The men of USA Water Polo lose their first game in the last 4 minutes

Today was the third game for the men of USA Water Polo as they took on the Italian team. Unlike all the other games, I decided to park myself in one position for the entire game, capturing two periods from the offensive side and two periods from the defensive side.

Each game starts with the National Anthem of both teams. It is really weird when they do this and there are no spectators to react to this. They even make announcements to the "crowd" in the stadium even though there really isn't one. The only people in the stands are some other athletes and Olympic workers.

I set the camera to ISO 2000 which gave me a fast shutter speed. I was using my go-to lens of these Olympics, the Canon 200-400mm lens.

I saw the coach reacting to a call, and was taking a handful of images when this splash happened in the pool. I liked the image this way and submitted it to the team.

Photographing sports is as much about capturing the reaction as the action.

Here is Max Irving taking a penalty shot. Look how high he came out of the water! This is AWESOME strength!

During a timeout, the coach met with the team to talk strategy.

The Americans had the lead for most of the game.

Here is a rare shot of Ben Hallock shooting with his cap off.

Coach still not happy!

This is Drew Holland getting the attention of his teammates.

Max celebrating a goal.

The men had the lead through the entire game until the last 4 minutes, when the Italian team scored 3 unanswered goals to win the game. Ughhh.  It was a heartbreaking loss, but not catastrophic for the team. Just like the women's team, maybe one loss will be a motivator for the future.

__________________________________________________________________________

Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!
__________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
__________________________________________________________________________
Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Cuba, Europe, Asia, India and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours. 

__________________________________________________________________________