Still No Gold for USA Women's Water Polo

Today I watched the top two Women's Water Polo Teams battle it out for the gold medal. The team from the Netherlands and team USA competed in a very close match. It came right down to the wire. Each team worked hard to answer every goal made by the other. Team USA initially was 4 goals behind, but caught up to the Dutch and kept it neck and neck right up to the end.

One player for the Netherlands was amazing. Danielle de Bruijn had one of the most spectacular performances of her water polo career. She managed to score seven of the nine goals that were completed by the Netherlands team, including the one that won the event with just 26 seconds remaining.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, even the coach of the American team, Guy Baker was impressed with her performance.

On team USA Jessica Steffens, managed two of the goals, where six other team members scored one each. Many of the goals occurred during power plays. The American team played well, but not well enough to overcome Danielle de Bruijn and get the gold medal. Team USA did have a good performance in defense by goalie Betsey Armstrong, no one scored against her for most of the last four minutes of the competition.

A few missed opportunities may have changed the outcome of this match. Several times the ball was in play, the rim of the goal deflected the ball, and just one of these going in could have tied it up. Some turnovers also could have changed the outcome. Some fouls led to power plays that gave and advantage to the Dutch team. For now, Team USA will have to wait until 2012 to try for the gold once again.

Beijing is only the third Olympics that featured Women's Water Polo as an Olympic event. With the great performances by the teams this year, It is likely that the sport will have a growing fan base for years to come.