veteran Maggie Steffens, 23, and 18-year-old r

RIO DE JANEIRO -- He wasnt sure he could leave Rio. And when he did, Adam Krikorian wasnt sure he could come back. Such is the cloud of grief the U.S. womens water polo coach has been operating under since learning of the sudden death of his older brother last week.Blake Krikorian, 48, the co-founder of Slingbox, died, apparently due to natural causes, after paddleboarding last week in the Bay Area, leaving family, friends and associates in the Silicon Valley stunned. It left Adam, seven years his junior and the youngest of three brothers, not knowing quite what to do.In moments like that, you take it moment by moment and hour by hour because your emotions swing so much that it would be silly to make a rash decision early, Krikorian said. Even when it first happened, I wasnt planning on going home; I think partly because I didnt think it was real. When youre so far away, you dont think its real.Then as I sat in my apartment, I thought, I need to be home, I want to be home, my family needs me to be home. And so thats why ultimately I went, and once I made that decision to go, I had a good, strong feeling I was going to come back. But that didnt make it any easier. One of the hardest things to do is leave your friends and family, and thankfully they gave me so much love and support and almost pushed me out the door to make sure I was back here doing what I should be doing.Krikorian returned to Rio on Monday, the day before his team won its opening game against Spain 11-4, in a rematch of the 2012 gold-medal game, which the Americans also won. On Thursday, the U.S. took a 3-0 lead less than five minutes into its second-round game against China and rolled to a 12-4 victory.Olympic veteran Maggie Steffens, 23, and 18-year-old rookie Maddie Musselman scored four goals apiece to lead the U.S., a combination of experience and youth that characterizes their team and gave Krikorian a sense of satisfaction as he struggles to get through the emotions he said have been high and low.Its ironic because Ive given this team a real hard time over the last year about taking some ownership of the group -- not so much Maggie, shes been such a great leader, and some of our older players -- but our young players stepping up and being better leaders and more responsible, he said. So its ironic that, in this moment, I left and almost forced them to step up and not just rely on Maggie and Courtney Mathewson and Kami Craig and Melissa Seidemann but rely on each other and rely on themselves to get prepared.Craig said the team battled nerves and played rushed Thursday. You never know how theyre going to show up and which way, and were prepared for all of those, she said. But I think theres always that bit of nerves to see how the game goes and, once youre a few minutes in, youre into your flow, into your zone.The U.S. next faces Hungary, and, although Steffens said she and her teammates carry an attitude toward opponents of Bring it on, bring on your best, Krikorian said his club needs to do some fine-tuning.In some ways I understand, but we need to be more consistent and sharper if were going to win some tight games, said the U.S. coach, who subbed out starting goalkeeper Ashleigh Johnson for Sami Hill in the last five minutes in an effort, he said, to give Hill some Olympic experience.We see everyones best early on and then they cash it in a little bit. When you get to a quarterfinal, a semifinal and final, theyll be pushing for the full four quarters, and we need to be ready for that.As for Krikorian, his team is pushing for him.Adam is doing great, Craig said. I am so proud of him and his strength and his ability to stay focused through this process. What happened to him doesnt change all of his knowledge and preparation and all of his focus as a coach. Hes an incredible coach, and hopefully, with a little help from us, hes staying in the moment and enjoying this experience as we are. But were happy to have him here and we wouldnt want him to be anywhere else. Cheap Supra Shoes China . -- Tony Stewart is 20 pounds lighter and has a titanium rod in his surgically repaired right leg. China Shoes Sale . -- Yogi Ferrell orchestrates pretty much everything in Indianas offence. http://www.cheapshoeschinaonline.com/cheap-under-armour-shoes-china-183a.html . Philadelphia is 2-0 against the Senators this season and scored five goals in each victory. The Flyers recorded a 5-0 win in Ottawa on Nov. 12 and then earned a 5-2 home decision on Nov. 19. The Flyers have claimed three straight and four of the last five encounters with the Sens overall and Philly has won two in a row and three of its past four tests in Canadas capital city. Cheap Asics Shoes China . Fernandez, coached in Toronto by former two-time Olympic silver medallist Brian Orser, scored 267.11 points and is the first champion to successfully defend since Russias Evgeny Plushenko in 2005 and 2006. Cheap Balenciaga Shoes China . Both players have lower body injuries that will keep them out of the lineup until at least January 31, which is the first game they can be activated from IR. George Ford has been warned by Eddie Jones that his England career will be over if accepts any approach from Toulon.Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal is reported to have targeted the Bath fly-half in a move that would reunite him with his father Mike, who is now head coach of the Top 14 club.England will only select overseas-based players in exceptional circumstances and it is a policy that Jones emphatically endorses knowing that to lose a player of Fords potential would be a major blow to hopes of winning the 2019 World Cup.The 23-year-old playmaker has 18 months left on his current Bath contract, but his future is shrouded in uncertainty.I need to talk to George about it, said Jones, who was speaking from the squads hotel at their Algarve training camp. Obviously we dont want to lose George, but ultimately hes got to make a decision about whether he wants to play for England.Hes responsible for his own decision. We want him to play for England. He knows that we want him to play for England, but hes got to want to play for England.Its an easy choice -- you either sign for an English club or you sign for a French club. If you sign for a French club, you dont play for England.I am not worried about it. I want players who want to play for England and to play for England, youve got to play for an English club. Lets get one thing straight here, we want to be the number one team in the world.To be the number one team in the world we need players who desire to play for England. So theres no choice here.The choice is if you want to play for England or not. If you want to play for England you play for an Engllish club.dddddddddddd Theres no more discussion about this.The policy we have protects English rugby for the long-term. Youve only got to look at whats happened in France where youve allowed foreign players to escalate to over 50-60 per cent and you have massive problems for the national game.You take some short-term pain for the long-term gain. And this is not an Englishman talking. This is a guy who is coaching England. I think for thyme long-term future of the game we need to look after the Premiership.Englands injury crisis shows no sign of abating with Jones revealing that lock Courtney Lawes will be given until Tuesday to prove his fitness from a knee injury and in-form prop Mako Vunipola is struggling with a hip problem.Worryingly, Vunipola was unable to travel to Portugal with the remainder of the squad and is not expected to arrive in Vilamoura until Tuesday.Makos got a slight hip problem hes getting some treatment on. He should be right to train by Thursday. We want Mako to be fit. Well see how he comes in, Jones said.Jones has added to his backroom staff by recruiting Melbourne Storm defensive coach Jason Ryles on a temporary basis in the belief his rugby league experience will be beneficial.We want to bring that harder edge to our defence so hes in for a couple of weeks to assist Paul Gustard. We brought him over and I think hell make a hell of a difference, Jones said.There are certain technical issues we can learn from rugby league and Jason brings those. ' ' '