Maureen and I had the privilege of attending all of the women’s and men’s Medal-Round Volleyball Matches (quarter-finals through Gold Medal) in London in 2012, and several of the women’s and men’s matches in L.A. in ‘84, both treasured memories. We are not, unfortunately, on our way to Paris (though we love Paris), so will be watching on TV instead.
The 12-woman roster for this year’s U.S. Women’s Team includes one Minnesotan, but sadly, no Gophers. There were 2 Gophers, Hannah Tapp and Steph Samedy, on the 39-woman National Team Roster this spring, but apparently neither made the cut. (I have no info on why. Anyone?)
Edina High and U of Cincinnati’s Jordan Thompson, who made the Tokyo Team as the back-up Opposite, and then surged to stardom when starter Annie Drews was injured, is back, as is Drews. Watch for Thompson, wearing #12.
Other recognizable names include Cornhusker Jordan Larson, Badger Dana Rettke, and Stanford’s Kathryn Plummer. (Badger-Setter Lauren Carlini, who I never thought was as good as Seliger Swenson, also made the Paris roster, but surely as back-up to Illini Jordyn Poulter.) Not surprisingly, there are no Minnesotans on the U.S. Men’s Team.
FORMAT*: The 12 Women’s Teams and 12 Men’s Teams, are each assigned to a 4-team pool. During preliminaries, each team will play 3 matches within their pool. Following the prelims, 4 teams go home, and the other 8 are seeded into an 8-Team single-elimination tournament. (This is the standard Olympic format, I’m assuming no changes.)
The U.S. Women’s and Men’s Teams are both ranked in the middle of the 12, & both have suspiciously* favorable pool assignments. (I say “suspicious” because the International Olympic Committee is not indifferent to the fact that the U.S. TV-rights, purchased by NBC & their affiliates, are their single largest revenue stream. They want all U.S. teams in at least the quarter-finals, and preferably the semis.) The Women are pooled with France, China & Serbia, none of whom are ranked ahead of them, and the Men with Japan, Argentina & Germany (only Japan ranked ahead of them).
The top-ranked teams in the Women’s Volleyball are Italy & Brazil, followed by Turkey & Poland. The top-ranked teams in the Men’s Volleyball are Poland & Japan, followed by Slovenia & Italy.* (One of the most amazing players I’ve ever seen was Italy’s star middle hitter in the 2008 Olympics. He was only 6-4 (short for a Men;s middle), but he hit effectively with either hand – and he didn’t decide until he read the block! Very tough to defend.) But the U.S. Women’s and Men’s Teams have both done well, historically, in the Olympics, so not being seeded in the top four doesn’t mean they won’t medal.
WATER POLO PRIMER
(Nobody asked, but here it is.) Water Polo, my favorite sport, is a great sport to play, and a fun sport to watch, IF you’re watching in person and know the game. If you are unfamiliar with water polo and watching on TV — not so great. But with multiple channels covering the Olympics, you may end up watching a few minutes. Here are some tips to help you understand what you’re watching:
BASICS:
* The pool is at least 2 meters deep — no one ever touches the bottom.
* The playing surface is 30 meters long by 20 meters wide (just slightly longer and wider than an NBA court).
* The ball, always yellow, is similar in size to a volleyball, but heavier, with a slightly “pebbled” surface making it easier to hold when wet.
* Except during penalties, each side plays 1 goalie and 6 swimmers at a time (like hockey plus one).
* The object, obviously, is to put the ball into their goal, and prevent the opponent from putting the ball into your goal (like hockey or soccer).
* Players are not allowed to hide the ball under water, and only the goalies are allowed to touch the ball with both hands.
RULES:
* This is a “contact” sport (not a “collision” sport like football or hockey). The contact in water polo compares most closely to wrestling, in that one is in physical contact with an opponent most of the time. Grabbing, holding, and pushing-off are both illegal and routine — 95% of this takes place below the surface of the water, where it is essentially invisible to the refs standing on the pool deck. Refs call grabbing, holding, and pushing by inference, based on what they can see.
* You will hear a lot of whistles. Most are minor grabbing, holding, and pushing, the penalty for which is a free (uncontested) pass by the offended team. But unlike most of the sports you are familiar with, the action does not stop on a whistle. The clock stops until the pass leaves the passer’s hand (after the offended player surfaces, recovers the ball, and chooses a target); but during this “dead time,” offensive players are trying to swim away from defenders trying to guard (and likely holding) them. As a result, a 7 minute quarter takes roughly 15 minutes to play, during which there is virtually no let-up in exertion.
* “Majors” can be called for excessive grabbing, holding, and pushing, but are most frequently for routine grabbing, holding, and pushing within the “penalty zone,” i.e., within 5 meters of the goal. The penalty for a “major” is a 30-second exclusion — leaving his/her team shorthanded, like in hockey. But here again, the play continues, even as the guilty player swims toward the penalty area. 3 majors in one game is “fouled out.” (But replacable after the 30-second penalty.)
TACTICS:
* As is true with any up-and-down sport, transitions are important. If one were to watch a high school Water Polo game, most of the scoring might come from odd-man rushes (3 on 2s, 2 on 1s, 1 on 0s). But at the Olympic level, teams are so well coached that odd-man rushes are infrequent. (And when they happen, one of the drawbacks of watching on TV, the viewer will have no idea how that player got so wide open.)
* At the Olympic Level, most of the scoring will come from half-court / half-pool sets (most closely resembling basketball) involving a big guy (or gal) who posts up in front of the goal (my role, during my playing career, and the most physical part of the game), and 5 guys in a semi-circle trying to feed him the ball. The players on the outside try to stay far enough away from the big guy to make it difficult for their defender to double-team the big guy, yet close enough to pose a serious scoring threat if left undefended (a quick series of passes from one side of the pool to the other, and back, can get the goalie out of position). Mostly these outside players pass the ball around the semi-circle waiting for an opportunity to feed the ball inside (this part, especially on TV, can be a little boring) until the shot-clock expires.
* But typically, their goal is to feed the big guy — when he can get an arm free from the goon who is holding him. (In my case, it had to be my right arm, but many Olympians would be ambidextrous.) When I played, my goal was to shoot despite being fouled. But Olympic teams are coached to foul excessively and accept the major, rather than to allow any inside shot, so a successful feed generally results in a power play. Occasionally, you might see a second major called during the power play resulting in a two-man advantage. 3 majors by one player result in fouling out, but Olympic rosters are deep enough to keep rotating goons. (My opinion: it’s a better game when the big guy at least has a chance to get a shot off — you might see that occasionally.)
U.S. PROSPECTS:
Despite a long tradition as the best swimmers in the world, the U.S. Men’s Water Polo team has never won an Olympic Goal Medal. (We have won World Championships in non-Olympic years, and we won Olympic Silver in 1984.) I think the top contenders in Paris will be Spain, Hungary (Water Polo is the National sport of Hungary, and they have long been a world power) Greece and Serbia, followed by Italy, Croatia, Montenegro (Serbia; Croatia, & Montenegro were formerly part of Yugoslavia, also a traditional power). The U.S. will be a dark-horse.
Not surprisingly, the U.S. Women have done better since Women’s Water Polo was added to the Games. (They have won gold and usually medal.) And in Paris they will be among the favorites along with Spain, Hungary, Australia and the Netherlands.
(I hate to diminish the accomplishments of American Women, but our success in Water Polo, hockey, soccer, etc, is less about how wonderful American Women are, and more about the fact that women in other countries are much less likely to grow up playing team sports.)