Men’s Water Polo World Cup Division One I USA, Hungary make it two in a row

Overview

Surprisingly, while two teams have played twice and won their groups, triple Olympic champion Serbia has yet to appear, playing twice on a gruelling day-three schedule in Group B.

The Spain-France match-up on Wednesday will see who advances as second in Group A behind Hungary and Japan and Romania will battle for second in Group C.

Croatia and Georgia are the only teams in Group D and will rest up on day three and look forward to the next stage.

Match Reports

Match 3, Group A, HUNGARY 15 FRANCE 10 (1-3, 6-0, 3-3, 5-4)

France looked like it was going to repeat its quarterfinal success from Doha 2024 when it came through in the final quarter to defeat Hungary. However, it was not to be, as Hungary turned the 3-1 first-quarter deficit into a 7-3 halftime lead and then largely kept the difference at four until the final stages. Probably why the Paris event did not dwell on the Hungarian youngsters was that seven of this team were members of the 2023 world U20 championship team that won gold in this very pool. French captain Ugo Crousillat scored twice in the first quarter with Vendel Vigvari the sole Hungarian response. However, Vigvari was at it again in the second quarter with a pair as Hungary slipped in five unanswered goals in six minutes, survived the French extra-man play and netted a sixth for 7-3 at the turn.

Vigvari and David Tatrai with a sensational laid-back turn at centre forward, accepted a lob pass and steered in the goal for 9-3. Hungary had a penalty attempt saved to start the half, but at 9-3 looked a winner. France replied with three — two to Olympian Alexandre Bouet — before Gergely Burian netted his second from deep left. Hungary was 10-6 up at the last break. Goals were traded at the top of the fourth period and then France managed to evict Hungarian captain Krisztian Manhercz on his third foul and narrowed the margin to three. Burian and Thomas Vernoux on extra made it 13-10. Adam Nagy with a rocket from the top and Vigvari from his favoured left-hand-catch position, closed the scoring at 15-10.

Match Heroes
Vendel Vigvari added six more to the three he gained on day one. Burian chipped in with three for Hungary. France’s Crousillat, Bouet and Romain Marion Vernoux claimed two each and Hugo Fontani impressed in goal with 12 saves.

Turning Point
Hungary turning the 3-1 quarter-time deficit to 9-3, five minutes into the third period.

Stats Don’t Lie
Hungary controlled all the main statistics with six from 10 on extra to six from 12; two from three on penalty while not conceding a penalty foul; four steals to three and 35 shots to 28.

Bottom Line
Hungary is blending the newcomers brilliantly while France, in the same position with a renewed team, was struggling at times.

What They Said
Zsolt Varga (HUN) — Head Coach
On going down 2-0 to start the game, what adjustments were made to win the second quarter 6-0 and take control of the match?
“Well, I think it has to do with the fact that this was our second game in 24 hours. It was so close together and the Spain game was so physically challenging. I saw how tired my players were at the beginning of this game.
“In the second quarter, we were defending as a team at a very high level and helping each other, so it became the game for us. The counter-attack began to pick up for us and after that we started to control the game.
“It is my realisation after these two games that any difference in goals does not mean too much because you could easily give up four goals in three minutes if you lose concentration. We were able to regain our concentration today and manage our play over all four quarters to get another win today.”

Match 4, Group B, MONTENEGRO 10 GREECE 18 (3-2, 3-7, 3-2, 1-7)

Greece made Dejan Savic’s return to coaching a misery as he more experienced Greeks put [aid to any notion that Montenegro could win. It was still an excellent outing by the Montenegrins who had enticed the twice Olympic champion Serbian coach back to the pool-deck. Savic played four Olympics from 1996 with the Yugoslavian team, and then twice for Serbia & Montenegro before finishing his playing career with Serbia in 2008. He gained a silver and two bronzes and the silver came with Serbia & Montenegro, so he has not strayed far from his roots.

It looked good for his team as it went 3-1 ahead and had the quarter-time lead at 3-2. Dusan Matkovic took Montenegro to 4-3 two minutes into the second quarter before Greece took the match by the scruff and went 6-4 ahead and 9-6 by halftime. Aristeidis Chalyvopoulos made his mark in the senior team for the first time with a pair of goals — the first a missile from 10m. His third came at 9-6 from the top right. Dimitrios Skoumpakis had three by the long break and an Alexandros Papanastasiou pair to gain the three and four levellers, were impressive. Montenegro won the third period with 17-year-old Strahinja Gojkovic scoring on extra, much to his joy. It was either his second or third attempt. It will be something to celebrate when he turns 18 in March.

