Men's WPWL 2016: Last-gasp USA stun Aussies to grab glory at Intercontinental Tournament

USA snatched a last-gasp winner against Australia on Sunday, to win the final of the FINA Water Polo World League Men's Intercontinental Tournament.

Brazil somehow denied Japan with a storming fightback, beating the hosts for a second straight day, in the 3rd place play-off, while Kazakhstan were too strong for China in the 5th place decider, at Yokohama International Swimming Pool.

The top four teams — USA, Australia, Brazil and Japan — have now qualified for the Super Final of the FINA Men's Water Polo World League in Huizhou, China, from June 21-26. Greece, Italy and Serbia will represent Europe, while China will compete as hosts.

USA had finished top of the round-robin group with five wins, followed by Australia on four, Brazil three, Japan two, and Kazakhstan one, while China lost all five matches.

USA captain Tony Azevedo took the MVP award, Brazil’s Josip Vrlic topped the goalscoring charts with 21 strikes, Japan’s Katsuyuki Tanamura was named top goalkeeper, and his team-mate Atsushi Arai took the special Organising Committee Award.

5th/6th PLAY-OFF: KAZAKHSTAN 16-7 CHINA

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

Teams:

KAZAKHSTAN: Madikhan Makhmetov, Yevgeniy Medvedev (1), Maxim Zhardan (3), Roman Pilipenko, Miras Aubakirov, Alexey Shmider, Murat Shakenov (1), Yulian Verdesh (1), Rustam Ukumanov (5), Mikhail Ruday (4), Ravil Manafov (1), Altay Altayev, Valeriy Shlemov. Head Coach: Nemanja Knezevic

CHINA: Guozheng Wu, Chenghao Chu, Beiyi Wang, Yingyi Gao (1), Zhongxian Chen (3), Zekai Xie, Wenhui Lu (1), Yemen Chen (1), Gelin Zhu, Yu Liu, Zhenrui Lei (1), Wei Tang, Linfeng Li. Head Coach: Lingyun Mao

A fine individual goal in the opening quarter by Maxim Zhardan set the tone for an authoritative Kazakhstan display. 

Zhardan stole the ball during a China attack, sprinted to the other end, swivelled, and fired home to give the Kazakhs a 4-2 lead.

Coach Nemanja Knezevic had demanded a stronger defence, and his players obliged, largely restricting China to speculative long-range shots in reaching halfway with a 7-3 advantage.

Rustam Ukumanov and Mikhail Ruday effectively put the game to bed when they netted the first three goals of the third period. Ukumanov ended with five goals, Ruday four.

“Good job today, maybe we gave away two or three unnecessary goals and we had a lot of exclusions but my team was in full control of each quarter,” said Kazakhstan coach Nemanja Knezevic.

“We showed promise today. The first match, we beat China by five, this time we had a nine-goal advantage, so we’ve made progress. This tournament has provided good experience for us.”

China coach Lingyun Mao said matters weren’t helped by centre-forward Gelin Zhu carrying a back injury.

“I’m very disappointed we lost today. We will have three new players in the squad for the Super Final in China. This has been good experience for what is a young team,” said Mao.

 

3rd/4th PLAY-OFF: BRAZIL 13-12 JAPAN

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

Teams:

BRAZIL: Vinicius Antonelli, Jonas Crivella, Guilherme Gomes (2), Ives Alonso (1), Paulo Salemi, Bernardo Gomes, Adrian Baches (2), Felipe Silva, Bernardo Rocha, Felipe Perrone, Gustavo Guimaraes (3), Josip Vrlic (5), Bernardo Oliveira. Head Coach: Ratko Rudic

JAPAN: Katsuyuki Tanamura, Seiya Adachi (3), Atsushi Arai (3), Mitsuaki Shiga (2), Akira Yanase (1), Atsuto Iida, Yusuke Shimizu, Yuki Kadono, Koji Takei (1),  Kenya Yasuda, Keigo Okawa (2), Shota Hazui, Tomoyoshi Fukushima. Head Coach: Yoji Omoto

Brazil produced a remarkable fightback from 8-11 down in the final six minutes, to claim third place in a thrilling showdown with underdogs Japan.

Last year’s World League bronze medallists scored the next five goals, before Seiya Adachi ensured the tensest of finishes by pulling it back to 12-13 with 86 seconds left.

Brazil lost possession in attack with 13 seconds on the clock, but Japan were unable to take advantage. 

Just as the previous day, centre-forward Josip Vrlic struck twice in the opening exchanges to leave the hosts chasing the game.

