FINA Water Polo World League (Women's): USA vs. Australia - Match Report
La Jolla, California witnessed yet another world class display of water polo as the hosts, USA defeated Australia 12-11 in the final of the FINA World League. The match was played at a very high pace, with both sides trying their best to outdo their opponents. However, in the end it was the penalty shoot-out that decided the winning, something which fans in California must have gotten used to by now since 24 matches in 8 tournaments have had to rely on a penalty shoot-out to find a winner.
Australia, it appeared, had not learned their lesson after suffering an almost identical defeat at the hands of the North Americans less than a week ago. On that occasion the score had been 15-14 to the USA.
The match started off with the USA taking the lead and putting a lot of pressure on the Australian defence. The USA team has a reputation of taking leads and holding on to them and that is the way the game seemed to be heading as the score was 4-2 in favour of the North Americans at half time, to the delight of the home fans.
When the third quarter came to a close the Australians had cut the two goal lead to one, with the score at 5-4. The tide of the match was turning in favour of the women from Australia, who were spurred on by the fact that there was only a single goal difference standing between them and the Americans. The Australians did eventually level matters, making it 6-6, which meant that the game would head to penalties, eventually.
It got even better for Australia when they scored a goal, with just two minutes remaining on the clock. With the score 7-6 to the Australians and the clock ticking down, it looked like there was only going to be one winner. The Australians looked nervous at this point because in the last game, four days ago, they had been in the exact same position then conceded a late goal and went on to lose in the resulting penalty shoot-out.
This seemed to be playing on their minds, as they failed to hold on and let in a late goal which meant the match would head for penalties. Both teams had five penalty shots each and it was the Americans who held their nerves to take the World League crown for the fifth time, a record. In what was the highest amount of penalties converted in the tournament, only one shooter missed. It was the Australian, Jemma Dessauvagie who had been given the task of taking the seventh shot.
Betsy Armstrong, the USA Goalkeeper, who has been awarded the MVP pushed aside Jemma's shot to put the game in the hands of the North Americans. No one else missed which meant that the penalty shoot-out ended 5-4 in favour of the Americans and the game 12-11.
The USA Captain Brenda Villa looked delighted with the victory and indicated that she was looking forward to FINA World Cup in New Zealand next month, where the Australians will be trying to defend their crown. On the basis of this tournament though, it appears the Australians will have to come up with something unseen so far if they will manage to derail this phenomenal run of victories by the USA.
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