Italy staking claim for a men’s final berth

Match Reports

Group B

ITALY 24 CANADA 6

World League champion Italy showed all its arsenal against Canada, never letting up at any stage, thus collecting a second victory.

Italy started with a flourish, amassing seven goals in the first quarter only to be denied the last as Francesco di Fulvio’s counter-attack goal was later deemed to be after the buzzer. The scoreboard was adjusted and di Fulvio went on counter and scored again to redress the scoreboard on the first attack. That first quarter was a fantastic start for Italy with Gonzalo Echenique — whose brother Tomas Echenique is here playing for Argentina — grabbing the first two and Alessandro Velotto the next two.

The second period was quieter with Canada hitting the wood on penalty before Nicolas Constantin-Bicari buried Canada’s first goal from two metres with a backhander. Andrea Fondelli scored identical goals and then goals were traded for 10-2 at halftime.

Matt Halajian scored twice for Canada, sandwiching two Italian goals with a third from Echenique for 12-4 to start the third period. The left-handed Echenique was well out of position, scoring from the deep left. Constantin-Bicari scored twice — at 14-5 and 16-6 — but it was Italy who had the 18-6 final-break lead with Velotto gaining a third and Fondelli a fourth on counter right on the buzzer.

Echinique opened the fourth from his preferred deep-right position as the Italians were totally in control, showing their speed and quick thinking. The score ballooned to 21-6 with Canada taking a timeout at 4:52 to stem the flow, which it did. Italy’s timeout yielded a goal at 2:14 with Luca Damonte scoring from the deep left and then converting a penalty at 1:16 for 23-6. The last Italian goal came at 0:31 for 24-6.

Match Heroes:
Echenique, took the trophy with his four goals, the same number as di Fulvio and Fondelli. Goalkeeper Marco del Lungo made eight saves in his three periods in the pool. Constantin-Bicari netted three for Canada.

Turning Point:
The 6-0 opening quarter that showed the power and speed of the Italians.

Stats Don’t Lie:
Italy shot 39 times to 30; converted three from six on extra-man attack to Canada’s three from eight. Italy buried both penalty attempts and Canada missed one of its two.

Bottom Line:
Italy now needs the formality of beating China to win the group. Canada is eyeing France for second placing.

What They Said:

CAMPAGNA Alessandro  ITA  Head Coach

“I didn’t expect so much of a (high) result. Canada is physical and has a very good centre. My players followed the instructions and played with concentration.”

ECHENIQUE Gonzalo  ITA  Player Of The Match

“Today our team wanted to win well and go all the way in this tournament. The final is our focus. Today we started good and the feeling is good in the team.”

OATEN Pat  CAN  Head Coach

“It’s what we expected; a heavy press. We have to learn to deal with the physicality and learn from that game. We knew what to expect and we tried to match it with them and we’ll take a lot from the match, especially defence.”

CHINA 8 FRANCE 17

It was a slow build as France deliberately steered course to victory with some solid play while China tried desperately to keep up.

The writing was on the wall for China in the first quarter as France went 2-0 and closed at 4-1. This became 6-1 inside the first two minutes of the second period and then China started replying to each French onslaught until 8-4 when it doubled up with Yimin Chen bringing it to 8-5. Mehdi Marzouki converted extra-man attack and drilled one from the top and captain Ugo Crousillat countered for 10-5 to bring up halftime.

Crousillat led a 4-0 quarter for the French with Alexandre Bouet gaining his second and third goals on extra. It knocked the stuffing out of the Chinese. The fourth was cruisy with China bouncing back with both teams scoring twice for 16-7. Charles Cannone converted a penalty and scored a goal soon after, but VAR reared its head and the officials went back to a previous Chinese shot and decided that was across the line, thus nullifying Cannone’s penalty and the clock was wound back to 2:23. Rui Chen was awarded the goal for 17-8. Neither side had the strength for another goal.

Match Heroes:
Hugo Fontani was the standout with his excellent 14 saves in three periods, leaving the pool after the shutout third period. Marzouki hammered in four goals in another spectacular effort. Zekai Xie and Rui Chen scored twice each for China.

