By Dr. Terry Schroeder, Westlake Village resident and head coach of the U.S. Olympic Men's Water Polo Team, which practiced for several months in Westlake Village and Thousand Oaks.

I hope that you all were able to see some of the Italy game on TV. I heard that they showed the fourth quarter.

If you saw it - Is your heart still racing like mine? I think the guys are trying to age me fast. After taking a three-goal lead with threeminutes to go in the game - I thought we had it made no problem.

I think that some of the guys might have thought the same thing and eased up a bit. We stopped attacking and we gave the Italians momentum.

On reflection, I really think that most of our guys are not used to being ahead by two to three goals in a big game. We talked about it today and I told them that we need to get used to being ahead and play in control with a "killer instinct."

We really should have put the Italians away when we had the chance. What is the old saying - "live and learn" - and the most important thing is that we won the game and came away with another two points.

Right now, we are one of three teams (Croatia, Spain and USA) that have a four points and are 2-0. Tomorrow will be a big test to see how far we have come. At 10:50 a.m., we will play Serbia.

Serbia came into the Olympic Games as one of the favorites and I believe that still may be talent-wise the best team. However, they have lost two key players in the last 90 days to significant injuries and yesterday they looked a little out of sorts.

They lost to Croatia 11-8, but at one time, they were down 9-4.

A few of the keys for us tomorrow are as follows; our defense must play well for four quarters - specifically we must do a good job of shot blocking on the perimeter, we must slow down Sapic (he is their big scorer).

Our goal is to hold him to two goals. We must continue to do a good job on 6-on-5 and 5-on-6, and we must wear them down by making them go up and down without scoring on three to four series in a row.

If we can do these things, we will win. We have not beaten Serbia for years in international competition so I say - why not now? We can do it.

I just sense that the Serbians are ripe for an upset. In fact, in my mind it would not be an upset. I feel like we are ready to take down some of these water polo giants.

We have an early wake-up call at 6 a.m., so I am going to get some rest. My voice is coming back slowly - just in time to yell some more.

Keep all of those positive thoughts and prayers coming our way. I can feel the vibe! GO USA!

It is going to be an awesome day tomorrow - one that I have been anticipating for a long time.

See you at the pool!

Coach

Wayne Bean is a local supporter of the U.S. Men's Water Polo Team and has been posting blog entries for Coach Schroeder while he is in Beijing.