Team USA dropped again in shootout

The U.S. men’s water polo team lost the fifth-place game of the FINA

World League Super Finals, 11-10, in a sudden-death penalty shootout

against Spain Saturday night before 5,085 fans at the Charter All

Digital Aquatic Center.

The crowd was the largest to take in a non-Olympic, international

water polo game in North America, easily breaking Friday night’s

record of 3,417. It was also the second straight night that the U.S.

lost in a shootout.

The game was one of the most physical of the tournament thus far.

The two teams only combined for 19 ejections, but play was stopped

twice for injuries and there were at least a half dozen offensive

foul calls that left players sluggish on the counterattack.

Team USA lost to Spain in the fifth-place game in last year’s

world championships in Barcelona.

Daniel Ballart finished with a game-high five goals, while

teammate U.S. Javier Garcia notched three. Brett Ormsby, Tony Azevedo

and Jeff Powers, a UC Irvine product, paced the U.S. with two apiece

in the loss.