28:00.000-07:00

First it was the women, now the men are headed to the medal round. While this has become a tradition for the women in recent Olympics for the men they are headed back to the medal round for the first time since 1992 and will try and win a medal for the first time since 1988.

How did they do it? Well it was do or die today against Germany in the final game of group play. Amazingly a win and they would win their group thanks to Italy's amazing win over Serbia, however a loss and they would be shut out of medal contention. For those that think the slimmest of margins between heartbreak and happiness are reserved for sports chasing a clock like swimming or track it is very much relavent in the team sports as well.

Regardless the men put forth another oustanding effort, they of course picked the perfect time to be playing their best water polo of the year as their defense continues to be top notch and the offense is solid. The secret is of course out on the scoring abilities of the likes of Tony Azevedo and Ryan Bailey and with that has come the emergence of other scoring options from all over the roster. Whether it be veterans like Adam Wright or Layne Beaubien or relative newcomers such as Tim Hutten and JW Krumpholz the balance is there and that has been a huge part of the success.

Now the team has a bye and a competition day off, the 20th, which is when the quarters will be held. They will also find out who they play with the early indications being the winner of a Serbia/Spain matchup. More updates on that as I receive them.

While the men have some down time from competition to get ready for their big semi-final match we are on the eve of the biggest match of the year for the women's team. USA-Australia will get underway at 2:20pm tomorrow August 19 at the Ying Tung (Dong) Natatorium. This should be a heck of a contest as usually these two teams have great games when they get together.

Funny thing today at Ying Tung is the media from other countries. Don't get me wrong I want the USA to win every game and I may shout encouragement from my perch in the tribune seats every now and again but these "journalists" from the other countries might as well be at a sports bar. They yell and scream, exchange high fives, basically they are super fans who also write about the team. Normally this wouldn't be tolerated because usually press areas have a no cheering rule, but since everyone is doing it, it lives on. I personally find it amusing and it also opens the door for occassional fist pumps after a USA goal.

Speaking of the women's team Yahoo sports put together a nice video piece on the group after visiting practice today. Credit Michael Pearce and the yahoo gang that works tirelessly churning out content -- http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=Anf8hCkRW8KVtdGzHi79gcJaoY14/SIG=12f5udjhi/**http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/sports?ch=6527422&cl=9324687&lang=en

In other news photos were obtained of the cookie game that was spoke of in yesterday's post.

I have a photo of the guards of the cookie tray but since I never really got their permission I can't post it. Just picture two people in volunteers clothes that are really intent on making sure that cookie tray is full at all times.

For anyone who caught the typo on the usa water polo site the other day I accidentally referred to Terry Schroeder as coach of the women's team, as opposed to of course his real title of men's coach. That's what 8 straight days of games will do to you I guess. It's all fixed now. Also as we touch on the website anyone interested about the various All-American lists that are posted. If you see gaps in these lists it is because names have not been submitted by that club for the spot they were awarded based on finish. Just an FYI on that in case anyone was curious.

Lastly I was attempting to go to Club Budweiser yesterday evening and had instructions for the taxi driver. Upon getting dropped off at a large mansion with spot lights and a roped off line I figured this was the place. Nikki and I proceeded all the way through the gates into the party only to find this place really liked the color orange and alot of people were talking Dutch. Turns out it was the Heineken Dutch house. It was pretty funny, I can pass for being Dutch, Nikki for those of you that know her can not, good times all around.

I'm not a Dutchmen but I play one on television

Last but not least a shoutout to avid reader J "Rick" Ross. She has been checking in since the beginning and props are long overdue. Also my parents and brother and sister who read every entry.

It's You Again Australia

2008-08-17T04:18:00.000-07:00

Well for what seems like the 50th time this year Australia and the United States will mix it up in women's water polo, only this time its at the Olympics. Actually this is only their 12th match in 2008- not 50th- but that is still quite a bit comparatively. For example they had only played China twice before their match to open the Olympics.

Australia was able to down a feisty Chinese (Rick Flair) squad, (I will have the chants of CHI-NA, stuck in my head for days) and with it advance on to the semis to take on a waiting USA squad. USA-Australia has really developed into a nice rivarly. This marks the third straight Olympics the two teams will meet as they met in the Gold medal match in 2000 and the Bronze medal match in 2004. Once again the stakes are high in this one as it will decide what medal match the United States will play in. If recent history is any indication then the US is in good shape against Australia as they took 3 out of 4 in a series in California in June.

If not so recent history is a good indicator then Australia is in good shape as they either won or tied all five matches back in January in Australia. And if really not so recent history is any indication then the pendulum swings back to the US for winning World Championships over the Aussies in 2007. Regardless it should be a great game on Tuesday and I am looking forward to it.

With a competition day off today the women held open media availability. Keep your eyes open for stories in the Orange County Register and on Yahoo Sports. Brenda and Patty switched on the spanish once again for an interview with Telemundo while Moriah van Norman got to chat up the NBC folks from her hometown of San Diego. Sadly the two-year window on Anchorman quotes has closed so I will move on.

In other news the battle to get coverage for women's assistant coach Kyle Kopp rages on. In my downtime which Kyle believes to be the 23 hours of the day a USA team is not competing I have been feverishly contacting his local papers with hopes of pitching someone the feature story to top all feature stories. We still have some time left before the close of the Games and I am confident something can get done.

Men's team went through a workout today as well, as we know a big match looming with Germany tomorrow at 2pm at Ying Tung (Dong). I will be sure to report back with details of that game. I also hope to have pictures illustrating the "cookie game" that goes on in the media room of the Ying Tung. In this room there are three trays, cookies, bananas, and something else, usually pears. Anyway these are smaller cookies that are aligned in perfect rows by a volunteer that stands guard. If one cookie is removed, as soon as you leave the immediate area she busts out the refill pacakage and replaces that cookie. Normally you would think wait until the whole tray is gone or perhaps half to do a refill, but no, she is waiting to pounce.

Remove five cookies, five get replaced, it is really fun to watch. Perhaps at this point you are thinking there is too much talk of cookies in this blog, well I enjoy cookies so I'm sorry but I'm not sorry. That's all for now.

Hard Rock and Hoops

2008-08-16T10:35:00.000-07:00

After wrapping up all the men's team activities for the day it was time to head out to the Hard Rock Cafe. Back to back nights of American dining, what lottery did I win? Anyway after a lengthy taxi ride we made our way to the cafe and it was nice just to hang out and switch it up a little bit from the usual fare at the dining hall. I must say I have no complaints about the dining hall, it's been great but a change was good.

