Mercado at the World University Games: Blog No. 2: Let the Games Begin
7/5/2019 6:28:00 PM | Men's Water Polo, Women's Water Polo
Brown University men's and women's water polo head coach Felix Mercado is serving as an assistant coach with USA Women's Water Polo for the 2019 World University Games in Naples, Italy. Competition at the tournament is slated for July 2-13, and during his time in Italy Mercado will provide blog updates.
Hello to Bruno Nation from Caserta, Italy! I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July. It was bittersweet (we lost to Italy) as the team celebrated the Fourth and another lesser holiday – my birthday!
Â
Security: It is crazy to think that for such a wonderful event we would have safety concerns, but it would be naive to think that we should never worry about safety. For the Napoli World University Games they decided against an Athlete Village. This is the first time this has happened, so I've been told. We are scattered throughout Napoli in various hotels. In our hotel are every men's and women's water polo team. Inside the hotel we have local police officers while the National Guard roams the outside with pretty intimidating weapons.
Â
Role on Coaching Staff: I have been fortunate to be a head coach for over 20 years so for this trip I wanted to try a different role with different responsibilities. While I watch tons of film, it's been a while since I filmed a live game. I am also learning an important skill set – being able to live tag each game I film. Head coach James Graham is a big fan of filming every opponent and every possible opponent, needless to say I have spent quite a bit of time at the pool! During the game, I am also live tagging so that after each game we play we are able to immediately breakdown all aspects our game. It turns out you can teach an old dog new tricks!
Â
Group Breakdown: Our bracket for this tournament is pretty close to being the most difficult you could imagine. Arguably we have four of the top five teams in the tournament. Some would call it 'the group of death.' While we have a great team, we have not had enough practice time together to feel too comfortable with how this will go. The one thing I was certain of was that we would no doubt get better with each contest and hopefully allow us to be the most prepared team when the crossover starts.
Â
Game vs. Russia (Loss, 10-9): Our first game of the tournament started somewhat well but with a clear sign, while we were up 2-0 after the first quarter we had committed too many exclusions and thank goodness for good goalie play or we would have been down. Russia was relentless on the counter attack and built enough momentum for the next quarter and a half that saw us staring at a 7-2 deficit toward the end of the third quarter. A timely timeout and a successful power play led us to get back in the game that saw us get two opportunities in the last couple of minutes of the game to allow us to tie, but we missed our shots losing 10-9. We were hoping that our strong finish was moving us in the right direction.
Â
Game vs. Italy (Loss, 8-6): Facing the home team in a foreign country is never an easy task, but this team was up for it. With a loud crowd cheering against us we battled for four quarters. Our stellar goalie play continued, and our defense was up to the task. Unfortunately, our offense struggled. With the score tied, 6-6, we had a chance to take the lead with a penalty shot, but our shooter hit the cross bar. Italy took the next opportunity to score the go-ahead goal and added another one for insurance as we had to go into a press to try to force some turnovers. We fell 8-6. While the loss was tough, the coaching staff felt that for the first time since this team has been assembled we were becoming a cohesive unit.
Â
We have two days of training and some down time before our next opponent – China on July 7. Wish us luck and let's get it USA!
Â
Team USA Women's Water Polo Group Stage Schedule
July 2 | 5:30 p.m. | Vs. Russia | Game 3 | Loss, 10-9
July 4 | 5:30 p.m. | Vs. Italy | Game 8 | Loss, 8-6
July 7 | 5:30 p.m. | Vs. China | Game 15
July 8 | 5:30 p.m. | Vs. Australia | Game 19
(All Times Local Time)
Hello to Bruno Nation from Caserta, Italy! I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July. It was bittersweet (we lost to Italy) as the team celebrated the Fourth and another lesser holiday – my birthday!
Â
Security: It is crazy to think that for such a wonderful event we would have safety concerns, but it would be naive to think that we should never worry about safety. For the Napoli World University Games they decided against an Athlete Village. This is the first time this has happened, so I've been told. We are scattered throughout Napoli in various hotels. In our hotel are every men's and women's water polo team. Inside the hotel we have local police officers while the National Guard roams the outside with pretty intimidating weapons.
Â
Role on Coaching Staff: I have been fortunate to be a head coach for over 20 years so for this trip I wanted to try a different role with different responsibilities. While I watch tons of film, it's been a while since I filmed a live game. I am also learning an important skill set – being able to live tag each game I film. Head coach James Graham is a big fan of filming every opponent and every possible opponent, needless to say I have spent quite a bit of time at the pool! During the game, I am also live tagging so that after each game we play we are able to immediately breakdown all aspects our game. It turns out you can teach an old dog new tricks!
Â
Group Breakdown: Our bracket for this tournament is pretty close to being the most difficult you could imagine. Arguably we have four of the top five teams in the tournament. Some would call it 'the group of death.' While we have a great team, we have not had enough practice time together to feel too comfortable with how this will go. The one thing I was certain of was that we would no doubt get better with each contest and hopefully allow us to be the most prepared team when the crossover starts.
Â
Game vs. Russia (Loss, 10-9): Our first game of the tournament started somewhat well but with a clear sign, while we were up 2-0 after the first quarter we had committed too many exclusions and thank goodness for good goalie play or we would have been down. Russia was relentless on the counter attack and built enough momentum for the next quarter and a half that saw us staring at a 7-2 deficit toward the end of the third quarter. A timely timeout and a successful power play led us to get back in the game that saw us get two opportunities in the last couple of minutes of the game to allow us to tie, but we missed our shots losing 10-9. We were hoping that our strong finish was moving us in the right direction.
Â
Game vs. Italy (Loss, 8-6): Facing the home team in a foreign country is never an easy task, but this team was up for it. With a loud crowd cheering against us we battled for four quarters. Our stellar goalie play continued, and our defense was up to the task. Unfortunately, our offense struggled. With the score tied, 6-6, we had a chance to take the lead with a penalty shot, but our shooter hit the cross bar. Italy took the next opportunity to score the go-ahead goal and added another one for insurance as we had to go into a press to try to force some turnovers. We fell 8-6. While the loss was tough, the coaching staff felt that for the first time since this team has been assembled we were becoming a cohesive unit.
Â
We have two days of training and some down time before our next opponent – China on July 7. Wish us luck and let's get it USA!
Â
Team USA Women's Water Polo Group Stage Schedule
July 2 | 5:30 p.m. | Vs. Russia | Game 3 | Loss, 10-9
July 4 | 5:30 p.m. | Vs. Italy | Game 8 | Loss, 8-6
July 7 | 5:30 p.m. | Vs. China | Game 15
July 8 | 5:30 p.m. | Vs. Australia | Game 19
(All Times Local Time)
Brown University 50th Anniversary Event Recap
Friday, April 11
Women’s Water Polo highlights vs Bucknell
Saturday, March 01
Brown Athletics 2024 Happy Holidays Video
Friday, December 20
Keira Heggie
Friday, November 08
