Men to play for Bronze

Rome, Italy - The USA Men's Senior National Team will play for a Bronze Medal at the 2009 FINA World Championships after falling to Spain 7-6 in the semifinal round. Team USA, which had been undefeated in tourney play prior to the loss will meet Croatia on Saturday at 4:00pm local Italy time in attempt to win their first ever World Championship medal.

The United States got off to a great start in this one posting the first two goals of the match. After a scoreless opening five minutes of action Team USA jumped out on a counter attack with JW Krumpholz (Santa Ana, CA/USC) coming free on the break to find the back of the net for a 1-0 lead. Then at the 2:31 mark they struck again on the fast break as this time Brian Alexander (Santa Ana, CA/UCSB) found Jeff Powers (San Luis Obispo, CA/UC-Irvine) for the tally and it was a 2-0 lead.

Spain would answer in the waning seconds of the period with a power play goal and it was 2-1 in favor of the USA going to the second. Spain won the sprint to open the second quarter and got down to business shortly thereafter with another player advantage goal to tie the game at 2-2 with 7:20 to play. Less than 30 seconds later the United States got it back as they went inside to Ryan Bailey (Long Beach, CA/UC-Irvine) who beasted his defender and fired home the score for a 3-2 lead.

The Spanish countered less than a minute later with another goal off a player advantage and the see-saw battle was knotted up again at 3-3. At the 5:11 mark the United States got out in transition again and this time Adam Wright (Seal Beach, CA/UCLA) hit Tony Azevedo (Long Beach, CA/Stanford) for a quick shot and a score to re-take the lead at 4-3.  No lead lasted very long in the first half and it proved true again when Spain came back with a score with 3:50 left in the period to tie the match at 4-4. That would also be the score going into halftime.

A low scoring battle emerged in the third quarter with no goals being registered in the first five minutes of play. Spain struck the first blow with a score at the 2:59 mark and they jumped back up 5-4. This was short lived as at the 1:21 mark, after a Spain exclusion, Powers used a series of fakes to beat the Spanish goalie and tie the match at 5-5.

It was a 5-5 game to start the fourth and Spain came out swinging again scoring the period's first goal on a player advantage with 6:31 to go for a 6-5 lead. The USA would not go quietly as they battled back for a score with 4:19 left in the period. For that score Peter Varellas (Moraga, CA/Stanford) worked the ball over to Tim Hutten (Seal Beach, CA/UC-Irvine) who was able to put away the power play goal.

Tied at 6-6 Spain would come up with what proved to be the pivotal goal. Following a USA exclusion the Spaniards found the cage at the 3:38 mark for a 7-6 lead. The United States would have opportunities down the stretch including a look at the cage with just two seconds remaining in the game but it was not to be. Spain came away the winners 7-6 and will meet Serbia for the Gold Medal on Saturday evening.

Merrill Moses patrolled the net for Team USA turning in 11 saves while Powers led on offense with two scores. The USA went 2/6 on man advantages while Spain was 4/6, neither team attempted a penalty shot.