Men’s Water Polo World Cup Division One I Four teams qualify for finals

Overview

It was a case of win the quarterfinal and you go to the finals.

Hungary pounced on Georgia 21-10, Greece outlasted Japan 20-16 in an unusual second half, Montenegro found little resistance in United States of America, winning 15-7 and European champion Spain needed a last-minute goal to beat world champion Croatia 15-14 after leading for all but two minutes of the match.

It all comes down to who will make the five-six play-offs to see who completes the finals numbers, joining Division Two qualifiers Netherlands and Germany.

Semifinals

The big question is not who will win the classification 1-4 semifinals, but who will win the classification 5-8 semifinals as these teams will fill the last two positions for Kotor. George and Japan clash in the first encounter and Olympic bronze medallist USA takes on Olympic silver medallist Croatia in the second. Potent matches, indeed.

Hungary will clash with Greece and Montenegro will play Spain as these four teams battle for rankings going into the finals series. For example, the winner in Bucharest will play Netherlands in the first round and second place will clash with Germany, thus avoiding a Division One team first up.

Match Reports

Classification 1-8 Quarterfinals

Match 19, HUNGARY 21 GEORGIA 10 (6-2, 4-1, 5-1, 6-6)

Hungary almost went through the motions against Georgia, playing with excellent timing and combinations that reaped a rocket start at 5-0, a five-goal surge early in the second quarter and six-goal tidal wave in the third. Vendel Vigvari was to the forefront of the early Hungarian play with two goals as Georgia took until five minutes before making the sheet. At 6-2 by the first break, Hungary was on a roll. Daniel Angyal scored his second off a rebound two seconds from quarter time and started the Hungarians pumping as four goals brought up double figures with Nika Shushiashvili scoring a second on extra for 10-3 at halftime.

Shusiashvili did the same on extra to start the third period only for an Angyal double to spur his team towards 15-4 at the final break. Zsombor Ekler registered his second goal on counter and David Tatrai required VAR to confirm his 15-4 goal. Akos Nagy opened the fourth period from the top right before three Georgian goals — including two from Dusan Vasic — narrowed the deficit to nine. Ekler scored three of the next four Hungarian goals for 20-8 and goals were traded until the final Georgian goal at 21-10.

Match Heroes
Ekler drilled five, Angyal four and Vigvari three as 10 Hungarians scored goals. Kristof Csoma made a brilliant 13 saves in the Hungarian goal. Shushiashvili and Stefan Pjesivac netted three  apiece for Georgia and goalkeeper Irakli Razmadze pulled in nine saves.

Turning Point
Hungary being ahead 5-0 in the first quarter and then 10-3 at halftime.

Stats Don’t Lie
Hungary hammered in eight of its 14 attempts on extra to Georgia’s four from 10. Hungary scored all three penalty shots and Georgia one. Georgia went 4-1 on steals and took more shots at 39-34.

Bottom Line
Hungary is a class team and looking good to win in Bucharest. Georgia found Hungary too much of a stumbling block.

What They Said

Zsolt Varga (HUN) — Head Coach
On qualifying for the quarterfinals
“We saw the first two games of Georgia and I have to give them credit for playing such great games against both Croatia and Romania. We were able to prepare very well for them with a very good defence and our counter-attack was very effective, allowing us to control the game from the first quarter. After the first quarter, I emphasised to my players that we must maintain this level of concentration and we controlled the match’s rhythm the rest of the game. Moving forward, we must continue to focus on the tactics that we set for each game if we want to be successful in the semis tomorrow.”

Daniel Angyal (HUN) — Player of the Match
On the victory:
“As you can see, we added a lot of young players to our roster so we must bring 100% energy to our mental and physical effort in matches. Today we were able to do that against a Georgia team that has improved greatly over the past few years. Despite the new rules, we have not changed how we try and play every match. We have changed a few tactics due to how many exclusions happen now, but overall its the same Hungarian water polo.”