Montenegro came to within one at the top of the fourth when Miroslav Perkovic swatted in a rebound at two metres. However, the bubble burst and Greece took the match to 14-10 with a successful challenge for a penalty shot; went to a timeout at 2:18 and scored four more goals to close the match at 18-10.

Match Heroes
Stylianos Argyropoulos with four, Skoumpakis and Chalyvopoulos with three each, were Greece’s best. Balsa Vuckovic, Perkovic and Matkovic scored twice each.

Turning Point
Greece coming from 3-2 down at the quarter to 9-6 at halftime and 10-6 early in the third quarter. That and scoring the last seven goals.

Stats Don’t Lie
Greece managed four from nine on extra and defended four from six. Greece scored both penalty chances and Montenegro one. Both teams made five steals but Greece was heavier on the shooting at 36-25.

Bottom Line
Greece is relatively unchanged from Paris 2025 but still allowed Montenegro to control some segments of the match.

What They Said
Aristeidis Chalyvopoulos (GRE) — Player of the Match
“My individual performance today came from our teamwork; every one of us gave their 100 per cent and we had this dominant win. We work a lot as a team and individually and today was good representation of that. We hope that we can continue to improve our game and accomplish our goals and have a strong performance against Serbia tomorrow morning.”

Theodoros Vlachos (GRE) — Head Coach
“It is not easy for our first game to be after Christmas Day for us. It is not easy for our first game to be against Montenegro with a new great coach in Dejan Savic. It is not easy to play our first official match with the new rules. However, I asked my players to be focused in every defence and attack. I think from the second period we did a great job on our man-down defence and were able to start scoring in many different ways.
“After the third period, we had an advantage and showed we could control this game. However, it was just a good game for us to start the tournament and get my thoughts on my new players, old players, and the rules we are playing with.
“I hope we can continue our level of defence we showed after the second quarter. As well, I am proud of my players for their effort in how they fight for every ball. I also loved the confidence we had in our attack and they were able to create many situations in which they could score. However, we cannot celebrate just yet as we have a tough match-up tomorrow morning against Serbia.”

Dejan Savic (MNE) — Head Coach
“I think that result is realistic. In that game, we lost everything. The Greeks were incredible in the counter-attack and we lost the chance to stay in the game when we were down by one. This is a young team with a new coach, so we will move forward because the result of this tournament is not as important as seeing where we are in this current moment. Once we learn and start making less mistakes, we will be more successful.”

Match 5, Group C, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 11 ROMANIA 6 (2-1, 2-2, 2-2, 4-2)

USA started with a flurry and then found Romania was a hard nut to crack. However, USA has two wins under its belt and ready for the next phase of play with a top-six finish dangling in the wind. USA started with the first two goals only to be denied a goal for the next six minutes as it went 3-1 up at the top of the second quarter. Levente Vancsik cheered the local crowds with his second goal with an identical centre-forward, bludgeoning turn. Alexander Oprea (USA) found his match short-lived when he was given a red card by VAR after a heavy defensive play by 5:57 in the second quarter. Goals were traded and a Nicolas Saveljic penalty attempt found the head of Romanian captain Marius-Florin Tic to keep the deficit to one at halftime.

Andrei Prioteasa scored from the top on extra for 4-4 two minutes into the third period. Jake Ehrhardt nailed his second goal from outside and Chase Dodd lifted USA to 6-4. Matei Lutescu repeated Dodd’s shot for 6-5 at the final break. Ryan Ohl and captain Max Irving pushed the margin to three; Romania responded and Ohl from top left and Irving from deep right made it 10-6 by 1:34. Vlad-Luca Georgescu converted a penalty foul for the final score of 10-7.

Match Heroes
Ohl with three more to add to his tally (six) at his first major event, led the way for USA. Vancsik was the best for Romania with two goals and captain Tic made 11 saves in goal.

Turning Point
Romania levelled at three and four, but USA had the edge and the last quarter made sure of a good result.

