London Olympics: U.S. men’s water polo loses badly to Hungary

LONDON -- It didn’t take long, a little more than an hour of churning water for U.S. medal chances to take a serious hit.

The men’s water polo team tumbled from second to a likely fourth-place finish in its group after a lifeless 11-6 loss Monday against Hungary in an Olympic preliminary. If Montenegro beats Great Britain as widely expected, the U.S. (3-2) will play Croatia (5-0) in the quarterfinals Wednesday.

Not exactly a breezy way to start single-elimination play.

After a silver medal effort at the 2008 Olympics, there was talk of the U.S. possibly breaking through here for its first gold medal in the sport.

But the U.S. offense faded badly against Hungary after averaging 9.3 goals in its first four Olympic matches.

Hungary, meanwhile, scored so many different ways: penalty shots, man-advantages, from close, from afar at Olympic Park water polo arena..

Norbert Hosnyanszky had three goals for Hungary, which led at halftime, 6-2. It was the lowest-scoring half in the tournament for the U.S.

Three relatively late U.S. goals made the score look closer than it could have been.

The U.S. looked solid after its 3-0 start but was bruised by Serbia two days ago, 11-6.

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