If you thought NHL obstruction was bad...

[Kidder]

I'm sitting here watching Canada play the U.S. in water polo and can't believe what I'm seeing. It's an absolute mugfest out there. The ball is brought up to pool, and then its the first person to tackle the opposition. I'm surprised more players don't drown having defenders holding there head under water. Yeesh.

With no hockey nowadays to keep me satisfied, the Olympics have been a real treat to watch. Is anybody watching these games religously, or just keeping up to date with Canada's results?

Personally I love watching the swimming and rowing events. You can see the races develop as someone breaks away from the pack, or a chaser tries to pull even with the leader. Great news is the Olympics go right up to the World Cup so I'll be gettin my sport fix until mid September. Then just one year till the NHL resumes.

So is anybody else tuning in? It may not be hockey but it beats the shakaldoo out of baseball. Oh wait thats in there too.

[Inferno]

I was flicking through channels and watched some of it and I too cant believe how dirty the American women are playing.

[Mike__]

I don't watch much, I just try to see how the canadians are doing. I also like to see the american "dream team" struggle. Although they won against greece.

[RougeUnderoos]

Yeah I watched that. That looks like the most frustrating game in the world to play, unless you are one of those people that like to get dunked over and over.

I don't know if the Americans were playing dirty -- it looked pretty even to me and the Canadian color-woman (who has seen at least one game before, which is more than me) didn't seem to think they were playing dirty.

Strange game that water polo. The ref seems to blow the whistle constantly and nothing happens, then sometimes one of the players gets an invisible penalty and has to swim over to that little box.

Great finish too -- Canada was down 5-1 at one point but won it 6-5 in the final minutes.

[Cowperson]

In my younger days, I played a few summer water polo games and it gets downright vicious underneath the water. Its a pretty tough sport.

The "Blood In The Water" match between the Soviet Union and Hungary at the 1956 Olympics is legendary.

http://www.usawaterpolo.com/manual_news/02...etteamsmeet.htm

Cowperson

[Kobasew7]

Waterpolo is 1 of the funnest, yet must frustrating games to watch. The constant whistles..basically you wait for the penalty and the PP to happen to see a goal. As far as the Americans playing dirty..it went both ways. And it's everygame..so can't just single 1 country out.

Also, as far as watching the 'dream team' struggle..that's not a dream team. Thats just team USA basketball. There was only 1 dream team in 92', and no 1 even got close. If the american players that were invited all accepted thier invites (McGrady, Kobe, Shaq, Houston, Allen, Francis, exc exc.) Would have went..no team would get within 20 points of them..mainly because they all are lights out from 3, with the exception of Shaq who would just destroy down the middle and under the basket. That would be a newer version of a dream team.. the team over there now is more like the 'fill-in team'.

[1965]

No kidding, Kidder! For some reason, Sunday was the first time I watched any water polo ever, but it was awesome! Sunday was a catfight between an eastern European team and Canada, I believe. Most of the above water footage looks gentlemanly, but the underwater shots! Yikes! Those girls were ripping, pulling, kicking, elbowing, and gouging like they were fighting over a boy in 4th period high school smoke-hole! All this while treading water considerably deeper than they were tall. And between breaks they were barely breathing heavy! I just loved the penalty box (tell me there is a seat in there!), too, just like hockey.

Being from a seriously rural community (one McDonalds, one stop-light), for fun we used to tread water in the middle of Lake Allatoona and throw rocks to each other, so I pride myself on being able to tread water with the best of them. But there's still no way I wouldn't have been floating to the bottom during this water polo game.

I walked away a couple of hours later thinking, if you're gonna play water polo, You Have GOT To Want It Bad. Dammit, I wish I was 20 years younger, so I could play this sport!