BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS / DAY 15 : Foul Proves Costly as U.S. Loses to Spain : Water polo: Evans’ violation during breakaway by Americans results in man advantage that fuels 6-4 victory for hosts.

An ill-timed foul hurt the United States and a noisy home crowd inspired Spain, which reached its first Olympic water polo final with a 6-4 victory Saturday.

For the Americans, the loss ended hopes of a first gold medal after two consecutive silvers. For Spain, the final today against Italy is a chance to cap its best-ever Olympics with a 14th gold medal.

The Americans lost each of the past two Olympic finals to Yugoslavia, and they entered this tournament as the favorite because United Nations sanctions barred their archrivals.

“We had our opportunities,” said U.S. captain Terry Schroeder of Agoura Hills, a member of both silver medal squads. “We just didn’t play well when we needed to.”

Spain took a 4-2 lead at halftime, but the Americans closed to 4-3 on a goal by Kirk Everist of Orinda, Calif.

Halfway through the final seven-minute period, the Americans were on a breakaway toward the Spanish goal when Mike Evans of Ontario was called for fouling an opponent with a kick in the face.

Spain’s Pedro Garcia, taking advantage of the extra-man situation, surged down the other end of the pool and slammed a shot past goalie Craig Wilson of Davis., Calif., for a 5-3 lead.

U.S. Coach Bill Barnett called the foul the decisive point in the game.

“It was critical foul,” he said. “I’ll have to look at the films to see if it was an accident.”

The Americans put on pressure in the last two minutes, but goalie Jesus Rollan made two brilliant saves.

“We stayed in our game plan, which was to stay close until end,” Barnett said. “With a crowd like this, that’s what you have to do. We had our chances to put the ball in the cage, and we didn’t do it.”

Garcia scored on a soft lob over Wilson with 31 seconds to play. The 33-year-old Schroeder, whose Olympic career dates to the 1980 team that was forced to skip the Moscow Games, scored with 11 seconds to play as the crowd roared and the Spanish players on the bench prepared to leap into the pool.

“These are the kind of games you train for all your life,” Schroeder said. “We just couldn’t make the big plays.”

Italy advanced to today’s final with a 9-8 victory over the Commonwealth of Independent States.