On Thursday, after beating Macedonia
earlier in the week, we had our last game of pool play. We played
against Romania in a noon game to see who would be first in the
bracket.
Just to set the scene, it’s about 98
degrees here every day and at noon it feels over 100. The pool grows
hotter throughout the week while the balls get worse. The game
started slowly, with us missing our first three six on fives. Our
defense stayed strong but we could just not score. After four brutal
periods in the sun, the game was finally over. We had beat Romania
7-5. Romania is a team that we always seem to have problems with–
earlier in the year we lost to them in a friendly match. But this
time we wanted and needed those extra days off that we got by
winning.
Today us, Spain, Croatia and Hungary
have the day off since we qualified first in our brackets. Next we
play the winner of the game between Montenegro and Germany. Both
teams are strong and just a month ago Montenegro was considered to be
the best team in the world. The other bracket games are Spain vs. the
winner of Canada and China; Hungary vs. the winner of Italy and
Serbia; and Croatia vs. the winner of Romania and Australia. It has
turned out that our bracket route to the final four was a lot harder
than Spain and Croatia’s, but in order for us to win the Gold we
will have to beat these teams eventually.
As far as the team is concerned, we are
all getting our rest and preparing for Tuesday night. Bailey has been
sick with a 102 degree fever, and he played that way against Romania.
This time off has been great for his recovery and hopefully he will
get out of the room today! Layne has been having back issues but with
rest and therapy he is already looking livelier. As for the rest of
us, we are getting our massages and taking advantage of the hotel
Spa. Tonight we will see who we play and we will immediately start
preparing for our next game (Germany).