A solid lounge singer in the HRC who was belting out a good deal of tunes by the Eagles as well as some Paul McCartney jams. Post meal, which was good by the way we hit the obligatory gift shop for shirts that say Hard Rock Cafe Beijing. Genius idea for the person who thought of this. Open up a popular place, put them all over the world and then make the shirts collector's items. Brilliant. I will copy this plan when I open my sports bar called "The Upper Deck."

After dinner we made our way to the basketball arena. If the swimming venue is the water cube, perhaps the basketball venue is the haystack. It kind of has straw looking walls yet maintains the cubes ability to change colors. Once inside we caught the end of a raucous matchup between China and Germany. Dallas Mavericks star and well known German Dirk Nowitzki nearly pulled this one out, but it was not to be as Yao Ming and the boys were able to get the win. Much to the delight of the nearly all-pro China crowd that would go nuts if Yao even grabbed a rebound.
The basketball arena - "The Haystack"

Interesting note on Olympic teams and their basketball jerseys. While the USA sticks to the format we know well in the USA of just last names, other countries mix it up. Spain put's the first name on the back, China does whatever each person wants. Yao's jersey says Yao Ming, another guy had Chinese characters I couldn't read and finally LA Clippers flunky Wang Zhi Zhi has just Wang Z.Z. He's probably going for like a backwards LL Cool J thing and has no idea it's not working at all.

Once the China game ended we wandered like lost sheep past our assigned seats and when I woke up I was sitting five rows from the court, funny how that happens to me all the time. This was prime location to watch Spain-USA, a dunk fest for the United States. Credit Spain, who was chock full of NBA players for keeping this one close through two quarters, but USA eventually pulled away with a dazzling display of dunks. Dwight Howard had a few ferocious rim rockers while Lebron James and Dwayne Wade added some signature slams. Had enough alliteration? me too.

Another lure to this game for me was to witness in person the hype that is building around Spain's 17 year old guard Ricky Rubio. I have been hearing about this guy for some time now and while he had some impressive moves, his jumper needs some work and he's still only 17. That said he could be quite good for the Knicks and their rebuilding plan. I also got to see NYK's new head coach Mike D'Antoni in person, he did not have time to discuss strategies with me for next season. Maybe later.

While at the gym who was sitting nearly courtside, of course it was water polo play by play guy Bob Fitzgerald. Bob has a tremendous knack for getting close to the action. By the fourth quarter he had taken a seat next to Michael Redd on the bench.

Leaving the gym was a frenzy as everyone needed a taxi...after running around like maniacs, Susan pulled a Will Smith/Hancock move and just stood in front of an oncoming taxi, which stopped and we were able to get in and get home. Susan's move trumped that of Nikki who would just take off in a dead sprint for cabs she felt were going to stop for us. I can't blame her because this tactic has netted her quite a few cabs here in China.
Even in Beijing the Mets are in first place

Finally tonight we give a shoutout to Greg A for checking in on the blog front. While the lack of grammar in these writings probably gives him heartburn it is good to know he is reading nonetheless. Back with more tomorrow as we find out who the women will play in the semi-finals.

Down Goes Croatia

2008-08-16T01:00:00.000-07:00

Well much like when George McFly lays out Biff Tannen with a mean right hook so that he can hang out with Lorraine ("you're my density") it was the upstart USA team knocking off Croatia today 7-5. This may be a suprise to the water polo world as FINA rankings tell us USA is 9th and Croatia is first, but it's no suprise to the men's team. They have believed all along they can do some work in this tournament and this was just another example.

Add in the May 31 victory over Croatia and they knew they could put together a gameplan that would work. Tony Azevedo was solid with three goals but really the defense has been stellar as of late. Between field blocks, hustle plays, and goalie play by Merrill it's been a real team effort and fun to watch. So congrats to the men's team for a big dub right there. Only downer here is that as good as this win was it still does not get them into the quarterfinals.

Looming on Monday is a pesky German squad boasting a goalie who first suited up back in the 92 Olympics and played against Coach Schroeder!. Talk about a career. Where is Gordie Howe when you need him. Regardless if they can keep the momentum up a win or a tie against the Germans will punch the ticket to move on. You know what has been a suprise in coming to the Olympics, all the math invovled. Math has never been my forte if you will and I am being exposed during these Olympics. Luckily at the pool water polo journalism savants Russ McKinnon and Mark Long are on board and on top of figuring out the scenarios for winning groups and tie breakers etc. It really does get confusing.

One area where Croatia did beat the United States today, mustaches. I believe the final tally was Croatia 11, United States 0. It appears much like when the New York Knicks used to shave their heads (except Ewing) for playoff games, the Croatians have gathered together in the spirit of facial hair. Anyway Team Freddy Mercuy (they have all become dead ringers for the former Queen frontman - 80s style) will still likely get to advance despite their setback today. So next time you're near the tv try and spot the mustaches.

Women have tomorrow off as that is the quarterfinals in their tournament, but they will have some media availability over at the BNU pool as we start to get the hype going for the semi-finals. At least tomorrow they will find out who they will play, Australia or China. Pick your poison in this one, Australia can be tough, and China like Rick Flair in the 92 Royal Rumble gets better as we go along. Was that my last professional wrestling analogy? definitely not.

Found a local place that makes cheesesteaks here, not exactly Philly style but close enough for being in Beijing. Keep your eyes peeled for the NY Times in coming days for a nice article on Ryan Bailey. Also USA Today scribe David Moore put out a nice piece on Natalie Golda which can be viewed here http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/beijing/pool/2008-08-15-water-polo_N.htm And while we are at it lets give a shout to the aforementioned AP writer Mark Long who has been stationed at the Ying Tung Natatorium much like soldiers were once stationed at the Great Wall years ago. He has the water polo deal covered and you can check out what he is writing about here http://hosted.stats.com/olympicsfront.asp?page=WTP . Rounding out the group is Elliot Almond from the SJ Mercury News, who most recently did a nice deal on Peter Hudnut http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10196769?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com

If for some reason the links don't work, I'm sorry.

Finally the fall out has already begun from yesterday's foot massage fiasco. Women's coaches Guy Baker and Kyle Kopp are likely never to let me hear the end of this. Other updates for concerned readers, the cookies with the oranges in them remain un open. At this point I'm not sure what's going to happen with them. Lastly a shout out to devoted readers Devon and Glen checking in from NJ, or perhaps more specifically OC-NJ. Enjoy a waffle for me at Auggie's.

TGI Fridays and a Foot Massage?

