By Rick McKee, leader of the U.S. Men's Water Polo Team, which practiced for several months in Westlake Village and Thousand Oaks.

The way the bracket play works for us is we have to finish in the top three in order to advance. So, by beating China it set us up for a very important game today against Italy.

If we beat Italy, then it takes a lot of pressure off of us as we would only have to win one of our last three games. Now don't get me wrong, we want to win our bracket and advance immediately to the semi-finals giving us an automatic bid for a medal game, but it is nice to know that we don't have to win twoof our last three.

Well, how is that for a teaser? If you don't want to know the score yet, then don't scroll down ...

Last warning ....

OK, enough suspense ...

WE WON!!!

After the game, I heard a guy say that this was the most significant win internationally the USA has had in over 15 years. We have had a bad run of falling apart in big games, and this time we didn't.

We beat Italy 12-11 in a nail-biter. We were only behind early when Italy scored the first goal in the first quarter. After that, we would go up by two to three goals and Italy would fight to get back in.

We were up by three late in the fourth when Italy fought back to come within one with 17 seconds to go in the game; We held on and got the "V".

I once heard Charles Swindoll say, "Alleged 'impossibilities' are opportunities for our capacities to be stretched." Never let anyone tell you, "you can't," including yourself. It is an "alleged impossibility." Allow yourself to be stretched to your capacity and see what happens.

I BELIEVE WE ARE YET TO SEE WHAT WE ARE CAPABLE OF DOING!!!

So, up next is Serbia. We will play them on Thursday, and we are definitely on a roll - and ready to be stretched again.

Wayne Bean is a local supporter of the U.S. Men's Water Polo Team and has been posting blogs for Coach Terry Schroeder and the team while they are in Beijing.