Ninety seconds of chaos resulted in a smart Katsuyuki Tanamura save, two converted penalties by Japan and a yellow card for Brazil coach Ratko Rudic, to give Japan hope in the second quarter, and they struck twice more late on to trail only 5-6 at the interval.

Japan took the lead for the first time, with two goals in the opening minute of the next quarter, and maintained a one-goal advantage heading into the final eight minutes.

With their now familiar chant of “Nippon, Nippon,” accompanied by a raucous rhythm of inflatable bam bam sticks, the home crowd did their best to get Japan over the line, and Akira Yanase and Keigo Okawa drew first blood in the fourth quarter to give Japan an 11-8 lead.

But the game turned when goalie Vinicius Antonelli — a key figure in this match — denied Koji Takei, and Japan conceded a penalty moments later, which was converted by Gustavo Guimaraes. 

Vrlic struck his fourth and fifth goals, and Guimaraes bagged a brace, as Brazil fought back to 13-11, then Antonelli made two more critical saves to secure third place. 

“On the crucial shots, especially in the extra-man attack, we missed, and that cost us,” said Japan coach Yoji Omoto.

“Fourth place gives us hope for the future. We played well against USA, Australia and Brazil, and our players must have gained some confidence from those performances.”

Brazil coach Ratko Rudic, said: “The referees didn’t give us the fouls we should have had, so it was difficult to organise the game.

“It was important when we went behind by two goals that we played very well on the counter. It was a very physical game, and it was very important that we kept our heads until the end — we’re a strong team psychologically. In the last six minutes we didn’t really give any fouls away.

“I’m very satisfied with the team, we’ve made good progress this week, and we were the only team who came here without preparation — maybe if we had come here with more preparation we could have done better in the earlier games.

“I’m not thinking about our classification at the Olympic Games, I’m just focused on our training. Training well brings its own results but, of course, we must be competitive, and we will be competitive.”

 

FINAL: USA 10-9 AUSTRALIA

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

Teams:

USA: Merrill Moses, Jackson Kimbell, Nikola Vavic, Alex Obert, Alex Roelse, Luca Cupido (3), Josh Samuels (3), Tony Azevedo (2), Alex Bowen, Bret Bonanni (2), Jesse Smith, John Mann, McQuin Baron. Head Coach: Dejan Udovicic 

AUSTRALIA: James Stanton, Richard Campbell, George Ford, John Cotterill (3), Nathan Power, Jarrod Gilchrist (1), Aidan Roach (3), Tyler Martin, Joel Swift (1), Mitchell Emery, Rhys Howden (1), Lachlan Edwards, Joel Dennerley. Head Coach: Elvis Fatovic

A heartstopping closing few moments in the final saw Australia blow their chance of glory and USA grab a winning goal with 2 seconds left.

With the match all-square deep in the final minute, Australia intercepted a USA attack and broke clear, only to miss a glorious opening. And in the Americans’ resulting attack, Luca Cupido fired in a trademark long-range rocket to bring the crowd to its feet.

The Americans had beaten the Aussies 8-6 in a tense opening match of the tournament, on Tuesday, and the final was another close-fought, often tetchy contest.

Aidan Roach scored 16 seconds before the interval to reduce Australia’s deficit to 4-5 at the turnaround.

USA goalie Merrill Moses made what proved to be three vital stops at the start of third period, but the Aussies led from midway through the third quarter, to start the final eight minutes 8-7 to the good.

James Stanton then pulled off some top stops in the Aussie goal, before the prolific Bret Bonanni levelled the game.

John Cotterill scored his third to put the Aussies 9-8 ahead with about 3 minutes to go. Then Cupido squared the contest with the first of his late missiles, with 90 seconds to go, and sealed the honours with his second.

USA coach Dejan Udovicic reckoned there is even more to come from his emerging stars, who won all six of their matches this week. 

“This game was a much higher intensity than our first one with them. As a very young team, it is very important for us to keep winning. We deserved that last last goal because we were better than our opponents, and we won all our games,” said Udovicic.

“We’re the youngest team in the world, so have a lot of room to improve. We need to work hard, and I think that we can still perform much better.

“Of course, everyone is preparing for the Olympic Games, but we have shown our potential this week.”

Opposite number Elvis Fatovic took heart from Australia’s efforts.

“I was disappointed with our performance yesterday, when we beat Kazakhstan 11-4, but I’m really happy with the way we played today. We have lots of things still to improve — one weakness in our game is at the very end of our extra-man defence periods,” said Fatovic.

“Every next game, every next training session, is something that we set targets for, so I don’t want to look to far ahead to Rio — everyone wants to go as far as they can.

“But if we can get there in perfect shape — and we’re usually the fittest team in the world — then we have a chance of doing well.”