Olympic Water Polo: Spain Defeats Canada

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Water Polo Canada

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uploaded by Jordan Yerman

Canada faced off against Spain in the opening match of the men's Olympic Water Polo tournament.

Canada: first-ever qualification (Previously attended the games either by hosting or because of the Soviet boycott in 1984)

Spain: bronze medalists in the world championship.

The scoreboard shows a 16-6 slaughter, but Canada did fairly well in the first half. They were faster in the opening sprints, and managed really good hole defense. However, they did not take advantage of the deep wings on offense, and allowed the Spanish team- all snipers from past the 4-meter- way too much open water. Spain ran an umbrella offense throughout the game, and never ran a driving play: they just worked the ball around the outside until they caught the Canadian goalie Robin Randall off-guard and then just fired it in. Canada's coach was rather animated during the match.

In the second half, Canada seemed to run out of steam, though at first they were in reach of equalizing. By the fourth quarter, it was only a matter of points, with no way for the Canadians to catch up. Having said that, overall I'd say that Canada played as well as they could in those players' first Olympics against a medal contender in their very first game. (Canada is no stranger to international Water Polo, but they have yet to crack the top 10, and the semifinals in Beijing will be a shark-pit of experienced, determined teams)

Also in Group A, gold-medal favorites Hungary tied against Montenegro, whom Canada must face next. Also, Australia defeated Greece. In the other games I didn't get to see, Serbia beat Germany and Croatia defeated Italy in Group B, with The USA awaiting a fixture with China.