The USA Men’s National Team lost to Serbia 13-6 in front of a packed house at the University of the Pacific. Alex Bowen (Santee, CA/Stanford/Stanford) and Josh Samuels (Villa Park, CA/UCLA/NYAC) scored two goals in the loss while Jon Sibley (Lafayette, CA/California/Lamorinda) posted 10 saves in net. The series resumes on Thursday evening at 7pm pt at UC-Davis. Tickets will be available at the door and the match will be streamed live, free of charge, courtesy of CoachesAid. To access streaming information, click here. The match at UC-Davis will feature experimental rules in the first half including a shorter course, five field players, and a smaller ball.
Serbia’s Slobodan Nikic scored the first goal of the game that was quickly answered by Alex Obert (Loomis, CA/Pacific/Sac Polo). Both teams continued to answer each other’s goals throughout the quarter. The United States had goals from Samuels, and John Mann (Newport Beach, CA/California/NYAC) and Serbia had goals from Nikola Dedovic, Branislav Mitrovic, and Milan Aleksic who gave Serbia the lead with 3 seconds left in the period. The score was close after the first quarter with a score of 4-3 but after that Serbia led the rest of the game.
Alex Bowen scored the first goal in the second quarter for the United States. Serbia answered with three goals from Nikola Dedovic, Andrija Prlainovic, and Nikola Raden. Samuels scored his second goal of the game for the US but Serbia once again got the last goal of the quarter with a buzzer beater by Stefan Mitrovic making it 8-5 at the end of the first half.
Bowen scored early in the third quarter for the USA. Serbia then expanded their lead with four unanswered goals to make the score 12-6. Serbian goals came from Dusah Mandic, Nikola Raden, and Slobodan Nikic who scored two goals in the quarter. Slobodan Nikic scored the lone goal in the fourth quarter to help Serbia to the victory.
Note: Team USA and Serbia met exactly five years ago tonight at the University of the Pacific on June 4,2009 in an exhibition match. The result was a 10-7 victory for Serbia. Three-time Olympian Jesse Smith scored three goals in the loss for the United States.
Team USA Scorers
Alex Obert- 1 Goal
Josh Samuels- 2 Goals
Alex Bowen- 2 Goals
John Mann- 1 Goal
Team Serbia Scorers
Slobodan Nikic- 4 Goals
Nikola Dedovic- 2 Goals
Stefan Mitrovic- 2 Goals
Milan Aleksic- 1 Goal
Nikola Raden- 2 Goals
Dusan Mandic- 1 Goal
Andrija Prlainovic- 1 Goal
Scoresheet
Swimming news / water polo news courtesy of USA Water Polo.
USA water polo must work much harder to balance their roster beyond California AND change their exceedingly conservative style of play to effectively compete with the historic water polo powers.
Well, USA head coach, Dejan Udovicic, was Serbian head coach until last year, and that is why they are playing these 4 friendly matches. The idea is to model USA game after Serbian team game.