I Hope They Give The Horses Snorkels

My first experience of water polo comes right on the back of that once-in-a-lifetime day at the athletics track, so it takes a while to come back to earth.  It's a great time to start though, Spain are playing Hungary for a place in the women's semi finals.  There are similarities to handball, superficially, though it's hard to have the same connection to the swimmers when yo can only see fourteen covered heads in the pool.

The tactics have much in common though.  The choice is either a slow passing build-up or a fast break offence.  The latter is more dramatic, and with enough speed in the side, very effective.    Players are under pressure not to slow the game too much from a 30 second shot clock, and coaches must also manage rolling substitutions, constant sin-binnings, and trying not to get sent off themselves - as happened to Spain's fiery young coach Miki Oca.

The Spanish win their game with a great work ethic, then Australia beat Russia with an athletic counter-attacking game based on unsettling their opponents.  The Australians take 16 player ejections to Russia's 5, but run out winners despite playing several minutes short-handed.  Only three girls on the Aussie squad escape the sin bin - and two of those are goalkeepers!  Some great shooting from distance makes the difference for them however.  When the ball is pinging around, this is a great spectator sport, when the play breaks down and the action is mostly taking place under the surface of the water in the form of holds, kicks and shoves, it's harder to follow.  The race from both ends of the pool to the ball at a restart is a great mini-game too.