Stats Don’t Lie
USA converted two from five on extra and Romania two from six. USA missed its one penalty attempt and Romania made sure of its solo chance. USA snapped up five steals to two and the shots were even at 31.

Bottom Line
USA is sitting pretty with two wins and Romania now has to bounce back against Japan.

What They Said

Ryan Ohl (USA) — Player of the Match
On only two matches being a part of the USA team, you’ve earned player-of-the-match honours. What led you to be that successful today?
“All the credit goes to my team-mates. They’ve built up my confidence and encouraged me to keep taking shots, which has been incredible. We’ve been playing more and more as a team over the last two games, which has let us be successful so far. It’s easy to focus on who scores the most goals and earn these honours, but every one of those goals are set up by each one of us. If we can continue to play as a group like we have been, hopefully we can continue our level of success in our next match.”

Bogdan Rath (ROU) — Head Coach
On what can you learn from this match before playing Japan tomorrow?
“In my opinion, we have to try a lot more in every part of the game. We are a very young team and need to make up for our youth by being more courageous. We need to refocus on our process as a team that helped us qualify for the Paris Olympics before we play against Japan tomorrow.”

Match 6, Group D, CROATIA 13 GEORGIA 11 (2-5, 5-2, 4-2, 2-2)

Georgia might rue the decision not to play Croatia twice in this group, such was its showing. It finishes second in the group and advances well enough, but for a first-timer at this level, what a showing!

Georgia put the wind up the Croatians who last year won the world crown and finished second at the Olympic Games. Georgia scored first, went to 3-1 and when Nika Shushiashvili had his goal confirmed by VAR, Georgia was 5-2 up at the first break. Konstantin Kharkov, who was going to prove to be a thorn in Georgia’s side, scored Croatia’s first and then started the second period with a snap shot from deep right on extra. He was in the mix against as Croatia threw three straight with captain Luka Loncar (37) equalising at six. Saba Tkeshelashvili made sure of a rebound goal on extra and Rino Buric scored from point blank on extra for 7-7 by halftime.

Goals were traded in favour of Croatia and Andrija Basic and Kharkov nudged Croatia to 10-8, both scoring from the top right. Loncar was swiftly given a red card (not needing a time-wasting VAR decision that has seen matches running two hours part) for an incident mid-pool at 2:21 in the third, leaving his team rudderless. Buric finished off an attack with the third shot and Georgia responded on extra for 11-9 at the last break. Besarion Akhvlediani (20) narrowed the margin to one with a shot from the wide left. Kharkov sent in a penalty goal; Giorgi Magrakvelidze scored his second and it was 12-11 at 3:21. Franko Lazic finished off extra from the deep left and Marko Zuvela had his penalty attempt stopped. Vlaho Pavlic came unstuck with a red card at 1:22 at centre back and a Croatian timeout reaped nothing, but led to the team savouring the hard-fought victory.

Match Heroes
Kharkov nailed it with five goals for Croatia. Valiko Dadvani, Vasic and Magrakvelidze scored twice each for Georgia as eight team members made the sheet.

Turning Point
Croatia levelling at six and seven and then pushing out to 11-8 in the third period.

Stats Don’t Lie
Croatia had to work on extra, scoring just six from 13 while Georgia was more efficient at five from nine. Croatia missed one of three penalty attempts and Georgia made sure of one. Georgia stole 2-0 and Croatia shot 36 to 34 times.

Bottom Line
Croatia is the better team, but it was tested tonight by an inexperienced but vibrant Georgia.

What They Said
Athansios Kechagias (GEO) — Head Coach
On what his team could have improved on to maintain control of the match?”
“I think overall it was a very nice game that was very competitive from both teams. For us, I think we played pretty well for most of the game, like our defence and transition at the start of the game. However, every day is a different day, so we must sit down and review this game to learn what we could have done better. Overall, I am very satisfied with my players and how they fought for this game.”

Progress Points

Group A: Hungary 6, Spain 0, France 0
Group B: Greece 3, Montenegro 0, Serbia,
Group C: United States of America 6, Japan 0, Romania 0
Group D: Croatia 3, Georgia 0

Day 3 Schedule

Match 07. 09:00. Group B, Greece v Serbia
Match 08. 09:00. Group A, France v Spain
Match 09. 1:30. Group B, Serbia v Montenegro
Match 10. 18:00. Group C, Romania v Japan