Turning Point:
The 6-1 advantage that China could not come back from.

Stats Don’t Lie:
France may have had seven less shots than China (28-35), but its conversion of extra-man attack was critical to the victory — six from nine while defending eight from 10 — a 14-goal swing in itself. France converted two and China one from the penalty line.

Bottom Line:
France needed that victory for goal differential bragging rights ahead of Friday’s battle for second against Canada. Italy will tackle China to secure the group and enter the quarterfinals unbeaten.

What They Said:

MARZOUKI Mehdi  FRA  Play Of The Match

“We feel very good (as a team) and it was a good game. If you are not focused, it could be very, very hard. It was a very important game for us and we began hard and pushed to the maximum to win this game.”

POROBIC Petar  CHN  Head Coach

“We played well in some parts — two periods were rather good — then we lost concentration in the third period and came back in the fourth. Some day we will control our game with a little more experience, especially in extra-man. We didn’t close out some players — number nine and number five — and it was their day. There was a little improvement compared to previous games.”

Group C

CROATIA 10 HUNGARY 12

Hungary set the pace and was never bettered or even matched, coming away with a second victory and with just Argentina to defeat for group supremacy.

Gergo Zalanki scored in the opening minute with the second goal from Marton Vamos not registering until 1:07 — just under six minutes without a goal. Toni Nemet had the easiest of centre-forward goals for a 3-1 advantage at the buzzer. Hungary went 4-1 and Croatia struck back with a pair before Adam Nagy converted extra-man attack with three seconds left in the half.

Captain Szilard Jansik pushed the Hungarian margin to three with a goal from deep right. Luka Bukic and Denes Varga on extra sent the match to 7-4. Konstantin Kharkov and Filip Krzic scored brilliant goals to bring it to within one, Kharkov becoming the first double scorer, seemingly touching the end rope as he whipped in the deepest of left-hand-catch shots. Krzic stayed on the left-post position as the returning evictee came into play and he accepted a near pass for the score. Gergo Fekete converted extra to give Hungary the 8-6 lead at the buzzer.

Two Hungarian goals stole the match by 5:56, leading 10-6 with the Croatian response not coming until 2:27 through Rino Buric from the left and again by him on the next attack for 10-8. Zalanki hammered what looked like the last nail in the coffin with a blast from the right while guarded at 1:06. Two Croatian goals brought it to within one with 35 seconds left on the clock. Hungary went forward, used the time and Zalanki smashed in a long shot from the left for 12-10 and nine seconds left. Croatia admitted defeat.

Match Hero:
Zalanki, unsurprisingly, as the three-goal hero for Hungary. There were 16 scorers.

Turning Point:
The three goals from 7-6 to 10-6 that gave breathing space for the Hungarians.

Stats Don’t Lie:
Hungary killed Croatia with the extra-man statistics, scoring seven from 12 and defending seven from 10. Croatia scored the only penalty and Croatia shot 26-24, showing a 50 per cent rate for Hungary.

Bottom Line:
Hungary is much classier and those statistics tell the story of how it will make it through to the semifinals, at least. Croatia will head there the harder way and still can hope for glory.

What They Said:

VARGA Zsolt  HUN  Head Coach

“Croatia is one of the best teams in the competition. The key today was defence and the defence of man down and the end of the game became really exciting with a few mistakes (Hungary) on defence. This let Croatia back into the game at the end. I’m happy and proud of my team and congratulations to Croatia for a very nice game.”

MARELJIA Jure  CRO  Assistant Coach

“We didn’t open well. On defence we played badly and unlucky on man up. On extra player there was a lack of concentration and we did not make smart decisions. We are moving further forward.”

MARINIC KRAGIC Jerko  CRO  Goal Scorer

“Hungary should be the better team at this moment. They started better and we were always catching up. At this moment they are more physical than us. The goal for us is the same, we just have a different path.”