2008-08-15T19:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a celebratory day for the women's team as they discovered they had won their group and would be moving on to the semi-finals. This means they get a competition day off and are also guranteed of playing for a medal of some color. Last night the team held a gathering for all the friends and family that have journeyed to Beijing to see the team play. This was quite an impressive turnout and much to my delight it was held at TGI Fridays. If anyone has been keeping up on this blog they know I enjoy food from America. It was cool to see all the friends and family as they come to every game decked out in the red white and blue cheering furiously for the water polo squad.

With all the games and practices and whatnot time is limited for the players to see their families so this was also a nice time for them to catch up with one another. Nikki, Bernie and I didn't have any family in Beijing so we made our own family at the corner table and enjoyed some chicken fingers. The wait staff there was very much on top of things and helpful, I have a picture coming soon with one of the characters that worked there. When this guy wasn't beating one of the other waiters with a usa water polo thunder stick he was right on top of making sure there were enough ribs to go around. I also wanted to steal his awesome hat, but much like removing the top hat from Frosty the Snowman I felt it might spell his demise.

I thought the night was over after TGIF but I was peer-pressured into a foot massage, ok I didn't put up much of a fight. Accompanied by Nikki and new names to the blog in Karen, Kim, and the Notorious T.I.G. we ventured into this place. We had to take an elevator up three floors just to get to the massage place and honestly I this point I wondered if we would just wake up three days later in Tianjin. That said I figured safety in numbers so we proceeded ahead and entered the foot massage room.

Picture six comfy chairs with sinks at the base of each and then benches for the massage folks to get their massage on. Clearly this was a run of the mill experience for the four girls but I had no idea what was going on. Add in the fact nobody in the room spoke english but us and this made for real fun. Also I wonder how many size 12s this place sees, I immediately felt bad for the woman working on me as she drew the tough assignment. I'm sure they drawed straws in the hallway before coming in.

She did a pretty good job I guess although I have nothing to compare it against. Basically I'm just happy I was able to control my ticklish feet and not blast this lady in the face with an inadvertent kick. After it was all said and done I guess I felt better. Kim assured that me making your feet feel good can have a positive effect on your entire body. That sounds good to me.

Men's game coming up shortly...will be back with a recap of that.

Movin' On Up - Medal Round Bound

2008-08-15T02:59:00.000-07:00

Well the women rolled Russia today 12-7 and this one was over before it started. For the first time at the Olympics I wasn't on the edge of my seat watching the game. USA raced out to a 5-0 lead and Russia whose fate was sealed for the seventh place game did not respond. Their coach started a younger group which was nice to give them some experience on this stage and build for the future.

For whatever reasons this was not the same Russian squad that was at Holiday Cup in December or that claimed the World League and European Championships. Many folks were pointing to them to be a serious contender for Gold and now they are one more game and homeward bound. As for the USA women they did what needed to be done, they needed to win this game and for potential tie breaking scenarios win it by a few goals and they did just that.

Veterans Nat Golda and Brenda Villa came through with a pair of goals each and it was pretty much smooth sailing throughout. With goalie Jaime Hipp checking into the cage in the fourth quarter it was the first time thus far that all 13 players have played at the Olympics, so that was nice.

Thanks to China and their one goal loss to Italy, Team USA was able to win their group and earn a bye into the semi-finals. USA will now not play until the 19th against the winner of Australia/China. Regardless the team will play for a medal which keeps intact a pretty ridiculous streak of reaching the medal round of every major tournament since 2000. Without going into quantum physics here, basically both USA and Italy ended up tied at 2-0-1. Since both teams beat China, who was the next best team and they beat them by a single goal, it goes to how many goals did each team score against China. USA's 12 trumps Italy's 10 and there you have it, USA takes Group A.

In other news the men are back in action tomorrow against Croatia. This will be a tough but winnable game. Anyone who came out to Oaks Christian HS back on May 31 knows that USA can win this one but with the way Croatia (Biff) has been playing USA (Marty) wants to make sure the gameplan (flux capacitor) is on point.

Now a sad thing to touch on and this may alienate our entire west coast readership but WFAN's Mike and the Mad Dog are splitting up. These two gentleman have hosted thee best radio sports talk show in America for the last 19 years and now are calling it quits. The guys basically invented the sports talk show and now it is done. They didn't always get along, they weren't alway right, and like this blog they didn't always have proper command of the English language, but they were fun to listen to and I will miss them.

Mike Francesca will continue on solo while Chris Russo will pursue other interests. Like any divorce the rumors on this one were coming for a little while, but I didn't want to believe it. Hopefully they get Mike a host because five hours of just Mike could be a little much. Russo ended the relationship while on vacation so there is no farewell show, but you can find his zany antics on youtube i'm sure.

Last but not least I need to give a shoutout to long time reader of the blog Camille. This bay area native was one of the first to come through on the comment front, thanks for checking in kirby.

Forbidden City and other cultural learnings for make blog

2008-08-14T06:37:00.000-07:00

Well since the men had an early game today I was able to get out and explore some of China's culture. Since Nikki was the latest victim to the Beijing cough it was just Susan and I headed to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. One downer, it was pouring rain, but we headed out regardless, also we had to pick up tickets at the ticket office for a future game and that was on the way so really we were going no matter what.
This logo rotated, so what you see here is precision timing

After an easy exchange at the ticket office we proceeded to T Square (it will be t square from now on because the chance of spelling Tiananmen will only increase as we go on). It was pretty neat and pretty much what it sounds like, a giant square. They had some cool stuff going on because of the Olympics (note pictures) and they had guards everywhere. Susan bought an umbrella from a street vendor that like a message intended for Inspector Gadget self destructed 10 seconds after it was opened.
This thing was cool it was a replica of the birds nest and logos for various sports, what was not cool, no sign of water polo, and I left my hedge clippers in my other pants, dang

We then trudged through the rain posing for a few crucial photos and then took an underground tunnel to the other side of the street to get closer to the forbidden city and the large portrait of Mao. This was another heavily guarded area, we again posed for some photos with the big man in the background before heading in. Of course with the USA rain coat on I was approached by everyone and their mother to buy something or see an art show or just do whatever that usually invovled spending money. Alert to China not everyone from America is rich, ease up on the re-runs of The Hills people in Beijing, perhaps we can get some dvds of Full House sent over here just to show the balance.
Ok I'll take Yao Ming, loser buys the seahorse sandwiches, Break!