Athanasios Kechagias (GEO) — Head Coach
On the loss:
“First of all, congratulations to Hungary for playing a very good match. We try to play every game as a unit and today we did some things well today despite the result. It can be very hard to play a game after a victory like yesterday. We will have to analyse more and get ready to play another match tomorrow.”

Match 20, GREECE 20 JAPAN 16 (5-5, 4-5, 7-1, 4-5)

What was amazing about this match was the goal differential — four. It could have easily been four for Japan. However, Greece is the team of the moment and Japan let a good halftime lead slip through its fingers as Greece went on the rampage in the third and early fourth quarters, allowing Japan a chance to showcase its abilities in the dying minutes when the match was already lost. Japan started at 2-0, broke the 2-2 shackles for 5-2 with Yusuke Inaba grabbing two. Alexandros Papanastasiou scored twice for Greece with the first requiring an easy score and the second hard work. Greece scored through three different players for 5-5 by quarter time. Inaba and Mitsuru Takata took Japan to 7-6 with two from Greece, including a steal and counter from Papanastasiou, giving Greece its first lead of the match. Goals were swapped and Inaba claimed another two to give Japan the halftime lead. A successful challenge by head coach Yoshinori Shiota made sure of the penalty foul on the buzzer and Inaba converted.

Greece started the third period in a rush of goals with captain Konstantinos Genidounias scoring twice and Papanastasiou countering for the third time for his fourth goal. Seiya Adachi arrested the slide on extra but Greece was into steamroller territory now with the next five goals, including two to Dimitrios Skoumpakis and another to Genidounias for 19-11 at 5:17 in the last quarter. Greece relaxed, Japan stepped up and rattled in the next five with a variety of goals for 19-16 by 0:42. Nikolaos Gkillas buried one from the deep left at 0:20 and the win was assured, as was the semifinal berth and the trip to Kotor.

Match Heroes
Genidounias, Konstantinos Argyropoulos and Papanastasiou all scored four times and Gkillas thrice. The Greek goalkeepers dragged down 12 saves between them. Japanese dynamo Inaba was best with six goals and goalkeeper Towa Nishimura claimed 10 saves.

Turning Point
Japan losing two-goal and three-goal advantages in the first quarter and Greece’s 10-1 spurt that led to a 19-11 advantage by the final quarter. Japan swung on with the next five goals, but not enough to level.

Stats Don’t Lie
Greece went five from eight on extra and Japan three from seven. Greece nailed all three penalty attempts and Japan both of its chances. Greece stole the ball seven times to four and took 39 shots to 40.

Bottom Line
Greece is a current powerhouse of world water polo and Japan showed once again how close it has come in recent years. There are still two days for Japan to qualify.

What They Said

Theodoros Vlachos (GRE) — Head Coach
On the win:
“We didn’t start the match seriously. We were forcing shots alone, not in the correct position in helping on defence, and lacked good choices in our attack. We came into the match thinking that we would win easily, but when playing Japan, you will never have an easy game against them. They are a very special team that plays a very unique style of water polo that you must be prepared for. I think the match changed in the third quarter when we took the match more seriously and focused on our defensive structure. Because of that, our attack found solutions and became much better. Overall, we played a good match, especially in the second half.”

Konstantinos Genidounias — Player of the Match
On the changes Greece made to control the second half:
“I don’t think it was an adjustment; we just stopped receiving goals in the counter-attack and started scoring in the counter instead. In a game with Japan, that is the most important thing to take care of and it took us a while to achieve that.”
On Greece’s semifinal match-up with Hungary:
“It seems like Hungary is the team playing the best water polo with the new rules, so I’m sure it’s going to be a tough match-up. It’s a semifinal, we want to win and move on to the final and we will definitely give it all we have got.”

Yoshinori Shiota (JPN) — Head Coach
On problems in the match:
“Today we gave up too many goals to centre and the counter-attacks. Our counter-attack and offence was very good, but we made too many mistakes. We need to address problems with our defensive system to prepare for our match against Georgia.”