JAPAN 20 ARGENTINA 9

Japan was by far the better team and its speedy plays bamboozled Argentina at times. The local crowd cheered their heroes on as they outswam and outshot Argentina. Japan ends up with too many options and wickedly fast shots catch most defenders off-guard.

Japan led 3-0 before Argentina awoke and thanks to two Taiyo Watanabe goals, had the score at 6-1 by the first break. Tomas Galimbarti converted a penalty for Argentina to start the second quarter and four Japanese goals — with another for Watanabe — had the score at 10-2. Guido Martino crunched an extra-man goal from close in 14 seconds from halftime for 10-3.

Captain Ramiro Veich opened the third; Japan sent in three and Martino scored his third for 13-5. Yusuke Inaba netted his third to close the period at 14-5. Carlos Camnasio converted a penalty and Japan pushed through to 18-6. From then on, Argentina came alive with Tomas Echenique — brother of Italian star Gonzalo Echenique — made the most of a Japanese mix-up; Watanabe gained his fifth; Daichi Ogihara scored on counter and Teo Soler lobbed the goalie and scored another in the dying seconds. The only other time these teams have met at the World Championships, the score was 14-6 to Japan.

Match Heroes:
Watanabe was the glistening jewel in the Japanese crown with five from five with two on counter, one on penalty, one at centre forward and the other on extra-man. Inaba sent in four from five attempts. Martino scored three for Argentina and goalkeeper Diego Malnero dragged down 10 shots. The Japanese goalkeepers pulled in 11 between them.

Turning Point:
The opening quarter where the perpetual motion of the Japanese kick-started.

Stats Don’t Lie:
Japan shot 38 to 25, converted one from three on extra-man attack and defended four of five. Both teams scored their two penalty goals.

Bottom Line:
Japan is now prepared for Croatia and Argentina has an even more awesome task in taking on Hungary, one of the favourites for the title.

What They Said:

SHIOTA Yoshinori  JPN  Head Coach

“(In our ) last game against Hungary, we could not score in the third and fourth quarters, so I said before the game that we have to make more goals, so don't stop attacking. Twenty goals was our goal for today's game. We modified our defence system a little bit after the Hungary game.  If we play good defence against Croatia (next opponent) we have a chance to make our counter-attacks.”

TANAMURA Katsuyuke  JPN  Goalkeeper

“Today was not a very hard game, but we need to check some of our tactics for the next game. We needed to check everybody's movements, so today was an important game. Unfortunately, we lost the match against Hungary (on Monday). Our goal is to reach the top eight. We want to win against Croatia, no matter what.”

Group D

SPAIN 11 MONTENEGRO 7

Spanish veteran Felipe Perrone, who played these championships for the first time in Fukuoka, 22 years ago, was the star today with five goals as the world champion displayed its form against another top team.

The victory gave Spain two victories and just needing a win over South Africa to clinch a quarterfinal berth. Montenegro will need to go through the second round if it wishes to play the quarters.

The first quarter was squared after Spain went 2-0. In the second quarter, Spain went ahead twice with Montenegro equalising before Perrone went on the rampage, lifting his team to 7-5 several minutes into the third.

Alberto Munarriz on counter off one pass from goalkeeper Eduardo Lorrio and then Alejandro Bustos dragging down the angled pass on extra for 9-6 following a Bogdan Durdic score had the match at 9-6 by the final break. Montenegro scored off the first attack; Perrone for his fifth and Bernat Sanahuja made it 11-7 and Montenegro had run out of options.

Match Heroes:
Perrone, who else? Five goals. All said and done. Both goalkeepers were on song with Spain’s Lorrio making 10 saves and Montenegrin Petar Tesanovic stopping nine.

Turning Point:
For 4-4 to 9-6 by the end of the third period.

Stats Don’t Lie:
Spain scored four from eight on extra-man attack and defended six from eight, taking one more shot at 28-27. There were no penalty shots.

Bottom Line:
Spain has the recent credentials and slowly took control of the match while Montenegro is building up for what could be a good 12 months to come.

