Game 1, 10:00, Greece – Canada, 27-10
Quarters: 4-3, 6-4, 9-3, 8-0
Referees: Balazs Szekely (Hungary), Petar Abramovic (Montenegro)
GREECE: Adamanttios Mantis, Geiorgios Gkikas, Nikolaos Gardikas 3, Konstantinos Kakaris 3, Dimitrios Nikolaidis 5, Alexandros Papanastrasiou 3, Grigorios Giannopoulos 4, Nikolaos Delagrammatikas 1, Konstantinos Gkiouvetsis 1, Nikolas Papasifakis 7, Dimitrios Kourouvanis.
Coach: Nikolaos Karamanis
CANADA:Aleksa Stanic, Gareth Jones 3, Alexis Reiher 3, Robert-Martyn Fraser 1, Benjamin Lemay Lavoie 1, Mark Spooner, Reuel Dsouza 1, Blake Carnevale, Jake Morris, Brody McKnight, Bogdan Derkovic 1.
Coach: Andrew Muir
Extramen
Greece: 7 for 8
Canada: 5 for 9
Penalties:
Greece: 2 for 2
Canada: -
In the first two quarters, Canadians has been a tough nut for the team of Greece, with the Hellenic getting a tiny advantage of three goals (10-7). In the second part of the match, Greek players showed much more energy and finally prevailed, in a convincing triumph by 27-10. The most efficient players in the winning team were Nikolas Papasifakis with 7 goals and Dimitrios Nikolaidis with 5 goals.
Game 2, 11:20, Spain – Australia, 8-10
Quarters: 2-3, 3-2, 2-4, 1-1
Referees: George Polychronopoulos (Greece), Ivan Rakovic (Serbia).
SPAIN: Javier Benavides, Alvaro Garcia, Pablo Gomez, Josep Puig, Josu Fernandez, Jordi Chico, Marc Salvador 1, Alvaro Granados 5, Oriol Rodriguez 1, Paul Nikolas 1, Oriol Albacete.
Coach: Mario Garcia
AUSTRALIA: Damian Williams, Keenan Marsden 1, Samuel Nangle, Nickolas Elphick 1, Timothy Putt 3, Lachalan Vos 1, Luckas Mackaway 1, Chaz Poot 2, Jed Thompson 1, Cristian Kyriakou, Nicholas Poter.
Coach: Andrei Kovalenko
Extramen
Spain: 3 for 9
Australia 3 for 8
Penalties:
Spain: -
Australia: -
At the end of the third period, Australia has acquired a two-goal advantage that was preserved until the end of the match. Spain had led 5-3 during second quarter, but Australian players had a fantastic series of 5-1, decisive for the victory. At the beginning of the last period, Paul Nicolas scored for Spain for 9:8, but the Iberians could not succeed in consequent attacks to level the score. Finally, with 2.22 minutes before the end, Lachalan Vos from Australia scored a goal for 10-8 and confirmed an important victory for the Aussie youngsters at the start of the World Championships in Podgorica.
Game 3, 14:00, Russia – Colombia, 25-5
Quarters: 5-3, 7-1, 7-1, 6:0
Referees: Marco da Silva (Brasil) , Stephen O 'Brien (Ireland)
RUSSIA: Vladimir Andreev, Bogdan Melentev 6, Oleg Kucherenko 1, Emil Zinnurov 5, Kirill Semenov, Danill Pronin 3, Farkhad Salimov 2, Konstantin Sheikin 2, Nikita Krug 3, Timur Shaikhutdinov 3, Dmitrii Trusov.
Coach: Alexander Eryshov
COLOMBIA: Juan Durango, Simon Gonzales 4, Juan Orozco, Jose Jaramillo, Santiago Bustamante 1, Luis Ramirez, Daniel Tamayo, Santiago, Munoz, Sebastian Nieto, Andres Henao, Manuel Quintero.
Coach: Bladimir Molina
Extramen
Russia: 3 for 4
Colombia 0 for 5
Penalties:
Russia: -
Colombia:1 for 1
The team of Colombia gave some resistance only in the initial quarter. After that, Russia totally dominated operations, achieving a convincing victory.
Game 4, 17:00, South Africa – Japan, 16-32
Quarters: 3-10, 3-8, 4-8, 6-6
Referees: John Waldow (New Zealand), Humberto Navarro (USA).
SOUTH AFRICA: Keegan Clark, Michael Stewart 1, Wanye Phillips, Caleb Simpson 1, Kegan Aiken, Sven Van Zyl 4, Malcolm Mc Callum 2, Mathew Hamilton 6, Dylan Cronje 1, Sebastien Bidoli 1, Thomas Eichner.
Coach: Andrew, Stewart.
JAPAN: Towa Nishimura, Yuto Abo 3, Shimpel Omoto 2, Harukirario Koppu 4, Fuya Kawamoto 2, Yuki Takada 3, Kaname Tanaka 5, Toi Suzuki 5 , Ikkei Nitta 5, Yusuke Inaba 3, Tobias Martenes.
Coach: Takahisa Minami.
