MONTENEGRO - USA

Olympic Games Qualification Tournament victor Montenegro came back from 2-0 at quarter time to defeat United States of America 10-6 in the first Group B encounter.

Superior goal conversion, but with a poorer statistic on extra-man advantage (4/11 compared to USA’s 4/7), proved too good for the North Americans, converting a 3-1 deficit early in the second period to a 5-3 advantage in a four-minute spell that had Drasko Brguljan netting twice from the field and two goals on extra. Johnny Hooper closed the half with a long shot 10 seconds from the halftime buzzer. That 5-2 second quarter proved to be USA’s undoing.

From a one-goal margin, Montenegro netted the next two and at 7-4, USA needed a timeout to settle and try to convert an extra-man attack, which it did through Hooper. Alex Obert made the most of another extra chance and with a minute remaining in the third period, it looked good for a USA comeback. However, Aleksandar Ivovic went on counter and found the back of the net with just two seconds to spare for 8-6 at the final break.

Uros Cuckovic spun some centre-forward magic a minute into the final spell, but he did not last the match, gaining his third major foul nearly four minutes later. By then, Marko Petkovic had converted extra and had Montenegro at a healthy — match-winning — 10-6 scoreline. It proved the final scoring despite the efforts of both teams.

Both teams had the luxury of book-ending 2-0 quarters with Montenegro getting the better of the middle periods 8-4.

Full match statistics — http://results.microplustiming.com/TBILISI2021/index_web.php

JAPAN - GEORGIA

Host nation Georgia denied Olympic Games host Japan a point when it finished 13-12 ahead in their first match in Tbilisi.

Georgia deserved the win by stymying Japan’s counter-attack style and channelling to shots through to goalkeeper Irakli Razmadze, or at least, defenders’ arms. Japan’s shot selection was not up to the usual standard and this is probably because the team has not played since the 2019 FINA World Championships. Expect the Japanese to improve. Georgia worked hard on turning the Japanese and had some easier shots as a result.

Stars turned it on for both teams and the finishing of Yusuke Inaba (JPN) and Fabio Baraldi (GEO) with five goals each and four to Andria Bitadze (GEO) kept the scoreboard ticking. The joy for Georgia, playing in front of a small, partisan crowd, was that the conversion rate was far to superior to Inaba’s, who needed 14 shots while Baraldi had just seven and Bitadze only missed once.

Georgia raced to 2-0, Japan took the lead at three with captain Keigo Okawa grabbing a pair and Baraldi made it 3-3 with a big turn at centre forward when still four metres from the goal.

Baraldi took the lead again and Japan equalised through Mitsuaki Shiga, but that was the best Japan could do for some time. Bitadze made sure Georgia had the halftime lead at 7-5 and scored twice more as his team surged to 10-8 midway through the third period. Inaba kept Japan in the match with three goals in a little over three minutes for 9-8 behind. Baraldi took it to 10-8 from centre forward again. Okawa and Atsushi Arai destroyed the gap on extra-man attack and counter-attack at 2:24. Okawa levelled 11-11 at 0:11 after Bitadze netted his fourth (centre-forward turn). Georgia had a ploy, threw the ball long to Giorgi Magrakvelidze on the two-metre line from the restart and he cause and scored with 1.7 seconds left on the clock for the 12-11 advantage.

The final quarter was defence on defence and both teams managed just the one goal with Japan looking out of options or the ones it did try, failed to connect with free players. Georgia was victorious and with Baraldi at the scoring helm, in particular, looks set for a good tournament.

Full match statistics — http://results.microplustiming.com/TBILISI2021/index_web.php