Water Polo

The Water Polo World Cup begins for the men's version of the sport on Tuesday as eight of the planet's top nations battle for the coveted title.

The tournament takes place in Almaty, Kazakhstan, from Aug. 19-24. 

The USA recently reaffirmed their dominance of the women's game, once again taking the title with a 10-6 victory against Australia in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, on Sunday.

They become the first female team to defend the World Cup since the Netherlands in 1999. 

Contesting the men's title this year are South Africa, Montenegro, Serbia, USA, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Australia and Hungary.

The tournament begins with a group stage, with four sides in each group. Below is the full schedule for the tournament.

Coverage of the World Cup and stream information can be found at FINA Live TV.

Preview

Defending the men's World Cup crown from four years ago are Serbia, who are favourites to succeed once again in 2014. They are the reigning FINA World League title holders after being victorious last June.

Croatia and Hungary are also among the favourites to take the World Cup title. The Croatians are the holders of Olympic gold from 2012, while Hungary did likewise at the World Championships.

Montenegro will also fancy their chances and are the most recent silver medalists from the World Championships.

Both Australia and the USA have depth and history in the sport and, although relative outsiders, each nation will battle their counterparts hard.

Team USA include three players with Olympic Games experience—John Mann, Merrill Moses and Jesse Smith—per SwimSwam.com.

The Aussie Sharks are taking a team blended with youth and experience to the World Cup after separate training camps at the Australian Institute of Sport and a useful stay in Kazakhstan before the competition.

Sharks coach Elvis Fatovic said it was hugely beneficial to train in the host nation and that he was in a buoyant mood before the competition, per Water Polo Australia:

It’s good to train in one of the best water polo environments, and to have a training game against Montenegro.

...

We played our last official game two months ago. We have worked on our fitness and improved each segment of our game, and I am very satisfied with the work put in.

We are looking forward to our next game, however we are aware that the quarter final will be the most important game of the tournament.

Serbia have the strength to once again win the World Cup, but it will be no easy task to navigate such tricky waters. The level of competition is high as these are the world's eight elite teams, but Serbia have the experience in such situations.

Hungary are a team with great ambition, and they will feel they can add the World Cup to their recent successes on the global stage.

The competition looks to be one of the strongest in living memory, with one of three or four nations capable of taking home the title.

Another day, another gold medal for the United States women on the water.

Although this time around, the ladies weren't racing side by side inside thin lanes. This time, they could go anywhere in the pool, except for the bottom. This time, instead of going faster than their opponents, they were essentially trying to drown them so they could throw a ball into the back of a net.

Call it hardcore swimming. Or floorless team handball. Or, if you want to be official, call it by it's real name.

Water polo.

The intense sport has quickly gained popularity in London, and while America's men's team wasn't able to medal in the up-and-coming sport, the U.S. women grabbed the gold by knocking off Spain, 8-5. 

Let's take a look at the best individual performances from Thursday's thrilling final. 

Maggie Steffens

How could I possibly start with anyone else?

Steffens, 19, may be the youngest player on Team USA, but she is also the most talented. She once again proved that against Spain. 

The current Stanford Cardinal took five shots. She made them all. Not only is that, well, about as efficient as you can possibly be (100 percent is good, right?), but she scored with variety, as well.

Steffens scored on an action shot, she scored on a center shot, she scored with an extra-man advantage, she scored on a penalty shot and she scored on the counterattack. 

With those five goals, Steffens easily entrenched herself as the best scorer of the tournament. In six matches, she racked up 21 goals on 27 shots.

Just gaudy numbers. 

Betsey Armstrong

While scoring goals is important, it's also kind of vital that you keep the ball out of the back of your own net, too. 

29-year-old Betsey Armstrong deserves credit for doing just that. 

Spain got off just 13 shots against Armstrong, which is credit to the defense of the U.S., but she also saved eight of them, allowing just five goals. 

For some perspective, in the entire tournament, only one team scored less than five goals in a single match (Great Britain scored three against Australia), and Spain's lowest output was nine.

So, basically, Armstrong came up with the best defensive effort of the tournament during the most important match. 

Brenda Villa

Captain Brenda Villa didn't do much that will show up on the score sheet, although she did nab a nice long-distance goal mid-way through the third period, but she deserves praise.

The talented defender was all over Spain's goal-scorers, and was a main reason why they weren't able to get many clean looks. 

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The U.S. men's water polo team started the London Games with gold-medal aspirations. They seemed well on their way when they opened Group B play with three wins.

