16th FINA World Championships
July 24 - August 9, 2015
Fina - FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DENATATION
July 24 - August 9, 2015
FINA World Championships KAZAN Russia 2015
Team USA earns world title in women's water polo tournament at FINA Worlds
07.08.2015, 23:02
Sport
The final of the women's water polo tournament in the 16th FINA World Championships has just ended. In a bitter fight Team USA beat the Dutch national team with a score of 5-4 in regular time.
The finalists of the women's draw during the tournament had already tasted the bitterness of defeat. True, the United States and the Netherlands both lost games in the group stage of the tournament, but that did not prevent these teams from winning in their groupings and getting to the decisive match. And no matter how the match ended, fans of the national teams will have something to remember: in the quarterfinal, Olympic champions from the US knocked out of the fight the then world champions from Spain (8-5), and the Dutch only won the semifinal in a penalty shoot-out to the winners of the bronze medal from Italy.
It would have been overly presumptuous to expect an open game, given that the price of failure would be equivalent to the medal values played in the World Championships.
In the first half of the match, the rivals chose cautious, wait-and-see tactics, trying to not waste rare opportunities to aim at an empty goal or squander strikes. At half-time, the United States and the Netherlands managed to use two chances to attack, and the finalists held out at 2-2.
The key period in this match was the third quarter, when the Americans were able to create a handicap with +2 odds. From then on, it was a matter of technique, and this evening the US team did not fail.
The last word of the match was left to the orange team, as the Netherlands squad is known in sporting circles, which managed to distinguish itself in the final quarter and rekindle the intrigue. But that goal remained the only and final assault and did not yield a positive result. The United States team won the game (5-4), and at the same time took the world championships water polo title. The winners' coach, Adam Krikorian, did not avoid a soaking in the pool this evening at the Water Polo Arena.
FINA Worlds 2015. Water polo.
Women. Final.
United States vs Netherlands – 5-4 (0-1, 2-1, 3-1, 0-1)
Water Polo Arena. August 7.
Press Office of Organising Committee for 16th FINA World Championships
