The USA could become the first women's team to win three consecutive Olympic gold medal in water polo with a win over Spain on Saturday.
The only nation to win a medal in each edition of the Olympics since the women's water polo was added to the Games program at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, the Americans defeated Spain 8-5 to clinch a maiden gold medal at the London Olympics in 2012 and successfully retained their crown four years later when they thrashed Italy 12-5.
So far, the defending champions have lived up to their tag at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Having topped Group B with three wins in four games, Team USA overwhelmed Canada 16-5 in the quarterfinals before overcoming the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) team 15-11 in the semifinals.
The U.S. had thrashed ROC 18-5 in the group stage but found life far harder in the semifinals and trailed 7-4 in the second quarter.
"I think we just settled down," U.S. head coach Adam Krikorian told NBC. "You got to give them [ROC] credit, I feel like they sandbagged us a little bit in the prelims. We spoke about that, so we were prepared for them to come out strong. They did an awesome job and we were struggling with our blocks and just out of sorts."
Maggie Stefens, who earlier in the tournament became the most prolific scorer in the history of Olympic women's water polo, added another three goals to her tally, while Maddie Musselman netted five times.
Spain, whose defeat to the U.S. in London remains its only appearance on an Olympic podium, has been similarly impressive.
Top of Group A ahead of Australia and the Netherlands on goal difference, Spain defeated China 11-7 in the quarterfinals before defeating Hungary 8-6 in the semifinals.
Here's all you need to know about the gold medal game.
When is USA vs. Spain?
The USA takes on Spain in the gold medal game at 4:30 p.m. local time (3:30 a.m. ET, 00:30 a.m. PT) on Saturday, August 7 at the Tatsumi Water Polo Centre in Tokyo.
How to watch USA vs. Spain on TV and online
The women's water polo gold medal game will be broadcast on USA, with a livestream available on Peacock, the NBC Sports app and NBCOlympics.com.
The game will also be via available streaming services such as fuboTV, Hulu Plus Live TV and YouTube TV, which all carry the NBC family of networks.
USA vs. Spain Olympic record
The U.S. are the only nation to win an Olympic medal in water polo since the women's event was added to the Olympic program at the Sydney Games in 2000.
Team USA lost to Australia in the inaugural tournament, finished third four years later in Athens and made it back to the final only to lose against the Netherlands in 2008 in Beijing before winning back-to-back gold medals in London in 2012 and in Rio de Janeiro four years later.
Spain's only medal, meanwhile, came in London, when it lost the final to the U.S.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Dan Cancian is currently a reporter for Newsweek based in London, England. Prior to joining Newsweek in January 2018, he ... Read more