As we made our way through the many well-detailed entrance ways headed towards the forbidden city we were sad to discover the city closes at 4pm. We had missed our chances, so for now the city remains forbidden, to me at least. I'm ok with it, really I am. Anywa what do I see on the way back out but a basketball court, in the forbidden city, was this the first court ever built? Somewhere some signals were crossed because it was the Wimbledon of bball courts as it was fieldturf with hoops. I can just picture Mao taking the backdoor cut for the easy layup.
I remain stoic in this photo much like the man to my right,
Beijing High's most likely to succeed class of 1918

Once done there we headed back in a taxi. Fun part of this ride was our serious driver having a cell phone ring of Pink's "Get the Party Started," I really can't make these things up. After arriving home we met up with some other water poloists and hit up a place boasting they were home to western food and drink. Classic moment here came when someone ordered french fries. The fries came out with everyone thinking these sure look and taste alot like fries from McDonalds. And they were from the McDonalds down the block, the ketchup packets with the golden arches even came with the dish. I guess if you can't beat em, join em.

Big day tomorrow with the women taking on Russia at around 2:20pm local time. I'll be sure to report on that following the match as also tomorrow we will have a clearer picture of what lies ahead for the women as they finish group play. Will they win their group? who will they play? I don't know? Tune in tomorrow.

Finally some shout outs in order, first to Men's team super fan Heidi for checking in. She was a big help in organizing many of the men's pre-Olympic events. Secondly to water polo don Andy Burke who also has become an avid reader. For those not in the know AB was the team manager back at the 1964 Olympics for the men's team, pretty good stuff. That is all for now, talk to you soon.

First Loss of the Games

2008-08-13T22:48:00.000-07:00

Well I guess it had to happen eventually, Team USA had their first loss of the games as the men fell to Serbia 4-2 in a tight battle. USA was in it the whole way it was just a struggle to get some goals on the board. Defense was solid throughout limiting Serbia to mostly goals that occured on power players or "man ups." I try to use player advantage or power play in stories to have a more gender neutral phrase since nobody seems to say "woman up," but that is neither here nor there.

As for the team they seemed bummed afterwards and rightfully so as this was a very winnable game. In the grand scheme of things they are making up some ground against Serbia as they allowed 14 goals to them in a game in February, then 7 in a game in June, and now just 4 today. You have to think they are closing the gap and should these two teams have to meet again somehow maybe the result will be different.

Next up for the men will be Croatia, and things will not be any easier. Croatia has been smacking teams around thus far at the Olympics. They are the Biff/Griff Tannen of these Olympics and we dare I say are the Marty McFlys. While rankings may not indicate it, according to the team we match up well with Croatia as was evidenced by a big time win on May 31 in Thousand Oaks, CA. That said we will see what happens on Saturday and remember Biff, "nobody calls me chicken." Now in your down time please vote Goldie Wilson for mayor. I'll be back later.

It's A Tie!...and some other Olympic Action

2008-08-13T05:30:00.000-07:00

Let's get it started with the women's team who took on Italy this afternoon and battled the Italians to a 9-9 tie. The game started off slow for Team USA as Italy got out to a 2-0 lead, but that would not last as USA fought back and eventually held the lead in the second half. Balanced scoring was the theme on this day as seven different players combined for nine goals. It seemed as if USA would come away with the win in this one but Italy scored with some 30 seconds left to force the tie.

In good news for USA, Russia lost to China which assures a trip to the quarterfinals. What is stunning is the play of Russia. Coming in with the proverbial "hot hand in a dice game" Russia lost their first two and just like that is out of medal contention. Pretty interesting. Speaking of Russia, that is the next game for the women coming on Friday. Should be interesting to see how Russia plays in this one.

As for the men they are due up tomorrow morning in a match with Serbia at around 11am local time. This will be a large test for the team as Serbia is one of the tougher squads in their group. They recently played the Serbs in the World League Super Final losing in the gold medal game 7-3. Funny thing about Serbia for geography buffs. They were once part of Yugoslavia, then they were Serbia and Montenegro, and now they are just Serbia. This was kind of like the Beatles, then in the 70s John Lennon and Ringo got together for some stuff, and then it was just Lennon working on Double Fantasy. I could be wrong on this loose analogy and I will look to consult my resident beatle guru in cousin andy as well as my resident political/geography guru Moo. Stay tuned on that front.

In other interesting news today, I made my way this morning to the Water Cube to see the growing legend of Michael Phelps in person. He claimed two Gold medals under my watchful eye as he housed the field in the 200 butterfly and then was the first leg in the 800 free relay. He opened up such a lead with his 200 in the free as long as the rest of the group didn't suffer from narcolepsy the medal was in the bag. It was cool during the downtime between races they had mascots on jet skis going off ramps in the diving well, ok that didn't happen but it should have. Maybe for 2012, file that one away.

For those wondering, the water cube is pretty nice. I'm not sure anything is cooler than it's outside walls that change colors at night time but the inside is pretty spiffy as well. Here is kind of a generic look at the place.

I hung at the cube a little while before catching a ride over to the water polo pool. I accepted the lift even though I would be at the pool early because it meant I didn't have to ride in a taxi. I touched on the taxis lightly in earlier posts but it is time to revisit them. The fact there aren't multi-car pileups every few feet on Beijing highways is a testament to the craftiness of these drivers. Taxi drivers ignore everything: lights, traffic cops, other cars, oncoming traffic, merging buses, curbs, dividers, and anything else you can think of.

There is definitely a market for a Chinese nascar featuring taxi car drivers, those would be some amazing races and you could run them right in the middle of day, just mount some cameras on each car. Secondly because there are 4.7 million (rough estimate) characters in the Chinese language, one persons translation of a place may not equal the others. Hence taxi drivers often have no idea where they are going. Even with that I must say I often get where I am going.

After arriving at the Ying Tung (Dong) Natatorium I realized I didn't have any lunch. Thanks to Susan for bringing me a sandwich before our game started but to hold myself over I opted for the "10 yuan given to a sixth grader" lunch which consisted of orange soda and oreos.

MMMM! way to destroy my teeth

One benefit of making it to the pool early was I got to see a good game as Australia and Hungary battled to a tie. With that game came entertainment and came the mascots. They were on point today dancing along. I have to give credit to the panda looking one as he or she was going all out non stop. I don't know if it's just me, but these things make me laugh, the photos don't do them justice.
On the left an improvised "Harlem Shake" on the right a primitive "shopping cart"

That is about it for today. I need to give a shoutout to avid readers Shan and Sadie who have been checking in. It is nice to have the two former Pennsylvania water polo powerhouses visiting on the regular, I wonder who wins in a sprint, a Bison or a Slippery Rock?. Tomorrow the men's game and then some cultural learning with a trip to the Forbidden City. I leave you with a picture of President George Bush Sr and our women's team.

