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London Olympics Water Polo: United States Vs. Romania Preview

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Both Romania and the United States are looking to improve to 2-0 in Group B play, and a chance to stay atop the standings, assuming there is not a tie. With Serbia likely going to win over host Great Britain this game will put the winner at the top.

In Romania's last game they were not challenged as they defeated Great Britain 13-4 and did not exert as much energy as the United States who needed to perform at their best to get their 8-7 win over Montenegro.


Related: Complete London water polo coverage

What the United States needs to do is to keep their defense as it was in their opener because it was stellar. The offense needs to improve as they were only able to draw six ejections, and only converted on two of those. Also, they need to get Tony Azevedo more than three shots, and if he can get to at least six shots that will be a big boost.

Romania is a team that did not make the FINA World League Finals in 2012 and lost to Greece in FINA World League play, but they also beat Span. At the 2012 FINA World Championships Romania lost to Australia, Canada, Japan, Serbia, Montenegro and only defeated China.

Also, this Romanian team was not even in the 2008 Beijing Games, but they are a team on the rise.

I did research to see when these two teams played lost, but could not find anything recent in a major tournament. There was no matchup in FINA World League Play, so recent history against these two teams is very limited.

Game Time: 2:40 p.m. ET

Streaming: NBCOlympics.com

TV: NBC 2:40 p.m. ET, 1:40 p.m. PT and 1:40 p.m. CT/MT (Live on East and Central time zones)

Check local listings, because the Olympic website is not super easy to finding out what is live and in what time zone when on NBC.

Come by and talk about the game, and as for my prediction I am going to say this is going to a close game but feel the United States can win it and will 11-9.

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