Extramen
South Africa: 1 for 3
Japan 9 for 10
Penalties:
South Africa: -
Japan: -
Score festival in a match between South Africa and Japan! Both teams have played almost without defence. The shorter pool, the smaller ball as well as the reduced number of players (new test rules are in place in Podgorica) obviously favoured the Japanese team which scored the double of goals than theirs opponents for a very comfortable victory.
Game 5, 18:20, Croatia – New Zealand, 23-11
Quarters: 6-3, 6-0, 6-5, 5-3
Referees: Anlong Meng (China), Alberto Rovida (Italy).
CROATIA: Luka Podrug, Branimir Herceg 2, Karlo Krekovic 1, Marko Valecic 1, Zvonimir Butic 1, Jacob Mercep 6, Duje Pejkovic 5, Franko Lazic 1, Lovro Paparic 3, Matias Biljaka 3, Petar Bratim.
Coach: Joško Krekovic.
NEW ZEALAND: Bae Fountain, Cayne Dew 2, Jake Morris 3, Justin Pickering 1, Troy Armstrong, Dominic Rankin-Chitar 1, Richard Snenddon 1, Nick Stankovich 1, Nick Paterson 1, Cooper Stewart 1, Christopher Downe.
Coach: Goran Sablic.
Extramen
Croatia: 10 for 12
New Zealand: 6 for 8
Penalties:
Croatia: -
New Zealand: -
Croatia built up its victory against New Zealand in the first two periods. In the rest of the game, New Zealand was a tough opponent, but the final difference of 12 goals clearly demonstrated the Balkan superiority. Interestingly, it was also a match between two Croatian coaches, as New Zealand national team head coach, Goran Sablic is Croatian, also former head coach of the Brazilian senior team during the FINA World Championships in Shanghai 2011. The best scorers in the winning team were Jacob Mercep with 6 goals and Duje Pejkovic with 5.
Game 6, 19:40, China – Serbia, 11-21
Quarters: 1-6, 1-7, 6-5, 3-3
Referees: Diego Garibaldi (Argentina) and Andrej Laginja (Slovenia)
CHINA: Jun Jing Wang, Bei Yi Wang 2, Yun Tian Wang, Gao Yingji 1, Wei Tang 4, Yi Lu 1, Wen Jian Luo, Xing Me 1 He, Ding Song Shen 2, Chi Liao, Bo Ren She.
Coach: Ling Jun Mao
SERBIA: Stefan Todorovski, Aleksandar Mirkovic 1, Lazar Vicković 1, Nikola Lukic 5, Luka Bosic 1, Petar Velikic 4, Djordje Vucinic 3 , Petar Tomic, Marko Jankovic 4, Kristijan Sulc 2, Milan Bulajic.
Coach: Zoran Milenkovic.
Extramen
China: 0 for 6
Serbia: 4 for 5
Penalties:
China: -
Serbia: 2 for 2
Very easy and convincing victory achieved by another favourite. Serbian players have totally dominated the Chinese side and finally won by a 10 goal-difference, 21-11. Serbia had assured a comfortable lead already after the first two quarters, so in the second half of the match Serbians kept the energy for the rest of the championship, especially for the derby-match on Saturday, against Croatia.
Game 7, 21:00, Italy – Montenegro, 15-15
Quarters: 1-3, 4-2, 7-4, 3-6
Referees: Vladimir Golikov (Russia) and Haldun Toygarli (Turska)
ITALY: Gianmaco Nicosia, Gaetano Baviera 1, Filippo Gavazzi 1, Alessio Navarra, Mario Guidi, Antonio Maccioni 1, Federico Piombo 1, Eduardo Manzi 7, Ettore Novara 1, Massimo Di Martire 3, Francesco De Michelis.
Coach: Cosimino Di Cecca.
MONTENEGRO: Petar Tesanovic, Branko Franeta 2, Savo Cetkovic 2, Nicolas Saveljic 1, Dusan Matkovic, Danilo Dragovic 1, Aleksa Ukropina 4, Petar Mijuskovic 1, Duro Radovic 3, Dusan Banicevic 1, Milos Krivokapic.
Coach: Veljko Uskokovic.
Extramen
Italy: 1 for 6
Montenegro: 8 for 14
Penalties:
Italy: -
Montenegro: -
Fantastic match played by host team of Montenegro and Italy, on Day 1 of the FINA World Youth Championships in Podgorica. Both national teams have shown that they are rightfully considered as candidates for a medal. Montenegro rapidly led to 3-0, then 4-1, with an excellent man-up percentage in the first period of the game (3-3). But after such amazing start, the home team was stopped by Italians. The Italians started to play much better in the second and third periods. Particularly brilliant was Italian goalie Francesco De Michelis. At the start of the last quarter, Italy was leading by a four-goal difference, 13-9. It seemed that the winner was found. Everybody thought like that except Montenegrins. The host team not only equalised the score, but was even in the lead in the last minute of the match. Phenomenal Italian player Eduardo Manzi then scored his seventh goal, for a final result of 15-15.
“I have seen everything in this match! Two different conceptions of the game, two different types of water polo. Everything is going faster in matches like this, especially by youngsters“, said Veljko Uskokovic, Head Coach of Montenegro.
On the other side, Italian coach Cosimino Di Ceca said: “I'm not satisfied with the result. We had a great, huge lead, but we couldn't preserve it, so we have almost left the pool without points”.