What They Said:

MARTIN David  ESP  Head Coach

“With Montenegro it is never easy. I always speak very well of Montenegro as they rise for the big competitions. It was very hard on defence. Our players worked very hard and had solid defence. We can see the real Spain. Now we have South Africa and have to rest and our recovery starts to prepare for the quarterfinals. I’m very happy with the team, but we can still play better in attack and defence.”

FAMERA Martin  ESP  Goal Scorer

“I was most impressed with Montenegro who defended us very well. We played well and worked hard for the win. They were better than normal, but may have been tired after the big match against South Africa (35-10 — a record score at men’s World Championships). We played very good.”

SOUTH AFRICA 5 SERBIA 30

South Africa came off a draining loss with a world-record number of goals in its match with Montenegro — 45 — losing 35-10. The music was not good today for the Africans as Serbia sets itself up to play Montenegro in the decider for second place in the group behind Spain.

Serbia needed to press and score heavily in preparation for tougher matches ahead and went to 3-0 with South Africa’s Manqoba Bungane upsetting the apple cart with a beautiful lob. The score shifted to 8-1 by the first break, then 9-1 with Cameron Laurenson getting South Africa’s second. A couple of Nikola Jaksic goals provided a rush that ended briefly for the halftime break at 16-2 and stretched to 22-2 with Todd Howard punctuating the run for South Africa. It was 24-3 at the final break.

The final quarter was confirmation that Serbia is back to its best, finishing 3-0 with Niall Wheeler and Laurenson nabbing two non-Serbian goals. Strahinja Rasovic and Jaksic finished the top scorers with six each as 10 field players made the sheet for Serbia.

Match Heroes:
Radulovic picked up the top prize for not missing his five shots. Rasovic and Jaksic scored six from seven respectively.

Turning Point:
Going from 3-1 to 9-1.

Stats Don’t Lie:
Serbia converted all five extra-man chances and defended four from six. Serbia took 36 shots, meaning it only missed six. South Africa missed its one penalty chance.

Bottom Line:
Serbia is now ready to take on the world and South Africa will be shaking in its boots again with a confrontation with world champion Spain some sort of reward for the first two matches. At least it can go home saying it played the best in the world.

GROUP A

GREECE 18 KAZAKHSTAN 2

Greece used its strength, speed and greater experience to outgun Kazakhstan at every turn. Kazakhstan found no answers to these attributes as Greece raced to 6-1 at the first break, 11-1 at halftime and 15-2 at the final break.

Interestingly the first four goals came from two metres form the big men, including Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Ruday. Greece picked up three penalty fouls and converted in the 20-minute dearth of goals for Kazakhstan. The drought broke with a penalty strike to Ruslan Akmetov, 33 seconds from the third buzzer.

Greece was hard pressed to score three goals in the final quarter with four and a half minutes between a pair of Eftstathios Kalogeropoulos goals.

Match Heroes:
Kakaris was huge in centre forward and Nikolaidis and Argyropoulos were equally as strong.

Turning Point:
Greece keeping Kazakhstan scoreless for more than 20 minutes from 2-1 to 15-2.

Stats Don’t Lie:
Greece converted only one from three on extra-man attack but defended all six Kazakhstan chances. Greece nailed three penalty goals and Kazakhstan one. It was the shooting that showed up most with Greece going 36-21.

Bottom Line:
There is a vast chasm between these teams and Greece needed to work hard for goals while denying Kazakhstan room to move. Greece is chasing the group win against USA on Friday and Kazakhstan will clash with Australia.

What They Said:

VLACHOS Theodoros  GRE  Head Coach

“We were already thinking of the next match (v USA on Friday). The difference between Kazakhstan and Greece is large. We are expecting to win the next match and be first in the group.”

OBRADOVIC Nebojsa  KAZ  Head Coach

“We expected something like that. We tried to keep close in defence, but Greece destroyed us on the fast break. We didn’t find the solution to come back. We are investing in young players and the older players wish to play the highest level. The Asian Games are our target this season (where an Olympic berth is up for grabs).”

