Americans Run Out of Breath

NEWPORT BEACH — The United States and Yugoslavia staggered to the finish line at the Newport International water polo tournament Sunday.

Yugoslavia was short of players and the U.S. players were just short of breath after playing six games in as many days.

Yugoslavia had just enough left to defeat the U.S. national team, 9-8, in the championship game in front of about 1,600 at the Marian Bergeson Aquatic Center at Corona del Mar High.

The U.S. team had two good chances to get even with Yugoslavia in the final minute, but couldn’t get off a shot on either occasion.

The first came after a steal by Chris Oeding, which led to a two-on-one break with a minute remaining. However, Gavin Arroyo’s pass ahead to Wolf Wigo was broken up when goalkeeper Dragan Jovanovic charged out of the goal and got to the ball first.

Yugoslavia quickly turned the ball over on its next possession, and the U.S. team called timeout with 28 seconds remaining to set up a final play. Oeding tried to get a pass into Chris Humbert at the two-meter position right away, but Humbert couldn’t handle it and Jovanovic snatched the ball, holding it the final 20 seconds.

“The ball came in and I usually score that thing,” Humbert said. “I just didn’t get a good handle on it. Those things happen.”

The U.S. team was plagued by its inability to capitalize on extra-man opportunities. The team was awarded the extra player 13 times, but took advantage only four times. Yugoslavia converted on four of six man-advantage opportunities.

Humbert said it appeared the U.S. team was starting to feel the weight of the tournament schedule, and was saving most of its energy for the defensive end of the pool.

“It’s probably not best to rest on the extra man,” Humbert said. “But I think some of us were thinking, ‘OK, we’ll take it easy for 15 seconds and then try to score the last five.’ But this team hasn’t played six games in six days before, I haven’t done it in a year.”

Yugoslavia was faced with a different challenge, as it was left with only eight healthy bodies after three players were forced to sit because of injury.

If the game had gone to overtime, Yugoslavia would have been at a serious disadvantage. Two players already had fouled out, leaving them with only one emergency substitute, injured 17-year-old Branko Pekovic, and a couple others were a foul away from taking a seat.

“If we would have been tied at the end, we would have been in trouble because we were out of substitutes,” Yugoslavia Coach Nikola Stamenic said.

Neither team led by more than a goal until Yugoslavia scored three times in two minutes to take an 8-5 lead late in the third quarter.

Humbert slapped in a lob pass from Oeding with 1:27 left in the third to cut the lead to two and Jeremy Laster skipped a shot past Jovanovic two minutes into the final quarter to make it 8-7.

Yugoslavia answered on its next possession when it took advantage of a defensive breakdown in the hole and Veljko Vukokovic scored easily.

Oeding and Humbert were successful on another lob into the middle with two minutes remaining, as Humbert came high out of the water to spike the pass into the goal to make the score 9-8.

In the third-place game, Croatia defeated Australia, 9-8, and Greece finished fifth by defeating Canada, 13-2.