In 1980, the US Men's Hockey team performed the greatest upset in Olympic history, beating the USSR in dramatic fashion. The game instantly became known as the Miracle On Ice and propelled the US team into the gold medal game against Sweden, which they won.
While today's win by the US men's water polo team over Serbia isn't quite the same, it's getting pretty darn close.
Heading into the Olympics, not having won water polo gold since 1904, the US men's water polo team was ranked 9th in the world and wasn't expected to do much in Beijing. But they won their group giving them a bye into the semifinals. And to make things even more interesting, it appeared that Serbia, a water polo power, specifically took a dive against a poor Italian team during group play so that they could ultimately face the United States in the semifinals.
And the US heard about that, and US coach Terry Schroeder had this to say, "If Serbia gets that far, we'll be ready for them."
They definitely were. The US dominated the second half against a team that hadn't let them score more than three goals the last several times they had squared off. This time the US put in 10 goals, winning easily 10-5.
The US now faces Hungary, whose national sport is water polo. It'll be a tall task for the US men's team, but then again, they've been surprising everyone these whole Olympics. And it'll be awesome if they can do it again.
The gold medal game is Sunday at noon on NBC.
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