A new look and another victory

2008-08-12T03:38:00.000-07:00

First things first you may have noticed on your visit to the blog a new look, thanks go out to my brother from another mother Hobs for putting this together. I think he did a nice job keeping the classy elegance you have known to expect while also representing the blog title well. Kudos are in order, and when I see him next I will present him with actual kudos because they are a great snack and not that many calories. As you probably guessed I haven't found kudos in China :(

On to the water polo as it was game day once again and for those not in the know it will be game day for the forseeable future as the teams alternate everyday. Today the men took on Italy, a team that gave them some trouble at the World League Super Final when they lost in a 15-14 shootout. This game would be as close as it came down to the final seconds. Team USA was able to pull away victorious with a 12-11 win (oddly the exact score of the women's game last night) and get off to a great start at 2-0. More detailed info at usawaterpolo.org

They have three more games in pool play, Serbia, Croatia, and Germany before crossover play begins. Those three teams won't make things easy so every win is essential. Jeff Powers had a solid game today with three goals and big ups to the many first-time Olympians who scored a goal including Rick Merlo, JW Krumpholz, Peter Hudnut, and Tim Hutten.

So Serbia comes next on Thursday, which should be interesting as the these two teams just met in the Gold Medal game of the World League Super Final. One side note in games at the Ying Tung or apparently Ying Dong Natatorium, same difference out here-- are the songs they play over the pa during the game. It is often a steady stream of Chinese songs that are upbeat but I just don't know them. They have a modified version of cotton-eye joe which is interesting and then we get some other random things mixed in. It is all an excuse to bust out the inflatable mascots who have seemed to set up shop at the water polo venue. Or maybe like santa claus in a mall during christmas time there is more than one, but please don't ruin the illusion for me.

On the media front there has been some solid coverage of the team, check out the LA Times as they put something together on the whole USA-China games that spanned water polo and basketball. NY Times writer Pete Thamel who is usually riding shotgun with me at most water polo matches has been giving some serious ink to both teams in the "Rings" blog on the NY Times site. Finally National Public Radio has done some solid stuff, props to Howard Berkus, they put together a well-done piece on the women's team so make sure to visit their website.

Now some exciting things from women's practice today that happened in the afternoon as the men's game had an early start time. Rumor had it that former President George Bush senior or Bush41 as he gets referred to around here was going to stop by practice. Right as I was making my way over to the pool I saw the calvalcade of police cars and limos and what not and immediately thought, "must be Burt Reynolds or something." It was not, it was the man himself. I headed on down to the pool ahead of his entourage, he rolls deep about 20 in his crew.

President Bush was very nice and came to the pool deck and shook everyone's hand. He then went over and talked with the team, he even tried on a water polo cap (it was wet, he is a trooper), and then the whole team got out and took pictures with him. He hung around for a few more minutes as Women's Coach Guy Baker chatted about the game. After that he was on to wrestling practice. Definitely a special day for the team and hopefully a good momentum boost heading into tomorrows big game against Italy.

For those that recall Italy won the Holiday Cup in 2007 in Long Beach and are also the defending Olympic Gold Medalists. They will once again present a formidable foe, but aren't they all.

Tonight USA basketball takes on Angola, the over under on dunks has been midly set at 47, I look forward to watching this game. Also hoping to check out the wizard of the water cube Michael Phelps as he swims tomorrow going for Gold number four. I'll let you know if my attendance was successful. Oh and last but not least a happy birthday to goalie Merrill Moses who is celebrating on August 13.

Down to the Wire!

2008-08-11T06:56:00.000-07:00

A big win for the women's team tonight as they battled all night long (ala Lionel Richie) with a Chinese team that just would not go away eventually winning 12-11. USA was up, they were down, they were tied, every fan in the Ying Tung Natatorium got their yuan's worth on this day as it was an exciting game to say the least.

As the quarters wore on it just became evident like most good international water polo games this one was going to come down to the fourth quarter. Big game for Natalie Golda and Kami Craig as they combined for seven goals. Goalie Betsey Armstrong had some crucial stops as well including halting a five meter, which more times than not go in. It seems as if every game on the day was competitive and we could be headed for one heck of a tournament. Next up will be Italy who won the whole deal back in 2004 in Athens and also took home the Holiday Cup back in December in Long Beach for those of you that made it out to Belmont Shore.

So while the women prepare for Italy in the more immediate future we look towards the men taking on Italy tomorrow afternoon. This is a very important game for the men as after that Serbia and Croatia loom with Germany to finish out pool play. Although saying a game is important at the Olympics is a total understatement because they are all huge.

In other fun Beijing news I was out of towels the other day but of course did not know the word for towels. Try to describe a towel just using your hands one time, it is not as easy as you might think. I eventually found a used towel and was able to explain that I needed a new one of what I was holding. When in doubt go the pictionary route.

Also a new goal is to get my photo with all of the ridiculous mascots they have here. You may have seen the photo of me with the blue one, but there are more, like three more so I'll have to track them down. They can't run real fast so once I'm in the vicinity it should be like fish in a barrel.

I'll check in again after the men's game...

Cough, Cough, Cough

2008-08-10T22:54:00.000-07:00

It seems as if most people I encounter are dealing with some type of cough or cold these days. I have taken to calling it the Beijing cough as that is kind of catchy. My hope is that whenver the powers that be decide to make an updated version of Oregon Trail for x-box or ps3 that this can be added to the list along with dysnterey and typhoid fever. Basically we are just dealing with some sore throats and some stuffiness, nothing a large cup of Hibernol couldn't cure but unfortunately that was only a skit on SNL. Women's team trainer Karen has been handy in dispensing medicine from her warehouse style bag of medical whathaveyou.

Today for the first time while in China I walked outside and was not punched in the face with humidity, it was actually cool out with a slight breeze. I was unaware of this but apparently it rained pretty good last night and that led to a nice cool morning. This was of course short lived as by afternoon the heat had returned and people were sweating like they were in a Naughty by Nature video. I headed out with Nikki (national teams manager) to attempt to track down some vapo rub or a Chinese equivalent. We made our way into a local pharmacy which had an insane amount of people on staff. There were two workers for each aisle just hanging out waiting to chat you up on products. This was an effort in futility for them as I understood nothing they said but they get an A for effort on trying to educate me on some type of homeopathic remedy.

As our luck would have it, vapo rub doesn't seem to exsist here in China or nobody knows what it is, so our search ended up empty. In other Olympic related news it was fun to watch the men's basketball team down China on tv last night. If anyone saw the LBJ alley-oop dunk that was pretty stellar.