Match 21, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 7 MONTENEGRO 15 (1-5, 2-3, 1-3, 3-4)

Montenegro made sure of the semifinals with a controlling match as seen by the 4-0 start and 5-1 at the first break. This became 7-1 and 8-3 by halftime. Ryan Ohl had all three of USA’s goals while Montenegro had eight different scorers, even missing a penalty chance.

The third period lifted Montenegro even further with two Nikola Moskov goals — one from a penalty with his trademark whiplash spirit, which was the subject of a seven-minute VAR challenge from the USA coach. It was lost and the goal stood. Leftie Ben Liechty scored in extra to close the quarter at 11-4 and he scored USA’s fifth goal for 12-5 behind after Filip Gardasevic converted a penalty foul. Tyler Abramson made it a consecutive goal for USA but then goals were traded and Gardasevic finished counter with three seconds remaining for the handsome eight-goal margin.

As a side note, it was interesting to see that the coaches for these teams — Dejan Savic (MNE)and Dejan Udovicic (USA) — were both former Serbian coaches during its golden era.

Match Heroes
Petar Tesanovic was named best in pool with his 13 saves for Montenegro. Moskov scored four and Gardasevic three while USA’s Adrian Weinberg dragged in 14 saves and Ohl topped the scoring with three.

Turning Point
The 4-0 start that became 5-1 and 8-3 at the breaks.

Stats Don’t Lie
Montenegro had the better of the stats with three from five on extra compared to USA’s 50 per cent — five from 10; three from four on penalty while USA missed its sole chance; 12 from six on steals and 37 shots to 32.

Bottom Line
USA is the weaker of the two teams with its large list of newcomers. Montenegro has new stars, especially Moskov and Gardasevic, and has shown consistency since losing to Greece on day two.

What They Said
Petar Tesanovic (MNE) — Player of the Match
On the victory:
“First of all, I would like to congratulate all of my team-mates on the win. We really played an amazing game, especially on defence. There are at least six Americans here who won a bronze medal at the previous Olympics and we played such amazing defence against them. Tomorrow’s semifinal is very important because we have not made it that far in the last four to five years. If we can play the same defence we did today and give it our all, I hope we can make it to the finals.”

Dejan Savic (MNE) — Head Coach
On the match:
“We must be realistic that the US did not play this match with a traditional centre and tried a lot of driving and different post ups. My players were very concentrated on this at the beginning of the match and held the US to three goals. However, there was some oscillation in our play during the third quarter and fourth quarter again. We must now look forward to the winner of this game against Croatia and Spain. Our preparation will be very important for the semifinal because they are two national teams that play very different styles of water polo. It will be useful to play against these two teams, so we can learn from our mistakes against them to improve as a team.”

Match 22, CROATIA 14 SPAIN 15 (3-5, 5-4, 2-3, 4-3)

This was a match that really came down to the wire with Croatia hitting the crossbar on the buzzer, which could have sent the match to a shootout, which would have been a first in Bucharest. It was an encounter either team could have won and probably deservedly so. World champion Croatia and Olympic silver medallist in Paris, had to level seven times before gaining the lead for the first time at 6:02 in the final quarter.

European champion Spain began solidly with a 4-2 advantage and then 5-3 at the first break. Roger Tahull scored a brilliant centre-forward goal to close the shooting, his second goal. Alvaro Granados hit the crossbar on penalty, which would have made it 3-1 instead of 2-2, which it became. Rino Buric and Franko Lazic opened the scoring for Croatia in the second quarter with goals traded to 9-8 by halftime in favour of the Spanish — Unai Biel scoring his second on counter.

Granados was excluded for his third major foul at the start of the third period but Spain scored the next two and traded goals for 12-10 by the last break. Croatia opened up in the fourth with three straight goals, included a superb lob from Konstantin Kharkov and a blast from Marko Zuvela from the top. Croatia had the lead at 6:02. Marc Valls scored his third and fourth goals from the top and the left side to regain the advantage at 2:29. Croatia called a timeout at 1:32 and the result was Vlaho Pavlic equalising from the deep left at 1:16. On the Spanish set-up, Biel thundered in a long shot before the defence was ready at 0:57 for 15-14. Croatia lost the ball at centre, as did Spain when it could have played out time; Croatia gained an exclusion and the pass went wildly wide right with seconds remaining. The ball was spirited across the two-metre line to Buric who gathered and slammed into the crossbar as the buzzer sounded. Spain had survived, made the semifinals, qualified for the final series and Croatia needs to make the fifth-sixth-place play-off to get to the finals.

