Men’s Water Polo World Cup Division One I Serbia bundled out

Overview

It was a sad day for Serbia and France as they both have not done enough to make the quarterfinals and France could see a position at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore slipping from its grasp.

In the flurry of goals, Spain was masterful against Serbia, especially with goalkeeper Unai Aguirre on fire with 17 saves. Georgia was ecstatic with the big win over Romania and Montenegro is progressing well under new super coach Dejan Savic.

The match-ups for the quarterfinals are intriguing with Hungary taking on Georgia, Greece playing Japan, United States of America facing Montenegro and Croatia against Spain. No match is easy and should provide plenty of action and goals.

Match Reports

Crossovers

Match 13, SPAIN 14 SERBIA 9 (3-2, 3-1, 5-2, 3-4)

European champion Spain put paid to triple Olympic champion Serbia’s chances of travelling to the finals series with a whopping victory, mainly thanks to goalkeeper Unai Aguirre with his superb 17 saves. While the scores were tied at one and two, Spain slipped out to 2-1 before the first break and scored the next three for 6-2 and 6-3 by halftime. Bernat Sanahuja scored twice, the first of counter and the second from deep left on extra. For Serbia, Ognjen Stojanovic gained the 2-2 score and closed the period with a missile from the top.

Three straight goals from Spain started the second half with Roger Tahull easing out to the left post to accept a cross pass and score. Nikola Lukic scored from either side of the pool to lift Serbia to 10-5 before Sanahuja converted extra to finish the period’s scoring. Lukic sent in one from deep left off a long cross pass and Sanahuja responded twice, the first, sitting up high outside and hammering in the long shot. Strahinja Krstic scored from centre forward at the four-metre line and after a long period of play while Spain’s head coach David Martin challenged, a penalty was awarded and the clock wound back. At 14-8, a Serbian challenge resulted in Pol Daura caught for allegedly kicking an opponent while swimming away, 20 seconds from time. A violence foul was awarded, the penalty converted and Spain had won 14-9, with Daura’s fate in the balance. It seemed a tough decision.

Match Heroes
Aguirre was the hero with a magnificent 17 saves in the Spanish goal. Sanahuja led the scoring with five goals. Lukic banged in five goals for Serbia.

Turning Point
Serbia levelled at two and let the match slip away as Spain went to 6-2 and 9-3.

Stats Don’t Lie
Spain went six from nine on extra and denied Serbia five from eight. Spain scored twice from the penalty line and Serbia one from two. Serbia out-stole Spain 8-7 and even had more shots at 39-31.

Bottom Line
Spain is on form and Serbia now has three losses and will probably miss the finals series. Serbia needs to regroup for Singapore.

What They Said

David Martin (ESP) — Head Coach
On the match:
“Today was amazing in our defence. Like we talked about yesterday, we have enough talent in our attack to be able to score many goals. The difference is that today we were able to play great team defence for all four quarters. Unai (Aguirre) had a great performance in goal and our team had many blocks, so I am very happy and proud. We must bring the same defence tomorrow in the quarterfinals against Croatia. However, I am not happy with the decision at the end of the match. We play a contact sport where many things happen during the match. We have a young player like Pol (Daura) who has been playing amazing and it’s now impossible for him to enjoy this experience, but I guess that’s the game.”

Unai Aguirre (ESP) — Player of the Match
On his 17 saves:
“Listen, today I was happy to play and I was so happy in every moment of the match. I’m playing for me and my family, which has helped me be very focused and I think I showed that in the pool today. Maybe it was not my best technical performance because I was very jumpy in the cage, but being so excited to play was key to my performance. As well, my team-mates played incredible defence with so many blocks of their own that they made my job much easier and I wouldn’t have played as well without them.”

Uros Stevanovic (SRB) — Head Coach
On the match:
“What would you like me to say? It was another bad performance from us.”

Match 14, MONTENEGRO 18 FRANCE 13 (3-4, 6-3, 4-5, 5-1)

It was another glorious day for Montenegro and a disaster for France, who now drop out of the eight and have no chance of making the finals. This was after a promising start when Thomas Vernoux scored twice from close to goal and after Montenegro equalised, France again went two ahead. By the end of the quarter the lead was still in France’s hands at 4-3. There the celebrations ended as Montenegro fired in four goals and even had a penalty attempt rejected. France went to a timeout, gained an ejection and Romain Marion Vernoux scored nearly eight minutes from the previous success. Goals were traded until 9-7 with Montenegro going three up each time.

The trend continued in the third quarter until 13-11 with Vernoux missing a penalty shot. Alexandre Bouet converted extra for 13-10 and Enzo Nardon narrowed it to two, 43 seconds from time. Filip Gardasevic, who already had four in the bag, missed his penalty attempt and Denis Do Carmo claimed his first goal of the tournament on extra, two seconds from the final break and, more importantly, one goal in arrears. It was not good for France in the last as Montenegro scored five unanswered goals. Nardon scored the last for France at 18-13.

Match Heroes
Savo Cetkovic and Gardasevic scored five each and Duro Radovic three for Montenegro. Bouet finished with three for France and the two French goalkeepers gathered in 13 saves between them.

Turning Point
Coming from 4-2 behind to lead 7-4 halfway through the second quarter. It led to victory.