On to the water polo...stopped in on the women's workout this morning as they are preparing for tonight's opener against China. Everyone appeared pumped up and ready to go, this moment has been a long time coming for them so I am sure they are excited to get down to business. They played China twice already this year picking up wins both times. They have China, then Italy and then Russia in their opening preliminary games.

As for the men's team I saw part of their workout as they begin preparations for Italy who they will take on tomorrow at around noon time here in Beijing. The two teams aren't all that familiar with each other but did have a very close match at the World Leauge back in June with Italy taking a shootout win.

Heading off to the pool soon for the women's game, will be back later with some news on that.

Men's Team Comes Out With A Win

2008-08-10T07:20:00.000-07:00

A solid day for the men's team as they began play with a win against China 8-4. Solid game defensively as the team got their hands up for some field blocks and Merrill was in the cage for 11 saves. On offense Tony Azevedo scored five goals while Layne Beaubien scored two. For more on this check out www.usawaterpolo.org as there is a complete recap and no point in just re-writing what has already been written.

It was a good crowd on hand as the men had a host of friends and families in the stands who have made the trip to cheer them on. It was also good to get a win in their first game out as they will only get more difficult from here on out.

As for the women they had practice today in the morning which was the usual fare and then again in the afternoon which I did not see because of the men's game. En route to the men's game I made my first foray into the Olympic Village which is pretty cool. It's like an entire civilization all on it's own. Remember at the end of that Will Smith movie "I Am Legend" where they finally make it to the safe zone and they open these huge wooden doors and it's just this bustling community, that is what this was like.

People from all various countries walking around and mingling, interviews being conducted and shuttles going back and forth. One of the cool parts here was the gift shop which I quickly browsed, I am sure I'll be back to pick up things for those at home.

The women get it going against China tomorrow at 5pm so make sure to check in for a recap of that game on the usawaterpolo website. It will be good for both teams to get going as I'm sure they have had their fill of just practices.

On another front I need to give a shoutout to dilligent reader and broadcaster for Universal Sports Nick Gismondi. We teamed up for a couple of water polo broadcasts last month and it was always a good time. Well that is all for now, I will check back in with hopefully something more interesting tomorrow.

Opening Ceremonies Recap and much much more

2008-08-09T01:35:00.000-07:00

So as I mentioned I would go into a little deeper depth (redundantly redundant) about the opening ceremonies from yesterday and I can tell you it was unlike anything I have ever seen. Take the best 4th of July fireworks display you have ever witnessed and times it by about 100 and do the same for the best choroegraphed show you have ever seen as well. Unfortunately I can't post any pictures of the actual ceremony as that is against the rules but I can say if you didn't see it on tv, make sure you check it out somehow.
Bird's Nest in all it's glory

It opened up with some amazing fireworks and light display on the stadium floor with hundreds of drummers, and that morphed into several elaborate acts. Some that were amazing was the display of the Olympic rings to the entire crowd as they were litup on a huge net type thing along with hundreds of dancers all being lit up as they wore suits with lights all over them and ran around in various directions. It is basically impossible to explain this event. The lighting of the torch, once we got everyone to the party was pretty sweet. Getting everyone there reminded me of the really long introductions of Wrestlemania. Especially say Wrestlemania 6 in Toronto where they had a real long aisle, it tooks guys forever to get to the ring.

Similar deal here but once the torch came out and they passed it around the field to the final man who would light the torch of all torches it was awesome. This guy climbs some stairs, gets hoisted to the top of the stadium, and then slowly jogs around the permiter of the top of the stadium, only being suspended by wires, until he gets to the torch. Just great stuff, and it was capped off by another display of fireworks that makes the show in Red Bank, NJ look like sombody lit one sparkler and called it a night.

Quick tangent on the bird's nest. This place was built without escalators (all stairs), potentially a stadium first, not sure that is the type of fun fact they were looking for. After I Rocky Balboa'd my way up to the third tier (upper deck in america) I was exhausted. At the top there was a quick summit of Americans, Dutch, and Russians who without saying a word all nodded and smiled that indeed those stairs were fun. Secondly at our seats inside the stadium it was hot, talk about 91,000 people working up a nice lather. After a while you stop saying to the person next you, "it's hot" and just enjoy the complimentary weight loss. Now a huge plus for this place, the snack stands. Talk about discount buys, I was able to purchase a bottle of water, a bottle of soda, and a candy bar for under three dollars. I think three dollars at a stadium today will get you a hot dog, from last season. So keep up the good work there birds nest, place looked great, some stairs, some AC and you'll be golden.

We're going to dinner next week, her treat!

On to the water polo...today both teams had practice, it is a big day for the men as tomorrow is go time, they take on China at 5pm local time. I am told this game will air at 10:15am pacific time/1:15pm eastern on Sunday morning on NBC. Make sure you check it out, if you want to be suprised don't visit here or the usawaterpolo.org website as information will likely already be posted.

The men's team is ready to roll. I talked with two-time Olympian Layne Beaubien who said he seems to be more relaxed this time around after having experienced the Olympic Games in Athens. He mentioned that China is a strong team, and while they aren't the most experienced group they will fight it out the whole way and are getting better all the time. Visit usawaterpolo.org for a more detailed preview of the game.

As for the women's team they were practicing right after the men and again were joined by Australia. Many of you know these two teams are no strangers to each other and again had another spirited scrimmage. If anyone is wondering why you would play against a rival prior to the Olympics, it is done for many reasons two being, they aren't in the same bracket, and they are good competition.

Well if the opening ceremony was enough of a thrill something else great came along today. As I was walking into the pool for women's practice at the door watching intently were Jason Kidd and Chris Paul from Team USA basketball. It is official the basketball team are fans of the water polo team, and of course vice versa. Kidd who went to water polo heavy California mentioned how he trained with the team once back in his undergrad days and it was brutal.

I chatted up the two on the game and how things work, of course many parts very similar to hoops. They hung for about twenty minutes and were on their way, I think we might see more of them as time goes on. Anyway two very nice guys and real down to earth. It's funny being from New Jersey everytime I see Kidd I always think of the former public address announcer who used to scream his name as all one word, JASONKIDD!!!. Well that is it for now, more tomorrow, especially on the outcome of day one for the men's team.

Pretty Amazing

2008-08-08T11:07:00.000-07:00

It is pretty late and I am pretty tired having just got back from the opening cermonies. I want to give everyone at home a chance to see it so I won't ruin it by giving away the details now. This does give me the chance to submit a small post in the style of the telegram from It's a Wonderful Life.

Opening Ceremonies were awesome - Stop!

Lots of cool fireworks and a chance to see over 200 hundred countries represented - Stop!

Team USA looked pretty good in their official outfit for the occassion - Stop!