The 2012 team was looking to build from their silver-medal performance in Beijing. They lost to Hungary in the gold-medal match 14-10, but believed they could build a championship team.

Part of their preparation for London was a pair of warm-up matches against Hungary. The U.S. won both contests and looked like a superior team in the process.

They put their 3-0-0 record up against Serbia, who was 2-1-0 after a tie with Montenegro. 

An 11-6 loss pointed to signs of problems.

Team USA looked uninspired in their effort against Hungary, dropping the game by the same margin as their first loss.

If being dominated in two straight losses doesn't cast doubt on their ability to advance from their opening match in the medal rounds, their opponent should.

The loss to Hungary moved them from the second seed to fourth. If not for a change in the format of the medal rounds, the U.S. would no longer have a shot at a medal (in 2008, only the top three teams from each group advanced).

But the 2012 tournament advances four teams from each group. 

The U.S. will face the top seed from Group A, undefeated Croatia. 

"We've played some very good quarters and we've played some very bad quarters," U.S. coach Terry Schroeder said to the L.A. Times.

"You can't win a medal at the Olympic Games playing that way."

"I have to take a lot of the blame. I put a lot of this on my shoulder, where we're at. For whatever reason, they're not playing like we should be. I've got to go back and look in the mirror first and say, 'What are we doing? What can I do better?'"

U.S. attacker Peter Varellas tried to sound optimistic. "It's concerning. Confidence is not at a real high right now, but we have 48 hours to get that back."

The team isn't playing with fire or purpose, making confidence one of several items that need to be addressed.

Confidence didn't seem to be an issue prior to the game. Team captain Tony Azevedo shared his thoughts on the U.S. prevailing on Twitter.

BTW Hungary here we come! #GOLD @usawp

— Tony Azevedo (@WaterPoloTony) August 5, 2012

Azevedo had a different tone after the match when he was quoted in an Associated Press report (h/t Fox Sports). But he believes the issues will be fixed for the medal round.

Look, it's defense, that's it. Six goals is not enough, but that's fine. But when on defense you can't make a stop, you can't expect to win. Defense is the part of the game that's really the easiest to change. It's heart and it's passion, and right now we're not playing with it, and I honestly can't tell you why.

A win would have led to the second seed and an opening match with Spain. The winner would advance to the semifinals and be guaranteed a medal game.

Beating Croatia is a more daunting task.

If gold was the team's goal, and they still believe they can achieve it, playing Croatia in the quarterfinals isn't an issue. The U.S. would have likely faced them in the semifinals had they beat Hungary in group play.

But a loss in the semifinals still means playing for bronze. If the Americans can't right their ship, and fast, they'll be out of the medal hunt in London.

That would be a disappointing finish for a team that came in with a realistic expectation of winning a gold medal.

Some things are left better off under the water—like all the stuff that goes on below the surface of a water polo match.

NBC found this out on Wednesday, as Yahoo! Sports reported, when they flashed to an underwater shot and showed the nipple of a Spanish player that was exposed as a result of a swimsuit tug by her American opponent.

And there it was, for all the world to see, or at least everyone watching the U.S. battle Spain in water polo. 

There are a couple of shocking aspects to this. The first is that NBC was actually showing something live. In an Olympics where it feels like 95 percent of the coverage is tape delayed, NBC executives have to be swearing at the heavens when one of the few things they show live happens to result in them breaking what I assume is a whole chapter of FCC rules.

The second shocking thing is that this hasn't happened yet. Water polo is rough. These athletes beat the crap out of each other with every chance they get.

I mean, just watch the opening of a match, when a player from each side sprints to the middle of the pool to grab possession of the ball. They completely ignore the ball in what appears to be a serious attempt to drown the other person. 

Sometimes, this abuse happens above the water. More often than not, it happens below the water. It is slightly shocking that every men's water polo player doesn't exit the pool sans his swimsuit. They must have Olympic-grade elastic in those bad boys to keep them up. 

At any rate, as soon as they put cameras under the water, this was bound to happen. I hope this doesn't force them to eliminate these below-surface shots for water polo. They are fascinating.

What they could do is decide not to show any of the underwater shots live, which should be simple enough for NBC to figure out, as they have this tape-delayed thing down to a science. 

Of all the so-called "minor" sports at the Summer Olympics few capture the attention of fans quite like water polo, where teams from across the globe compete in a high-scoring game that's part team handball, part swimming and all excitement.

Here's a glance at a trio of players to look out for when the water polo competition kicks off July 29, from a three-time Olympic champion to the reigning world player of the year and the best hope for the United States to end a gold medal drought that has lasted for more than a century.