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 16 AUSTRALIA 8

USA came through against a determined Australia, which led 4-2 in the first quarter before losing one of its stars, George Ford, to an alleged violence foul, meaning four minutes as a man down after a free penalty shot. USA took full advantage of the situation, scoring the first penalty goal, adding another and scoring on extra to take the lead at 5-4. Australia bounced back with two goals and Johnny Hooper equalised for USA in the last minute on extra. At 6-6 by halftime, this match had lit up the house.

Aussie Sharks skipper Nathan Power scored his third goal to take his team to 7-6 at 7:05. However, it proved to be the last goal for the Aussies as USA screamed home with four to go into the final quarter 10-7 ahead. Another casualty for Australia was the loss of Luke Pavillard whose jet-propelled arm garnered three goals.

USA continued the charge in the final quarter with Hannes Daube grabbing a pair for five in total and Max Irving snaring his third on counter that opened the gap to 14-8. Australia had the chances, but could not convert. Chase Dodd dragged down a high ball off a cross pass on extra. On a timeout, USA gave the ball to Alex Bowen who squeezed in in from deep right, needing VAR for confirmation. The USA advantage had gone from three to eight in a blistering final period.

Match Heroes:
Daube was fantastic and deserved the top award while goalkeeper Adrian Weinberg was equally astounding with 11 saves. For the Aussie Sharks, Power and Pavillard were dynamic with their three apiece.,

Turning Point:
The red card turned the match from 4-2 down to 5-4 ahead, then Australia went 6-5 up and 7-6 before the wind  blew out of the sails and USA stepped up to hammer nails into the coffin.

Stats Don’t Lie:
USA had the better of the stats because of the red card, going on to gain five penalty goals to none, scoring six from 10 on extra-man attack and defending five of eight. Surprisingly, Australia shot 34 times to 29.

Bottom Line:
USA has the all-round team to go to the finals and has the recent form of winning bronze at the World Aquatics World Cup. That experience came through in the final quarter as it put the knife into Australia with withering attacks and pinpoint shooting. Australia has plenty of work still to do.

What They Said:

UDOVICIC Dejan  USA  Head Coach

“It's still the beginning of competition and all the teams are trying to find their rhythm. It’s nothing of a surprise; they are a great team. We needed to come all in. Because of the exclusions It was a real (tight) game in the first half until we reset ourselves and (started) thinking more about us and less about them.” 

DAUBE Hannes  USA — Player Of The Match/Five Goals

“I felt it was a very physical game at the beginning. They competed very hard. We had some miscommunications at the beginning, but then we kept fighting through because our team has a lot of perseverance and we kept chipping away at the end and got some easy goals in transition and some of our six-on-five goals finally went through. We had some turnovers and some bad defensive mistakes by not communicating as well as our shooting. We rushed some shots, and they had some good shot blocks.”

HAMILL Tim  AUS  Head Coach

“We were really doing well when 4-2 up, even though we had six-two against in the foul count. Then there was the brutality call and had to play a man down. It took it out of us and we couldn’t regain our composure late in the game.”

POWER Nathan  AUS  Captain

“It’s impossible to have a six-two exclusion count when we were winning 4-2. In the face of that our team put in a really good fight. We kept fighting hard until the end even though fouls were 19-8 against and we lost Luke (Pavilaard) as well. We have to take our match against Greece and this match into the match with Kazakhstan (on Friday).”

Progress Points

Group A: Greece 6, USA 6, Australia 0, Kazakhstan 0.
Group B: Italy 6, Canada 3, France 3, China 0.
Group C: Hungary 6, Croatia 3, Japan 3, Argentina.
Group D: Spain 6, Montenegro 3, Serbia 3, South Africa 0 .

Friday Schedule

Match 17, 09:00, Hungary v Argentina
Match 18, 10:30, South Africa v Spain
Match 19, 12:00, Serbia v Montenegro
Match 20, 13:30, United States of America v Greece
Match 21, 16:00, Australia v Kazakhstan
Match 22, 17:30, China v Italy
Match 23, 19:00, Croatia v Japan
Match 24, 20:30, Israel v Netherlands