FINA World Championship Preliminaries Are Near Complete… What is happening?

Originally posted "On the Deck"

As the 2017 summer plays on, and one month until the men’s college season commences water polo fans are treated to what can be argued as the smaller, more wet version of the FIFA World Cup: The FINA World Championship.

Although I previously touched on another FINA tournament the Intercontinental Championship, this tournament is different in that more teams compete at the World Championships, thereby it takes additional days of play. Hence, why of all of the tournaments/championships sponsored by FINA, this one is by far the most popular and the most like a World Cup style tournament. This year’s championship is hosted in Budapest, Hungary which is appropriate considering the historic aspect the country has in affiliation to water polo.

With all things considered, FINA at the beginning had determined the favorites to win would be the United States women’s team and the Serbian men’s team. The US women finished group play at the top besting Spain, New Zealand, and South Africa, with other group winners being Italy and Greece. Hungary and Netherlands are tied with 4 points in Group C, which means the victor in their game will be crucial. Winners will be seeded favorably while those in the second will not be treated as kindly.

On the men’s side, Montenegro, Hungary, Serbia, and Croatia lead their respective groups in Group play with current second spots being held by Brazil, Italy, Greece, and Russia. There will be one more day of group play for each of these teams before they are seeded for the competition bracket.

However, as a fan of Team USA, there is one particular aspect that stands out: the men of Team USA are no where in sight. Why? That is because they are currently ranked last in Group D following losses to Croatia and Japan.

Yes, that last sentence was not a typo, and Japan bested the US by a score of 15-7 on July 19th. So, what happened?

After watching the game stream courtesy of the Olympic Channel (which you can find via NBCSports or by clicking here), and while I was shocked as I watched the loss, I was also impressed by what Japan was executing. The Japanese made sure to take advantage of their counterattacks, drives, and to skip the ball against USA goalie McQuin Baron. Although the Japanese average height for men is not near to Baron’s the team allowed for some creativity on how to score goals and create shooting opportunities. Team Japan also did a good job earning power plays and executing on additional opportunities.

So… What happened to the United States? Up until this game, the US has had a good record of being able to best developing teams based on history and population of players native to the US. But with no means of defending counterattacks and helping Baron on defense, goals started to add up by the second half. All of which, again, was surprising. What happened to the growing phase that US fans were assured of following the disappointment in Rio? Why after being hired, have we not seen success with the US under head coach Dejan Udovicvic? Better yet, are the reasonings we were given before for selection of athletes, still credible?

For years we were told the US needed to match the height of European players to get better; so we brought in taller players, despite not having established enough credibility on the college scene. We were told since the US doesn’t have a professional league, we’re at a disadvantage; so USA Water Polo has tried to maintain a National League and multiple tournaments (which have grow in turn out over the years). We were told we need to change how we see water polo to get better, and yet what was not considered a nearly developed team managed to score more than double our goals. We were told we’re trying an eight-year plan, and yet in year six, there is nothing visible to our growth.

So what is happening? Where is the leadership we were promised? Now full disclosure, I am proud to be an American, and I love both the men’s and women’s national teams. Both teams have elite players who are always exciting to watch; Which is why the results of this game versus Japan are that much more heartbreaking.

There is very likely to be no chance for Team USA to advance on the men’s side, which is now part of a new addition to other advancements the US has been denied in major tournaments. This cannot be the only way for the United States to succeed, and we are by no means going to be able to medal (or qualify for 2020), unless we are able to step up and truly reprioritize what is important to the achieving the goal of gold.

The women have done amazing work in the past five-six years especially as they’re now back-to-back Olympic gold medalists. What potential is left for the men? That, unfortunately, will take more time to determine than we may actually have.

Until next time, I’ll see you on the deck.