The U.S. men’s water polo team defeated Romania 10–8 Tuesday afternoon, advancing on its path to better its silver-medal performance in Beijing.
After beating Montenegro in July 29, the U.S. men faced a Romanian squad anchored by center-forward Cosmin Radu. The U.S. team needed to challenge Radu on defense and shut him down on offense. In the first half, they failed to do that—Radu scored three goals and Romania led 5–4 at the buzzer.
The U.S. opened the scoring in the second half with Ryan Bailey getting the first of three goals in the half. Peter Varellas added two more in the half and Adam Wright another, while Radu was held to a single score.
Romania’s Kalman Kadar scored a power-play goal with 1:14 left, and Alexandru Ghiban tipped in a great cross from Iosep Andrei with three seconds left, but by that point the U.S. knew it had won and wasn’t worried.
The U.S. defense was almost impenetrable, with good blocking and amazing goaltending by Merill Moses, the deservedly famous U.S. keeper.
The U.S. faces Great Britain next, in what will be a stern test of the team’s skill.