Gergely Kiss, Hungary

The 34-year-old captain of the Hungarian national team is not only a three-time gold medal winner and the best left-handed water polo player in the world, but also a star of stage and screen, as Gergely Kiss portrayed a Soviet player in the 2006 film Children of Glory, which detailed the infamous "Blood in the Water" match between Hungary and the Soviet Union at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.

Kiss is the leader of a Hungarian squad that is riding an unheard-of 17-match unbeaten streak at the Olympics, with their last defeat coming at the 2000 games in Sydney.

However, the team hasn't won a World Championship since 2003 and has suffered a number of recent setbacks against European rivals, something that Kiss told The Global Times is at the forefront of his mind as the Hungarians head to London.

We are going to London to win. There are four or five teams which can win gold, and one of them is Hungary. We just have to be ready from the off and put all the history behind us.

Filip Filipovic, Serbia

More than one of the Hungarians' recent defeats have come at the hands of the Serbians, who are led by 2010 world player of the year Vanja Udovicic and 2011 player of the year Filip Filipovic. The Serbs are the reigning European champions and were the runners-up at last year's World Championships, losing to Italy 8-7 in the finals.

The 25-year-old Filipovic was the MVP of the 2011 World Championships and leads a loaded Serbian team that is considered by many the gold medal favorite at the London Games, an assessment shared by U.S. men's water polo coach Terry Schroeder according to the Associated Press via The Bradenton Herald.

"Serbia has certainly been the most consistent team over the last three years," said United States coach Terry Schroeder, who helped the Americans to a silver medal in Beijing four years ago. "They've been really the top team and I think they have the most balanced team right now."

Tony Azevedo, United States

The United States men's water polo team came tantalizingly close to winning its first gold medal since 1904 at the Beijing Games four years ago, falling to Hungary 14-10 in the finals. This was due in large part to the stellar play of Tony Azevedo, who will be making his fourth Olympic appearance as a member of Team USA.

The Brazilian-born 30-year-old has been nicknamed "The Savior" and hopes to make a record fifth Olympic appearance in four years when the 2016 Olympics are held in his birth nation.

However, the Rio de Janeiro Games are the furthest thing from the Stanford grad's mind right now, as the American team captain's focus is squarely on the task at hand according to Ryan Lucas of the Associated Press via Yahoo! Sports.

Every single one of us skipped the opportunity to play overseas. We as the older guys, the leaders, kind of talked about it and decided that this is definitely the best thing for us. We've worked so hard for so long, we know each other so well now that we just feel like this team is the one that's going to win it, if there is one. And we're just hoping that more time training together and getting prepared is going to be the solution.

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In the world of women's water polo, the United States is one of the most successful nations in history. The Americans are the team that's reached the podium in every Olympics since the sport was included in 2000 at the Athens Games.

Think that's enough to satisfy them? Not even.

Kami Craig stood in front of me a conflicted 21-year-old in Beijing, wiping away tears of disappointment but also smiling in delight as her first Olympic medal hung from her neck. The top-ranked United States team had just lost a wild 9-8 title match against the Netherlands to fall short of a gold medal once again.

"It's definitely a hard one to lose," she told me in an interview for the Santa Barbara News-Press (link is behind a paywall). "But we fought until the end and I'm proud to wear a silver medal."

Almost no one on the team smiled on the podium. Team USA star Natalie Golda cried in the post-match press conference a few minutes later, knowing that she would retire before another golden opportunity in London.

The Americans head into British waters returning seven players from the Beijing roster. Two of those players, attackers Brenda Villa and Heather Petri, will be playing in their fourth Olympics. Their pool consists of Hungary, China and Spain.

The U.S. beat Hungary in four consecutive tune-up matches held throughout California over the past week, and took down fourth-ranked China 10-6 in the FINA Super Finals last month. Second-ranked Australia split with the Chinese in the Asia/Oceania qualifying tournament.  

The U.S. won gold at the Pan-American Games last year, thanks in large part to 28 saves from star goalie Betsey Armstrong. While the Americans were sixth at the World Championships in 2011, they won the event in 2009 and took the FINA World Cup in 2010. Most impressively, they have won four consecutive World League championships.

They've also figured out how to win in various ways after the four unique matches against Hungary, in which the team had to come from behind as well as maintain leads and win in close situations.

“It’s good to play a series of four games and good to be reminded of how quickly things can change,” Armstrong said afterwards. “You have to remember to play your own game.”

If they play their game in London, look for them to finally reach the top of the Olympic podium.