Day 3- Versus Germany

Today was the third day of the tournament.  We knew it would be our toughest game so far.   Germany is the reigning 2015 World Champions and also has a strong women's league and as a whole, has a lot of experienced players.  At the 2015 World Championships, the USA lost to Germany 31-0, but we knew we could do better than that!

We had a nice warm up today, which included dancing and going down the slides in the outdoor pool!  We danced out our nerves and prepared for the challenge ahead.

Germany came out hard from the first sprint and turned it into a goal within the first minute.  That shook us up a little.  We tried to maintain composure, but then one of our goalies was given a 2 minute penalty after a German player had stolen our basket.  We defended hard, until she was allowed back into the game.  Shortly after, we also had a defender receive a 2 minute penalty.  The was not great.  Once we were back at full strength, we were able to calm down and get back into a better rotation.  We were able to make some plays toward the other side of the pool, but we were not able make many strong attacks.  We finished the first half at 7-0.

After half time, we started with a new plan to try to hold them off.  It worked better, and allowed more opportunities to swim and we made good passes on counter attacks.  This seemed to work, and they only scored four more goals in the second half with a final score of 11-0. 

Overall, it was a hard fought game, and the score shows how far we have come as a country playing UWR over the past four years.

Tomorrow is a new day, and we are ready for the crossover games between our group A and group C.  This game will decide if we move up to first through eighth place, or play ninth through thirteenth.  We play Australia, wearing white, at 16:00 CET ((10 am EST, 9 am CST, 8 am MST, or 7 am PST).  We do not have the link for the live stream yet, but it should be posted on this channel.  Look for the video with "Live Now" on it.

Also, if you have been trying to go back and watch later, we are sorry, it seems the live stream at the end of the day is missing some of the games.  Hopefully they will post the individual matches soon!  Here is the link to the start of the Germany game from the live stream.

World Championship YouTube Link

USA Men and Women lined up for the national anthem prior to the men's game against Austria.