Match 25: 18:20, Group D, CANADA 13 KAZAKHSTAN 16

Quarters: 2-6, 6-2, 1-5, 4-3

Referees: Radu Matache (ROU), Haldun Toygarli (TUR).

Extra Man: CAN: 8/10. KAZ: 6/12.

Pens: KAZ: 1/1.

Teams:
CANADA: Samuel Reiber, Giordano Marconuto, Maxime Schapowal, Gaelan Patterson (4), Matthew Halajian (2), Julien Allard (1), Paule Kotarac (1), Sean Spooner (1), Jeremie Blanchard, Aria Suleimanipak (3), Benjamin Bolduc. Head Coach: Nikola Maric.
KAZAKHSTAN: Aleksandr Lopatkin, Stanislav Shedov (4), Ruslan Akhmetov (2), Sultan, Shonzhigitov, Miras Aubakirov (1), Sergey Bogomolov, Maxim Zhardan (6), Egor Berbelyuk, Altay Altayev (2), Yulian Verdesh (1), Valeriy Shlemov. Head Coach: Nemanja Knezevic.

Match report:
A buoyant crowd left the stadium tonight after Kazakhstan registered its first win and jumped into third spot in the group. Canada was never given a chance by the local team, which led 6-2 at the quarter before Canada came clawing back to equalise by halftime. However, in the end, Kazakhstan went to 13-9 ahead by the final break held sway with some excellent shot-making and defensive play against a team, which had every right to expect a great shot at victory. Maxim Zhardan gave the home team the excellent start with four of his six goals coming in the opening quarter. Gaetan Patterson was the best for Canada with a score in each period. Canada finishes its preliminary programme against Spain  and Kazakhstan will be going for two wins by playing Uzbekistan in the last match in the evening.


Picture: Russell McKinnon

Match 31: 17:00, Group C, IRAN 5 AUSTRALIA 15

Quarters: 1-4, 1-5, 1-4, 2-2

Referees: Viktor Salnichenko (KAZ), Daniel Daners (URU).

Extra Man: IRI: 2/5. AUS: 7/9.

Pens: IRI: 1/1.

Teams:
IRAN: Hamed Karimi, Masoud Ahmadi, Mehdi Yazdankhah, Arshia Almasi (1), Amirhossein Keihany, Peiman Asadiaghajari, Mohammadmahdi Heydari (1), Hamidreza Moghaddam, Soheil Rostamian (1), Aminghavidel Hajiagha (2), Shayan Ghasemidaryan. Head Coach: Vahid Rezaeiashtiyani.
AUSTRALIA: Anthony Hrysanthos, Nicholas Brooks (3), Angus Lambie (1), Christopher Perrott (1), William Armstrong (1), Jordan Kremers-Taylor (2), William Mackay (2), Leo Hurley, Andrew Ford (5), James Smith, Sam Cocokios. Head Coach: Slobodan Macic.

Match Report:
Australia claimed its second victory and with it came second place in the group after Serbia, who had a rest day. Iran struggled to make any headway against the Aussies, although it was not until the final minute of the period that Australia went 3-1 and 4-1 up. By halftime the writing was on the wall for Iran with Andrew Ford scoring three times by the long break. He added two more in the second half. The third quarter was telling for Iran, while the last saw Iran press hard for 2-2. Iran plays Mexico on Tuesday for third place in the group.


Picture: Russell McKinnon

 

Match 30: 15:40, Group B, NETHERLANDS 8 HUNGARY 18

Quarters: 3-5, 2-5, 2-6, 1-2

Referees: Ulrich Spiegel (GER), Jaume Teixido (ESP).

Extra Man: NED: 4/11. HUN: 6/10.
Pens: Nil.

Teams:
NETHERLANDS: Milan Koff, Kjeld Veenhuis (1), Guus  van Yperen (1), Sam Burg (), Guus Wolswinkel (), Tarik Scherrenburg (1), Harmen Muller (1), Pascal Janssen (2), Bilal Gbadamassi, Benjamin Hoepelman (2), Brent Hofmeyer. Head Coach: Jacob Spijker.
HUNGARY: Istvan Kardos, Marcell Kolozsi (1), Zoltan Pohl, Tamas Sedlmayer (3), Adam Nagy (2), Balasz Kalanovics, Gergo Zalanki (4), Gergo Kovacs, Krisztian Peter Manhercz (4), Simon Benedek Vogel, Soma Vogel. Head Coach: Gyorgi Horkai.

Match report:
Hungary surged into Thursday’s quarterfinals with a fourth victory, earning a bye day on Tuesday and the rest day for group winners on Wednesday. With Gergo Zalanki and Gergo Kovacs leading the charge with four goals each, Hungary was never headed. The Dutch started strongly, levelling at 1-1, 2-2 and 3-3, but Hungary had a two-goal lead at the quarter, stretched it to five by halftime and cruised home. Krisztian Peter Manhercz  was another four-goaler, scoring all in the third period and three of them consecutively. Tamas Sedlmayer was another with a useful arm, scoring three and having the possibility of many more, except for good defence, the uprights or, as in the final period, a wayward lob. For the Dutch, six players made the card. The Dutch need to beat Greece on Tuesday to wrap up second spot in the group. Three cards were given during the match — a yellow to both coaches and a red card to a Dutch assistant coach.


Picture: Russell McKinnon

Match 29: 12:40, Group B, JAPAN 15 GREECE 17

Quarters: 4-6, 4-5, 2-4, 5-2

Referees: Andrej Franulovic (CRO), Ahmed Kotob (EGY).

Extra Man: JPN: 3/10. GRE: 4/7.

Pens: JPN: 1/1. GRE: 1/2.

