RIO DE JANEIRO The U.S. women’s water polo team beat Hungary on Wednesday to reach the finals at the Rio Games where they will look to become the first women’s squad to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals in the sport. Hungary narrowed their deficit with a backhanded shot from Bujka that went right over USA goalkeeper Ashleigh Johnson’s shoulder. I remember one meeting talking about what pumps us up, and Ashleigh said when she makes a stop, immediately she can see the fire in our eyes because she was able to inspire her teammates. We have two more days, one more game with this group of girls.
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Numerous team’s players, he said, had trained their whole lives for a chance at Olympic gold.
Roberta Bianconi added two goals as Italy improved to a flawless 5-0 in Rio de Janeiro, winning by a combined score of 51-31.
The United States has medaled in every single Olympics that has offered women’s water polo.
The U.S. players put their gold medals around the neck of coach Adam Krikorian, a gesture he said “means a ton”. “When we are in danger she can go out there and do everything for us”.
The two scores in the first quarter was the only time in the game the US allowed Hungary to score back-to-back goals.
Hungary scored right away in the third quarter, on a Keszthelyi shot, to pull within 2 points of the USA, but it was the closest they would get.
With the US featuring strong and unselfish play on the offensive end of the pool, the Italians needed to score goals to keep up.
Italy stayed undefeated against Russian Federation in the earlier semifinal match, doing what they’ve done all tournament – played great defense and scored just enough to win.
Italy’s Chiara Tabani, right, and Russia’s Maria Borisova fight for the ball during their wo …
Gabriel Jesus added two goals in the first half at the packed Maracana Stadium and Marquinhos and Luan scored a goal each in the second.
“The thing I kept coming back to is that it would be very selfish of me to let what happened to me personally and to my family and to let the grieving and mourning affect this group and what we set out to do the last four years”, Krikorian said.
The final was a face-off between the only two teams who had gone undefeated in all of their five previous games in Rio.
The semifinal match between Hungary and the United States was every bit as intense as the final 14-10 score suggests. “I don’t have any regrets because we did everything we could in our preparations and here”. Australia, Russia, Hungary and Spain all had two points each. The first came in in the 2004 semifinals which the Italians won on the way to a gold medal.
Rita Keszthelyi gave Hungary a 12-11 lead with a penalty shot with 1:11 left in regulation.
Glyzina led all scorers with five goals on eight shot attempts in regulation. He was one of three double-digit scorers for the USA, with Kevin Durant adding 14 points and Kyrie Irving 13, and DeAndre Jordan was the anchor defensively with 16 rebounds and four blocks to go along with nine points.
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USA is, in this moment, a team of another universe, Conti said.
