South Africa has none from two, when in fact it was none from four. This
match had South Africa playing at its best and Greece struggling to
contain the men in green caps. It was 3-2 at the quarter and 4-4 six
minutes into the second quarter.

Greece already had an extra-man
goal, albeit at 26 seconds. Then, in the  last half-minute of the half,
Alexandros Gounas produced the first (21 seconds) of three consecutive
goals from the same deep left position. His second came on the halftime
buzzer. He repeated he dose on 26 seconds at the top of the third.
Centre forward Christodoulos Kolomvos netted twice on extra followed by
Ioannis Fountoulis to lead at the final break 10-4.

Big Ryan Bell
departed the match in that quarter, losing some momentum for the South
Africans who were struggling with body position, causing the multitude
of exclusions.

Christos Afroudakis scored the official fifth
extra-man goal early in the fourth period and when Emmanouill Mylonakis
scored on counter he not only stopped a run of seven shots on “extra”
but increased Greece’s unanswered run to eight and 12-4.

Etienne Le
Roux stopped the run with a six-metre shot at 4:03 for the second-last
goal. Fountoulis scored off a cross pass for his 11th of the
championship, closing the match at 13-5.

It was the third time the pair has met at World Championships with Greece also winning in 1994 and 1998.

Match 25: 09:30, Quarterfinal Qualification, GREECE 13 SOUTH AFRICA 5
Quarters: 3-2, 3-2, 4-0, 3-1
Referees: Petar Abramovic (MNE), Joao Cardenuto (BRA)
Extra Man: GRE: 5/7. RSA: 0/2.
Pens: Nil

Teams:
GREECE: Konstantinos Tsalkanis, Emmanouill Mylonakis (1), Konstantinos Gouvis, Konstantinos Genidounios, Ioannis Fountoulis (2), Kyriakos Pontikeas, Christos Afroudakis (2), Evangelos Delakas, Konstantinos Mourikis (1), Christodoulos Kolomvos (2), Alexandros Gounas (3), Angelos Vlachopoulos (2), Konstantinos Galanidis. Head Coach: Athanasios Kechagias.

SOUTH AFRICA: Dwayne Flatscher, Etienne Le Roux (1), Devon Card (1), Ignardus Badenhorst (1), Nicholas Rodda, Jason Kyte, Richard Downes (1), Ryan Bell, Dean Whyte, Pierre Le Roux, Nicholas Molyneux (1), Adam Kajee, Donn Stewart. Head Coach: Brad Rowe.

FLASH QUOTES:

Alexandros Gounas (GRE):
“All that matters is that we are now into the quarterfinals. I may have scored the most goals but my team helped me to score, water polo is a team sport.”

Konstantinos Tsalkanis (GRE):
“We were still sleeping. We started to play well in the third quarter. We are not happy with our performance. Maybe it was the time, the weather, our opponent… I don’t know. South Africa is at a different level from us.”

Angelos Vlachopoulos (GRE):
“The reason why they were so close at halftime was that we weren’t concentrating, probably because of the early hour and the fact that we didn’t study properly our opponents. From now on we basically have to improve our defence.”

Richard Downes (RSA):
“We can´t be sad because we are an amateur team, however, we could play better. In this match, we started with good momentum, but we committed three big mistakes — enough to make us lose this game.”

Adam Kajee (RSA):
“We were very close in the first part, but then they started to score more goals and we lost the match. Greece is one of the best teams in the world while we are just an amateur team. For example, I work in an office. Because of this we are happy overall with our performance in this competition.”