Teams:
JAPAN: Kazuki Hashimoto, Kenta Araki (5), Mitsuru Takata (3), Shuma Kawamoto, Shotaro Yamada, Daichi Nagano (1), Shu Hamada (4), Seiya Adachi (1), Miki Sato (1), Kohei Inaba, Ryosuke Oshima. Head Coach: Yoshinori Shiota.
GREECE: Emmanouil Zerdevas, Nikolaos Kopeliadis (3), Michail Sartzetakis, Angelos Foskolos (6), Stylianos Argyropoulos-Kanakkis (4), Dmitrios Nicolaidis (3), Panteleimon Kalogerakos, Grigorios Kapetanakis, Christos Papoukas (1), Alexandros Athymaritis, Rafail Forotzidis. Head Coach: Theodoros Chatzitheodorou.

Match Report:

Greece notched its second win from three matches, fending off an obstinate Japan. When Greece seemed to be making headway, Japan would throw up a roadblock. There was a lot of action in front of goal with centre forwards working hard for goals. Japan’s Kenta Araki was using all his skills at two metres and came away with five goals while Greece’s Dmitrios Nicolaidis was happiest in the same position, scoring three for the match. One unguarded goal from Christos Papoukas, which seemed to be a massive mistake by Japan, turned what was a relatively close 13-10 into 14-10 late in the third period, a goal that made a lot of difference considering the final score. Greece had held four-goal leads at 11-7 and 12-8 and extended the margin to 15-10 by the final break. Japan made a huge surge in the final eight minutes, winning the period 5-2, but at 12-17 behind at just over three minutes remaining, the final three goals were just consolations. Shui Hamada threw the last two goals after Mitsuru Takata scored the first three. Angelos Foskolos showed his class with six goals — three in the opening quarter. Greece will now play Netherlands for second spot in the group on Tuesday morning. Japan will play China, looking for a first win at lunchtime on Tuesday.


Picture: Russell McKinnon

 

Match 27: 11:20, Group A, CROATIA 19 EGYPT 3

Quarters: 4-1, 5-0, 5-1, 5-1

Referees: Miodrag Stefanovic (SRB), Daniel Vazquez (MEX).

Extra Man: CRO: 7/15. EGY: 0/7.

Pens: Nil

Teams:
CROATIA: Marin Sparada, Loren Fatovic (2), Rino Buric (2), Andro Gagulic (1), Antun Goreta, Andrija Basic (5), Luka Lozina (4), Antonio Buha (2), Ivan Zovic (2), Ivan Zivkovic, Marin Jukic. Head Coach: Miho Bobic.
EGYPT: Omara Osama, Moustafa Essmat (1), Aly Elaassar, Mahmoud Tarek, Ahmed Barakat (2), Abdelrahman Haroun, Ahmed Sherif, Hassan Haroun, Karim Mahmoud, Mahomed Mohsen, Marwan Ayman. Head Coach: Denes Lukacs.

Match Report:
Pencil in Croatia for a medals final. The powerful Adriatic team crushed Egypt and showed why it is a serious contender if not the contender for the crown. Big left-handed centre forward Luka Lozina and solid outside shooter Andrija Basic look out of place in this junior tournament and are showing the sort of skills that will see them in senior ranks very soon. Basic threw five goals and Lozina four and the effort shown was not the high level they will start to show at the sharp end of the tournament. These two are surrounded by top-class talent with Rino Buric particularly imposing. Egypt, the team that pressed Montenegro hard on day one and rattled in 24 goals against South Africa on Sunday, had no answers. It tried in vain to get clean ball to the hole man, with little effect. The Croatian defence was supreme and goals we obviously few. The best effort from Egypt came from a centre-forward backhand shot that slithered in the cage from Ahmed Barakat for 10-2. With Montenegro and Egypt out of the way, only South Africa stands in the way of a clean sweep on Tuesday and a quarterfinal berth.


Picture: Russell McKinnon

 

Match 26: 10:00, Group D, UZBEKISTAN 6 ITALY 17

Quarters: 0-3, 1-4, 1-4, 4-6

Referees: Balazs Szekely (HUN), Kunihiro Sato (JPN)

Extra Man: UZB: 3/4. ITA: 4/10.

Pens: UZB: 0/1. ITA: 2/3.

Teams:
UZBEKISTAN: Radion Knabibullaev, Mirjalol Nagmatov, Doniyor Umarov, Artur Kim, Maksim Krakhotin (1), Aleksey Zaytsev (3), Kirill Rustamov (2), Egor Chumachenko, Grorgiy Mamedov, Aleksey Massel, Khayotson Rakhimov. Head Coach: Aleksandr Sokolov.
ITALY: Fabio Viola, Umberto Esposito (2), Edoardo di Somma (1), Antonio Maccioni, Gianluigi Foglio (3), Roberto Ravina (1), Vincenze Dolce (5), Eduardo Campopiano (1), Jacopo Alesiani (2), Alessandro Velotto (1), Gianmarco Nicosia. Head Coach: Ferdinando Pasci.

Match Report:
Italy won its fourth straight match to claim Group D and advance to Thursday’s quarterfinals. Italy pressed hard and thwarted Uzbekistan’s driving game. The Uzbeks did not play a centre forward for the entire first half and instead tried to gain exclusions, however, its first goal, and on extra, came just before halftime. The second came on action in the third with an excellent drive across the bottom right by Maksim Krakhotin after the extra-man timeframe. Italy advanced to 15-2 inside the final four minutes and let up enough for Uzbekistan to improve its scoring with the last three goals inside the final two minutes when the match was well and truly lost. Vincenzo Dolce impressed once more in front of goal and is proving quite a handful for most teams. It was his second five-goal haul after day one’s clash with Kazakhstan and he has now tallied 14. Kirill Rustamov was well guarded and his two goals came at the death, lifting his total from three matches to 17.