-end-

back with more tomorrow

Media Madness/Opening Ceremonies Coming Up

2008-08-07T22:50:00.000-07:00

Welcome to another day in Beijing, I am looking forward to the start of the games on Sunday because this is starting to get like that movie Groundhog's Day, except instead of clock radio I wake up everyday to the one English speaking station I have found on the television. I think some languages if you were to just hear them alot you might pick up on it, I don't believe Mandarin to be one of these languages.

On to the water polo...It was the open media day for the women at BNU (Beijing Normal University, for new readers), where we had quite a good group on the pool deck taking in the action. A few branches of NBC came through including news NBC and Telemundo NBC as they were there to interview Brenda Villa and Patty Cardenas. This was the Brenda and Patty story take 1,754. If you missed the articles in the LA Times, the New York Times, Alan Abrahamson's blog, Hispanic Magazine, or the television pieces on American Latino TV or NBC basically Brenda and Patty are two players from the same club team in Commerce, California. In Commerce the majority of the populations are Mexican-American with Brenda and Patty being no different. They both played for the Commerce club and their parents happen to be from the same small town in Mexico, what a small world? They are also only a handful of Mexican-Americans in the Olympics representing the United States so they have become a pretty big deal.

Today was interesting because one interview was in English and the next in Spanish, as Patty mentioned she had to turn the switch in her head (figuratively speaking, there is no switch I know of) to go into Spanish mode. As those were going on Betsey Armstrong and Natalie Golda were getting interviewed by another NBC crew while Heather Petri and Lauren Wenger were chatting with some folks from the New York Times and AP. A full day to say the least. I am still working hard to get some coverage for assistant coach Kyle Kopp. The versatile Olympian/wood worker would make a perfect guest for the Today Show or a cover shot for Sports Illustrated but no leads just yet.

Brenda and Patty chatting with a reporter

After the women's practice the men rolled in and took to the pool. They worked on some various tactics and shooting before calling it a day. I was able to catch up with Adam Wright mentioned in yesterday's post for taking on Kobe Bryant in a game of "p-i-g". Adam who cited that his basketball playing days ended in his early years informed me of the how the game went down. Kobe shot first, he missed, then Adam airballed. Kobe then dunked the ball, Adam did not dunk the ball. Kobe then drilled a three pointer, Adam did not. Kobe then buried a shot from way downtown. This was the final straw, Adam needed to hit, his shot went in and out. Not the way he had hoped things would turn out, but you have wonder how Kobe would do on a man-down.

Regardless the reigning MVP of the NBA has been great according to the guys. "He is really supportive, even in San Jose at processing he got off their bus just to come over and say hello. He grew up in Italy so he knows the game of water polo, that's how I got talking to him, I talked to him in Italian," said Wright who has spent some time playing overseas. Pretty cool stuff.

Something else to address, reader Jay from Hawaii checked in asking about television game times for the matches and also some struggles with MAC users accessing the pdf schedule on usawaterpolo.org. First things first nbcolympics.com is the place to go for the most accurate tv schedule as they tell me it can be updated daily. It is more current than what is posted on usawaterpolo.org as they are able to update their schedule much more regularly. Secondly I will have to inquire why some users can't open that file, I think you can solve your problem by heading over to the nbc site as that schedule is more current.

While we are chatting about the new website for usa waterpolo I know the college page is missing, with all the wonderful links to the colleges around the country that have water polo. Don't worry it is not gone forever, it will be back soon.

Finally, it's a big day around here. Opening ceremonies are tonight. The official kickoff to the games is only hours away. I am told that the United States is somewhere in the 115-130 range in order of countries getting announced. Meaning for those watching on tv, get ready to settle in for the long haul. NFL Draft fans should already have a contingency plan in case for watching more than three hours of consecutive television, check with one in your local area. It should be quite an experience, I will be posting later with a recap of the event. Both of our teams are marching in the event and are quite excited. I chatted with men's player Jesse Smith who is looking forward to it. He mentioned how water polo is not played in large stadiums in front of nearly a 100,000 people so that will be an experience. One he hopes will generate some momentum to spur the team on throughout the Olympics.

One other thing, I have yet to sample the orange flavored chocolate chip cookies. They just stare at me playing a neverending game of chicken seeing who will make the first move. Maybe I will just bring them home and put them on a mantle like a trophy or something. We'll see. That's all for now, if you have a question regarding something, post it as a comment and I'll see if I can get it answered. Please keep these questions related to the Olympics, the New York Knicks rebuilding plan, or the menu at Chilis. Thanks.

What About Your Boyfriend Brett Fav-ruh?

2008-08-07T06:48:00.000-07:00

The news of All-World QB Brett Favre getting traded to the Jets was the big talk during the men's practice today, at least during their conditioning swim, not all that exciting. Personally I'm excited for the Jets, I feel somewhat bad for Chad Pennington, but hey it's Brett Favre. Also my dad is Jet fan so it's something to cheer about for the first time in a while.

On to the water polo...over at BNU today for the men's practice which was quite the media frenzy as many crews from NBC, they are multiplying by the day, came through for some video coverage and interviews. It was solid stuff though as Head Coach Terry Schroeder was interviewed along with some players. Prior to the start of the practice the men's basketball team arrived which created a frenzy usually reserved for the release of Miley Cyrus tickets.

If you have been to usawaterpolo.org than you might have an idea of what happened post practice as the men's water polo team got to meet the men's basketball team and pose for a photo. I'm also told that Adam Wright, a two-time Olympian on our men's team took on Kobe Bryant in a game of P-I-G. I think the entire duel was recorded on a cell phone so it was over in about 30 seconds, with of course Kobe taking the win.

Also during men's practice along with the NBC crews was the presence of the game broadcasters for NBC including Bob Fitzgerald and former team captain Wolf Wigo. After scoping out the men I headed out with Bob and Wolf to the Ying Tung Natatorium, the competition venue for water polo here at the Olympics. The place is pretty nice I must say, it was cool to see the Olympic rings sewn into the back of the net along with the game balls labeled with Beijing 2008 on them. I checked with water polo announcing godfather Don Brantley who will be providing the English voice during the water polo games. Turns out it will be in English, Chinese, and French (official language of the IOC). For those familiar with Don he usually provides a play-by-play of the action but in this tournament he informs me that he is limited so that all the announcers aren't talking at once.

While at the venue I got to check in on the women's team as they scrimmaged Australia. It was neat to see them playing where they will eventually be playing once the games begin. It was also good to get over there and learn the ropes for the postgame media rush that follows each game. Australian water polo guru Russ McKinnon is playing a vital role there and was able to put me on the right path.