Stats Don’t Lie
Montenegro was most economical on extra-man attack with eight from 11 while denying France seven of 11. Montenegro struggled at the penalty line, converting only two from four. Montenegro made three steals to nought and shot 42 times to 30.

Bottom Line
Montenegro is the team on the front foot and automatically qualifies for the finals series as the host nation. However, it has a point to prove and did so today. France is on shaky ground, missing the finals and possibly even the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore this July.

What They Said

Dejan Savic (MNE) — Head Coach
On what changes were made for this match:
“Believe me, nothing changed because the beginning of this match was awful as we lacked the proper mental preparation once again. We were able to take control of the match by changing the tactics of our defence. I am satisfied with some of our opportunities on offence because I let my players work out a solution to our slow offence at the start of the match. It is also very strange for me to give up 13 goals and still be winning the match.”
On the quarterfinal with United States of America:
“It will be a very, very tough match for us because the USA plays a very challenging style of water polo with a lot of swimming. I don’t know what shape they are in now, but they haven’t played in the last two days, so they will be very rested. This will make it a very hard game and we will have to wait and see the result.”

Filip Gardesevic (MNE) — Five Goals
On the match:
“First of all, I would like to congratulate my team on the victory and the French team on an excellent match. Before the match, we were the favourites and we were able to show that in the pool from the first to the last minute. We did our best to win the match and were able to get the result we wanted. The French team was very motivated, because this match was very important for them, but we wanted to win more. Now we are thinking about our next match against America, another good opponent.”

Florian Bruzzo (FRA) — Head Coach
On the growth of this team?
“Once again, there were very big waves in our play. This result is okay because this is a new cycle; this tournament is the starting point, and maybe today was the breaking point. However, I am very satisfied with what I saw today, believe me. We are not performing well for four periods, but we showed some very good things, especially when we have many players without international experience. These matches have been very tough and complicated for them, but their attitude has been great in practice, meetings and matches. This will be the key to our success as a team.”

Match 16, Group C, GEORGIA 24 ROMANIA 12 (6-2, 6-7, 3-2, 9-1)

Georgia was fresh from its one match on day two and was a bundle of energy, screeching to 3-0 and 6-1 before taking the first-quarter advantage 6-2. It was the nature of the play and the aggression of Georgia and now pushes the team closer to the finals series. However, Hungary awaits in the quarterfinals. Georgia made sure it contained huge centre forward Silvian Colodrovschi, the scoring machine for Romania. He played just 10 minutes and only had the one shot. Georgia surged to 8-2 and then traded until 11-6. Vlad-Luca Georgescu scored a pair, one from the penalty line, and the margin was just three. Romania missed one of two successive penalty shots with the halftime score 12-9 after a mind-blowing  6-7 period.

Georgia netted two extra-man goals with Besarion Akhvlediani scoring his second on extra and 14-9. Extra-man goals were traded to 15-11 by the final break. Akhvlediani then scored an amazing six goals as Georgia took the 16-12 margin at 6:15 to 24-12 at 0:34. Akhvlediani was everywhere and seemed to have the ball on a string. His eight goals came from 12 attempts.

Match Heroes
Akhvlediani with eight goals and Valiko Dadvani with seven before he was fouled out late in the match. Irakli Razmadze made a spectacular 13 saves in goal for Georgia. Georgescu was best for Romania with five goal and goalkeeper Matei-Stefan Marchitan made nine saves.

Turning Point
Going 3-0 and then 6-1 in the first quarter set the scene.

Stats Don’t Lie
Georgia plundered nine goals on extra from 14 attempts and Romania seven from 14. Georgia missed one of its four penalty attempts and Romania scored all three. Georgia stole the ball five times to two and took 40 shots to 32.

Bottom Line
Georgia managed to overcome the Romanian crowd and applied pressure throughout, gaining its first win from two matches.

What They Said

Athanasios Kechagias (GEO) — Head Coach
On why your team was so successful today:
“Until we watch and analyse the match, there is not much that I can say about why we were so successful today. There were two teams fighting until the very end, and for us it was a good match, so I am very proud that we were able to end with the result we did. Moving forward to the quarterfinal, like I said earlier, I must analyse this game to learn what mistakes we made. As a team, we approach every game differently, so we will see how tomorrow’s game looks because I can’t say before we play.”

Besarion Akhvlediani (GEO) — Player of the Match
On the victory:
“To be honest, we have a new coach who has had a very short period of time to improve our team. He has completely changed the tactics that we play with and we have taken him very seriously in those changes, which let us play close with Croatia and earn a strong win today. We have started to play more around our centre and focus on executing every opportunity we are given. It was very important for us as a team to be united behind our coach and play to the best of our abilities under him.”

Bogdan Rath (ROU) — Head Coach
On what Romania needs to do in the last two matches:
“I think the guys are really tired and it wasn’t a good match for us or our best players. After these games, we have to cancel everything that we were doing before and start the process over again. These games will let us analyse how we can improve anything. Other than that, there are not many words I can say about it.”

Day 5 Schedule

Classification 9-12 Series
Match 17. 13:00. L13 Serbia v L16 Romania

Classification 1-8 Quarterfinals
Match 19. 14:30. 1A Hungary v W16 Georgia
Match 20. 16:00. 1B Greece v W15 Japan
Match 21. 17:30. 1C United States of America v W14 Montenegro
Match 22. 19:00. 1D Croatia v W13 Spain