Women’s Olympic water polo tournament: USA squanders four-goal lead and misses medal
The United States blew a four-goal lead in the second half of its Olympic women’s water polo bronze medal match on Saturday, only to watch as the Netherlands came back to win 11-10, leaving the three-time Tokyo gold medalist without a medal of any color.
The United States led 9-5 with two minutes left in the third period and 10-7 with four minutes left in regulation, but the Americans collapsed in the home stretch, allowing four different Dutch scorers to secure their first medal since gold in Beijing in 2008. Sabrina van der Sloot sealed the victory with her fifth goal of the game one second before the end.
Three Americans scored two goals each, but the Americans only received an assist for one of the goals – a stagnation in the offensive that would come back to haunt them.
The defeat is a disaster for US water polo. It is the first time the sport has failed to win a medal since the Olympic Games were introduced in Sydney in 2000. The USA had won silver in Beijing and Sydney and bronze in Athens before winning three gold medals in a row.
The USA seemed to be in good form at the beginning and led 7-3 at halftime. Rachel Fattal opened the scoring with a quick counterattack and Kaleigh Gilchrist scored twice in the second quarter to give the Americans a 4-1 lead in the period. The lead grew to 9-5. Jordan Raney’s second goal of the game 1:59 before the end of the third period.
But the Dutch, who had recovered from an early deficit and forced Spain into a penalty shootout in the semi-final, were not finished yet.
Van der Sloot scored on a fast break to make it 9-6 before the end of the third period and then converted a penalty after the USA missed two chances to restore their four-goal lead. Jenna Flynn scored to make it 10-7, but van der Sloot prepared Vivian Sevenich in the power play and reduced the deficit to 10:8 with 3:54 minutes left.
goalie Laura Aarts Flynn denied the ball before Sevenich reduced the deficit to 10-9, then after a save by Aarts on Maddie Musselman, Bente Rogge converted a power play chance from Maartje Keuning feed.
The teams traded empty balls in the final minute before the Dutch called a timeout with nine seconds left after Aarts (nine saves) stopped Flynn, allowing van der Sloot to score the winner just before the final whistle.
Flynn, Jamie Neushul and Gilchrist each scored twice for the US team. Musselman and Fattal each scored only 1 of 4 shots and Maggie Steffens scored no points, capping a difficult tournament in and out of the water for the three-time Olympic gold medalist and all-time leading point scorer among Olympic athletes. Ashleigh Johnson blocked 11 shots.
Sevenich scored with both shots. Rogge scored a goal and had two assists. The USA defended both Brigitte Sleeking And Simone van der Kraats, who converted a total of 2 out of 9 throws, but it was in vain.
