U.S. Confident After Beating Yugoslavia for Third Place

The U.S. national water polo team will head into the Pan American Games later this week with renewed confidence after a solid effort Sunday in the UPS International Cup.

Team USA placed third in the eight-team tournament at Corona del Mar High with a 6-4 victory over Yugoslavia.

Russia, which lost to the U.S. in pool play, won the championship with a 7-6 victory against Italy.

“I thought we’d come back strong like we did,” Team USA Coach John Vargas said. “We wanted to come out of this tournament on a high note, and we did that.”

The Americans’ only loss in five games was a 6-5 defeat against Italy in the semifinals Saturday. Russia also finished 4-1, and Italy was 2-2-1. The U.S. begins play in the Pan Am Games in Winnipeg on Friday against Colombia. It will be the first opportunity for the U.S. to qualify for the 2000 Olympics.

“This [tournament] shows how competitive it is between the top eight teams in the world right now,” U.S. team captain Chris Oeding said. “One of our goals for this tournament was to play with consistency, and we did that except against Italy.”

The U.S. made a big improvement on defense Sunday after a lackluster effort against Italy, and had enough offense to get past Yugoslavia. U.S. goalkeeper Dan Hackett, a two-time All-American at UCLA, had eight saves.

Tony Azevedo, a 17-year-old senior at Long Beach Wilson High, scored two goals in the second quarter to lead the U.S. to a 4-3 halftime lead.

Robert Lynn added a goal in the third quarter, and Oeding scored with slightly less than two minutes left in the game to give the U.S. a two-goal advantage.