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Published: August 2nd 2009
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Ramsey posing on the subway We met this morning at 9:45am. Just about everyone was on time. We took the metro and then the bus back over to the FINA World Championships Aquatic Village for a long day in the sun. The first match we watched was Hungary vs. Germany for 5th place. Germany was no match for Hungary but kept it close due to some kind officiating in their favor. This was a great game to watch as the Hungarians are some of the best shooters in the world.
After the game we ventured out into the nearby city and had lunch at a sandwich shop close by. The boys then had a couple hours of free time before we all met back up in front of the stadium for the 3rd place match - Croatia vs. USA. This is turning out to be an intense rivalry as the US defeated Croatia in the 2008 Olympics and the current Croatian coach is the former US coach. The game went back and forth and was tied many times. In the end Croatia came out on top by one but I have to say there were two or three “non-calls” at the very end of the
game which would have given the US either a penalty shot or a man-advantage. The US players were not happy after the game and some of them made sure the officials and Croatian players and coaches knew about it. The atmosphere has been getting better and better each game so we knew we’d be in for something special at night for the championship match.
After the USA game we walked back out of the village for dinner. We found a restaurant around the corner with air conditioning! So we sat down and patiently waited for the waiter to come by…and waited….and waited. Eventually he did come by but he didn’t speak any English and as you know we definitely don’t speak any Italian. After about 20 minutes of dialogue and hand signals back and forth we realized he was trying to tell us that they didn’t open for two more hours. We then split up for dinner, some had pizza, others had paninis. I think Ramsey even had a hot dog?
After dinner there was a little more free time for the boys to get some gelato or explore the village. We met back in front of the
stadium at 8:30 for the championship match - Serbia vs. Spain. The stadium was absolutely packed. Every seat was filled. Previous to this game everyone could just sit wherever they wanted to, we mostly tried to find the shade. But for this match we had to sit in our assigned seats. There were hundreds of both Serbian and Spanish fans in addition of course to all of the Italians and fans from other countries.
In my fifteen years or so of being involved with the sport I have never eye-witnessed such an exciting game with so much on the line. This game alone made coming to the Fina World Championships worth it. The teams traded goals for much of the first three quarters before Serbia gained a two goal lead with just over two minutes left in the game. Spain battled back and cut the deficit to one and then gained a power play man-advantage with just under 30 seconds left. They worked for a pretty decent shot but it was field blocked. Somehow one of the Spanish players on the post was able to deflect the blocked shot back out to one of his teammates for one more
opportunity to score. Then with seven seconds left and the Serbian team coming even, Garcia of Spain, who had already scored 4 goals in the game, scored again to tie it. The game then went into overtime - 2 three minute periods. After an exciting six more minutes of extra time the game was still tied! Let’s not forget that this is for a World Championship, the highest honor in water polo other than the Olympics. The tension was definitely building as at one point in the second overtime period the Serbian coach was so upset after a disallowed goal that he leapt high into the air off the platform he was standing on and almost landed in the pool. From here, the teams went directly to a shoot-out to decide the winner. Each team gets five penalty shots each from a different shooter and whoever scores the most out of five wins. Everyone in the stands was on their feet for the entire shootout. And as you may have guessed after all five shooters went, it was still tied!!! From this point it goes into a sudden death shoot-out. Basically it’s a one round shootout until one team misses
and the other makes. After two or three rounds of this, Serbia finally won. What an incredible match! If the guys weren’t inspired after this I don’t know what would do it.
The match had lasted almost two hours and it was 11pm at this point so we headed back to the hotel. Some of the guys stayed up and played cards but most went to sleep. The sun and all the walking around is very draining. By the way, I don’t know how they do it but all the Italians seem to eat is pizza, paninis, pasta and gelato and they are incredibly skinny. Maybe it’s all the walking around in the sun, I don’t know, I can’t figure it out.
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cari
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when in rome...
i dunno dusty, maybe you should rethink your training and diet regimen for the fall..."pizza, paninis, pasta and gelato" sounds pretty good...! great blog. thanks for sharing!