Captain Aaron Feltham works out during the Canadian men's water polo team practice in Calgary, Alberta March 20, 2012.TODD KOROL/Reuters
Canada's 13-5 water polo swamping of Argentina – the host club's third consecutive win in the Olympic qualifying tournament in Edmonton – has set up a first-place showdown Thursday night with Spain.
"The team is progressing really well," said Water Polo Canada executive director Ahmed El-Awadi. "They're a young group and they're exceeding their abilities. We've trained with Spain on and off last year, and we trained with Italy most of last year in Montreal and Calgary. I think it's paying off. But now the guys are under the gun. They need to perform on demand.
"It's a quarter-final game but everything is on the line."
Canada's game against Spain, set for 9:40 pm Eastern, will be streamed live at www.waterpolo.ca.
Four teams from the 11-country tournament will earn Olympic berths and Canada's biggest challenge will come in the April 6{+t}{+h} crossover game.
Wednesday, for the third night in a row, the Canadians dominated a B-pool opponent, with Calgary's Oliver Vikalo scoring three goal to lead the team.
"I didn't have to do much but throw it in the net," he said, praising teammates at Edmonton's Kinsmen Sports Centre. "It wasn't really me, it was them."
Canada has outscored its opponents 39-19 in three round-robin matches in B-pool.
Scott Robinson of Calgary says the key to a win over Spain – and first place in its group – is consistency.
"We have to keep the tempo we play at. We've got to play smart and we've got to watch everything the whole time."
Canadian Captain, Aaron Feltham of Lindsay, Ont., says the team has made steady progress through the tournament.
"We feel pretty good about ourselves. We've got our main guns firing and we're starting to swim better as well."
In Wednesday's other matches in the tournament, matches: Albert Espanol scored five times in leading Spain to a 21-2 blitzing of Turkey; Romania beat the Netherlands 7-5 for Romania's third win in four matches; Montenegro defeated the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 14-6 to remain undefeated in the A-pool; and Greece, second in A-pool, nursed an early advantage to narrowly defeated Germany 11-9.