A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

EVERYONE'S FAVORITE AQUATIC OLYMPIC EVENT INVOLVING A BALL: This just in from roving water polo correspondent Mr. Cosmopolitan:

The USA men’s water polo team continued its overachieving ways yesterday [yesterday, at least, by NBC's standards -- ed.], pulling off a stunning upset over the world's number one team, Croatia, by the score of 7-5. Previously, the men had beaten China 8-4, beaten Italy 12-11, and lost to Serbia 2-4. While the win over Croatia is probably the biggest single-game win for U.S. water polo in a couple of decades, it will go down as a Pujols-Lidge footnote [yeah, I don't get that either, although five'll get you ten it's a Cardinals reference -- ed.] unless we beat Germany on Monday. Although currently tied for the lead in Group B with Serbia and Croatia, because of how the head-to-head wins and losses have broken down, a loss to Germany would leave the U.S. out of the medal round. On the other hand, it’s barely possible (if Serbia loses to China – ha!) that the U.S. could win its group, and thus get a bye to the semi-finals.

This scenario is actually a lot like the way this team is playing -- lots of upside, but frightening downside. Essentially (and look at the game scores), the U.S. men are playing to the level of their competition. While beating and hanging tight with two of the best teams in the world, the U.S. has been struggling against middling competition. So the good news is the U.S. men have the ability to beat the best in the world, and the bad news is that they sometimes lose focus against weaker teams. The U.S. matches up well with Germany, though, and Serbia and Croatia have pounded Germany by a total of 12 goals. So set your DVRs and hope for the best.

A quick note on the women: although they have won their group and thus advance automatically to the semi-finals, the U.S. women have been less than impressive in group play. They beat China 12-11, tied Italy 9-9, and then beat Russia 12-7. They’ll play the winner of Australia/China on Tuesday.