USA men’s water polo survive rare brutality penalty to advance to Olympic semifinals

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A brutal penalty couldn’t stop the American men’s water polo team.

Johnny Hooper received a rarely called brutality penalty for hitting Australia’s Chaz Poot in the head during Team USA’s 11-10 shootout win Wednesday at the 2024 Paris Olympics at La Defense Arena.

That controversial penalty resulted in Hooper’s ejection and led to Australia scoring on the ensuing penalty throw before the Americans rallied to advance to the semifinals.

NBC analyst Tony Azevdeo disagreed with the call.

“(Poot)’s grabbing his head, so he’s tried to get him out, and then comes up with a punch to the head in the other player,” Azevedo said.

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“They’re grabbing each other, both of them should be kicked out and then, yes, he hits him on top but it’s a reaction to somebody grabbing your head under water. You don’t have the ability to breathe, what is your reaction supposed to be to get free and breathe? Get him off of me. In that sense, it isn’t violent.”

A brutality penalty occurs “very rarely” per the USA Water Polo website and is described as when an “offending player demonstrate obvious intent to injure another player. This is much more serious than mere violence.”

The contested play happened in the lead-up to what would have been a game-tying goal from American Max Irving with 19 seconds remaining in the first period.

Both Azevedo and the Olympics recap of the game stated that Poot had been holding Hooper’s head under the water before Hooper connected with an overhead motion and hit Poot in the head.

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An official reviewed the play via video assist referee and announced the penalty and that the goal would not stand, maintaining Australia’s 2-1 advantage with 33 seconds left in the first quarter.

Poot received a field exclusion for the play.

“You can see that is a punch to the head, yes, but he’s grabbing his head under water, not allowing the guy to breathe for 30 seconds,” Azevedo said.

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“You can see (Poot) laughing on the bench, saying ‘I can’t believe we just got a brutality out of that. This is where that VAR needs to improve.”

Australia scored on the ensuing penalty throw and then scored twice more during the four-minute penalty to grab a 5-2 lead.

America battled back to send the game to the shootout, where they won, 4-3, to set up Friday’s semifinal clash against back-to-back Olympic champion Serbia.

Hooper, who scored Team USA’s first goal, seemingly will not play in that game since the Team USA rules states a player assessed a brutality penalty will miss “at least” the next contest.

“It was exhausting,” U.S. attacker Marko Vavic said of the win, according to the Associated Press . “Both of us fighting for our country, each trying to get to the semifinal. It’s what we’ve been dreaming about since we were kids. Everyone put it down on the line.”

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