Upon leaving the venue I made my way to the street and while on the way passed the largest panda bear statue I have ever seen. Notice the photo. This panda was in a great mood, clearly in the US we are neglecting our love for pandas perhaps because as wikipedia tells me they are native to pretty much just China.
I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a bamboo sandwich today

Later in the day I went to the famed silk market which is just a ridiculous place to go. Basically its a multi-level flea market armed with the most agressive sales people on earth. Bartering is the name of the game here. Every stall has a calculator and you play the calculator game. The clerk puts in what they want you to pay, you tell them they are silly and then try to lowball the heck out of them, this is at least how I play. It's a fun game but gets old after about ten minutes.

The final adventure of the day was stopping in a fast food place so some members of the posse could use the restroom. As I patiently waited ala fifty I noticed an infatuation with Jim Morrison. Here is just one of at least four pictures devoted to the former Doors front man. If you unfamiliar with Jim Morrison watch the Doors or even better watch Waynes World 2.

Wu-Mart Clan

2008-08-06T17:57:00.000-07:00

Hello from the future...the whole plus 15 hour (west coast) 12 hour (east coast) continues to throw me off but I am starting to get the hang of it, I just wake up to 74 emails everyday and nobody replies right away to the ones I send out because they are sleeping. Anyway on to other interesting stuff. I made my first trip to Wu-Mart which despite it's awesome name had nothing to do with the Wu-Tang Clan or any of the Shaolin Shadow Boxers, not even a memorial for the late ODB.

Anyway this place is kind of like Wal-Mart but a China version, the first floor had electronics like hair dryers, clock radios, etc, the basement is a food store, and the other two floors have I don't know because I didn't go up there. The awesomeness of this store was in the basement at the grocery store and all the amazing things they sell here. I of course tracked down the things from America that have been relabeled and sold here such as cookies and chips and what not. I will post a picture later but what really jumped out was chocolate chip cookies with real orange pieces mixed inside, I bought these because they cost 20 cents but I have yet to taste them. On the less exciting side of things were prawn flavored chips with a picture of the sea creature right on the front of the bag, there was also chicken flavored chips. This was not an isolated incident, people here love things with prawn flavor and chicken flavor, there was prawn flavored candy which signaled our time to leave the store.

Later on I went to a nice function held by USA Today and got to meet the water polo beat writer. Following that the search was on for food, and gold was struck when we stumbled upon a pizza hut. In the distance all I could see was Chinese writing, but I recognize the red pizza hut hat anywhere, and talk about class, this was upscale pizza hut. If anyone outside of my dad remembers that movie Demolition Man where they are in the future and Taco Bell becomes the classiest place to eat in town, it kind of reminded me of that.Interesting note with yesterday being the 7th, in Chinese culture it is a day for lovers, so along with the regular pizza hut menu was the lovers menu which included a pay-one-price meal with a variety of things. As usual the couple on the cover of this menu was beaming, most advertising here features people smiling at extremely high levels.

On the water polo front, both teams are at practice today with the women heading over to the competition venue while the men will be at BNU. I will attempt to hit up both practices but they are closely timed together so we shall see. The women's team also got to check out a flag raising ceremony the night before last and hear their national anthem which has seemed to pump them up.

Finally now that my bags have arrived and I can stop turning down offers for other peoples clothing. Thanks to Women's Head Coach Guy Baker and NBC Play-by-Play man Bob Fitzgerald for their offers.

I feel I can become the number two person here in Beijing in six weeks time, you know how? Name repetition, personality mirroring and never breaking off a handshake. If you don't get that joke, my apologies.

At the Pool

2008-08-05T22:24:00.000-07:00

I made my way over to the practice pool (photo on the right) today at Beijing Normal University as the women's team was going through their workout. It was business as usual for the team just instead of being in Los Alamitos they are in China. After the women completed their time the men's team came in and went through a practice as well. While there the Today Show rolled in to do a story on the added practice sites for aquatic teams. Thankfully there is more than just the pool at the Ying Tung Natatorium or practice time would be pretty dicey. The reporter interviewed Men's Head Coach Terry Schroeder and they were on their way.

Opening ceremonies are coming up, something both teams are pumped for as they get to march with all the other athletes in a big procession. It should be a quite a show. I talked with Jess Steffens on the women's team who despite not being sure what the ceremony will entail is pretty jazzed, "I am very excited for it, talking with all the other athletes they are pumped up too and can't wait to get the games started."

Jeff Powers who made his debut in the Olympics back in 2004 is also excited for the big day. Back in 2004 the men's team had a game the day after opening ceremonies so they were not permitted to attend the festivities, this time around it's a go. "I'm looking forward to it, it's gonna be awesome, last time we didn't get to go so I haven't had the experience and I'm really looking forward to it," Powers said.

In other news I went to a local pizza buffet today and was stared at for a solid 10 minutes being the only American inside. Two pieces of advice for this place, A) have pizza imported from NYC, and B) make ice available to go with drinks, just throwing it out there.

The lack of fulfillment at the pizza joint led me across the street to McDonalds, after much talking between two people who didn't understand each other i came away with a small soda and fries, which worked out great, for the bargain price of 13 yuan, rough translation like $2.50 in American money. Suffice to say, as the documentary Super Size Me told me, I can't live on this stuff for three weeks so I will have to do some further scouting for good options.

I Have Arrived

2008-08-05T07:33:00.000-07:00

Well I made it to China, despite the best efforts of the LA airport, after a few flight rearrangments I managed to make my way to San Fran and catch the all important connecting flight to China (only one goes out a day) and some 12 hours later here I am. Both our men's and women's teams had the day off today from practice but will be back at it tomorrow. I plan to check out their practices and hopefully have something more interesting to report tomorrow. Quick tangent the driving in Beijing makes New York City look like a one-horse town. In a taxi today, the driver was in the far right lane of a three lane road that was going north and south. He needed to go south so rather than find a good place to turn around he just ripped across the two lanes to his left and hopped back on the other side heading South. The interesting thing is nobody seemed to notice, I think driving out here is like bumper cars only they are trying to get as close as possible to each other without hitting.

From The Junior Olympics To The Olympics

2008-08-02T20:10:00.000-07:00

The 2008 S & R Sport Junior Olympics have just two days remaining before champions are crowned. With that in mind there are just two days left until I depart for Beijing and meet up with our Men's and Women's Olympic Teams that have already been in China for the better part of the week. This is just the first entry of what I hope to be multiple entries keeping you updated on each of the teams as they progress through the Olympic Games. Thanks for reading.

-- Greg