Match Heroes
Valls and Biel scored four each for Spain. Kharkov led the way for Croatia with three goals as seven team-mates also scored.

Turning Point
Spain’s consistency after scoring the first goal and denying Spain a penalty in the first quarter. Small things, but they add up. Coming back in the last minute was also the result of skill and calmness.

Stats Don’t Lie
Spain converted six from 12 and Croatia six from 13 on extra. Spain scored both penalty attempts and Croatia missed its one chance. Spain stole the ball six times to one and shot 40 to 35.

Bottom Line
Either team could have made the quarters. It was Spain’s day, leading almost all the time, even though Croatia levelled on nine occasions and took the lead for nearly two minutes in the final quarter.

Classification 9-12 Series

Match 17, SERBIA 21 ROMANIA 6 (6-1, 2-2, 4-1, 9-2)

Serbia made short shrift of Romania to finally gain a win in Bucharest. This was accomplished by going 6-1 at the quarter and 8-3 at halftime with eight different scorers in all. Serbia shuffled out to 11-3 and traded goals for 12-4 by three-quarter time. Marko Radulovic scored his third to start the final quarter and nabbed three more as Serbia over-ran Romania. It was not a good day for Romania who felt the wrath of a triple Olympic champion Serbian side looking for some sort of redemption.

Match Heroes
Radulovic was busy with six goals and Nikola Lukic scored three as 10 Serbians made the sheet. Pavle Gavrilovic made 10 saves in goal. David Belenyesi scored twice for Romania and Matei-Stefan Marchitan pulled in nine saves.

Turning Point
Going 6-1 up in the first quarter is all that needs to be said.

Stats Don’t Lie
Serbia had the better of extra-man plays, converting five from eight and stopping 0 of 14. Serbia scored the only penalty goal, took eight steals to four and shot 38 times to 34.

Bottom Line
Serbia was keen for its first victory and made sure of every opportunity while Romania has yet to register a win.

What They Said

Uros Stevanovic (SRB) — Head Coach
On the match:
“Nothing changed with our approach to the match. Both teams were disappointed to be playing in this game after losing yesterday. We have a young team and it makes sense that they have a better reaction to playing in this match. After today’s match, we have played four matches in 51 hours. That is just too much for any team to perform with any quality at the highest level.”

Marko Radulovic (SRB) — Player of the Match
On the difference between today’s match versus the slow start to the tournament:
“I think the biggest difference is that we have had more time to play together as a team because we changed a lot from our Olympic roster. This team’s first matches ever were against very good teams in Greece and Montenegro and we needed those matches together to be able to perform like we did today.”
On having one match left against France:
“Hopefully we can play that match like we did today and with the same full concentration and effort, I think we can win that match. When we play like this, we should be a better team than France and it’s very important that we end the tournament with another victory.”

Bogdan Rath (ROU) — Head Coach
On the match:
“It was another very tough match and my players are very physically and mentally tired after these games. As well, playing against a high level programme, Serbia in that condition is very challenging. Even though they did not bring their first team, they have so many high level players that they are always a very good team. Like I said yesterday, we must start our process over after analysing these games so we take the next steps at improving as a team.”

Day 6 Schedule

Classification 9-12 Semifinal
Match 24. 13:00. Serbia v France
Classification 5-8 Semifinals
Match 25. 14:30. L19 Georgia v L20 Japan
Match 26. 16:00. L21 United States of America v L22 Croatia
Classification1-4 Semifinals
Match 27. 17:30. W19 Hungary v W20 Greece
Match 28. 19:00. W21 Montenegro v W22 Spain