Game 33, 09.00, Group A: United States vs. Spain 8-11
Quarters: 2-2, 2-4, 2-2, 2-3
Referees: Ivanovski (MNE), Garibaldi (ARG)

USA: Alexander Wolf, Thomas Dunstan 2, Bryce Hoerman 1, Kent Inoue 3, Warren Snyder, David Kessler, Marco Stanchi, Nicholas Carniglia 1, Matthew Maier 1, Timothy Simenc, Nicholas Bisconti, Bennett Williams, Conrad Gordon. Head coach: Alex Rodriguez.
SPAIN: Miquel Linares, Sergi Cabanas 1, Bruno Navajas, Marc Corbalan 2, Xavier Serra 1, Agusti Perilas, Borja Fenoy 3, Miquel Gasulla 1, Roger Tahull 3, Pol Barbena, Guillem Garcia, Alejandro Bustos, David Allon. Head coach: David Martin.

Extramen
USA: 2 for 11
Spain: 3 for 7

Penalties
USA: 2 for 2
Spain: 2 for 2

Spain should have won with a huge margin in order to clinch the first place ahead of the Hungarians who managed to force a draw against the Spaniards a day before in the dying seconds. But it was the U.S. team which started the match strongly and quickly went 2-0 ahead. Spain managed to level the score still in the first but they needed some more time before taking the driving seat. It happened deep into the second period as they jumped from 3-2 down to a 3-6 lead in a span of 2:26 minutes. However, the Americans held tight and came back for 5-6 and trailed only 6-8 after three period. Fenoy netted his third for 6-9 and Tahull also completed a hat-trick a bit later for 7-10 but only the win was in sight, not the first place – it went to the Hungarians who sailed directly into the quarter finals even if they had an off day.

Game 34, 10.20, Group A: Kazakhstan vs. Egypt 8-7
Quarters: 1-2, 3-5, 2-0, 2-0
Referees: Brooks (NZL), Randall (RSA)

KAZAKHSTAN: Alexandr Lopatkin, Stanislav Shvedov, Temirlan Myrzakhmet, Stanislav Savin, Miras Aubakirov 1, Sergey Bogomolov, Iliyas Shamshat, Egor Berbelyuk, Altay Altayev 2, Azat Bolatov 1, Alexey Rogalev, Nikita Prokhin 4, Vladislav Kolesnik. Head coach: Dmitry Khodzinskiy.
EGYPT: Ayman Mohemed, Omar Elhadidi, Aly Abdelaziz 1, Ahmed Abdelaal, Walid Essameldin, Hassan Haroun 1, Ahmed Abdelghaftar 1, Andrew Bekheet, Abdelrahman Ahmed, Omar Zaki, Ahmed Roshdi 4, Ahmed Sayed, Karim Rizk. Head coach: Aly Warda.

Extramen
Kazakhstan: 1 for 4
Egypt: 2 for 7

Penalties
Kazakhstan: 0 for 1
Egypt: 0 for 1

It was a huge battle of the two winless sides with Egypt seeming to take full control towards the end of the second period when they led 3-7. The Kazakhs played frustrated, the bench got a yellow card, the assistant coach was sent to the tribune with a red one. The turning point came in the beginning of the third: the five-minute break was enough to cool down the heads while the Egyptians missed a penalty at 4-7. A minute later it was 5-7 and in the last second Prokhin scored from action for 6-7. He opened the last period with another goal – it was his fourth – and for the first time in the game Altayev put the Kazakhs ahead. Though there were 4:25 minutes to go, the Egyptians were frozen, they missed all their chances, lost the second half 4-0 and the game as well.

Game 35, 11.40, Group B: Montenegro vs. Iran 14-0
Quarters: 2-0, 3-0, 4-0, 5-0
Referees: Ni (CHN), El Shamy (EGY)

MONTENEGRO: Milos Konatar, Marko Konatar 2, Bogdan Durdic 2, Petar Cetkovic 2, Vlado Popadic, Stefan Pjesivac 1, Aleksa Ukropina 2, Janko Krivokrapic, Dimitrije Krijestorac 2, Danilo Adzic 1, Nikola Moskov 1, Nicolas Saveljic 2, Arsenije Stanovic. Head coach: Mirko Vicevic.
IRAN: Hamed Karimi, Masoud Ahmadi, Amirhossein Raharjedi, Arshia Almasi, Amirhossen Kehany, Erfan Lashgari, Mohammadmahoi Heydari, Seyedsajjad Saviz, Shoel Rostamian, Mohammad Rasoul Feizabhaee, Hamidreza Moghaddam, Amin Ghavidelhajagha. Head coach: Lutzbernd Muller.

Extramen
Montenegro: 4 for 6
Iran: 0 for 2

Penalties
Montenegro:
Iran: –

It was the first shutout of the tournament, the Montenegrins paid respect towards their opponent by applying a tight defence and the Iranians were probably too tired to score after their huge battle with Argentina (which they lost a day before with a single goal).

Game 36, 13.00, Group B: Australia vs. Japan 7-11
Quarters: 2-3, 2-2, 1-4, 2-2
Referees: Radicevic (CRO), Putnikovic (SRB)

AUSTRALIA: Joshua Zekulich, Timothy Reeves 1, Kieran Mulcahy, Christopher Perrott 3, Luke Pavillard 3, James Smith, Angus Lambie, Rhys Holden, Alex Bogunovich, Lachlan Pethick, Mitchell Marsden, Keenan Marsden, Jack Bell. Head coach: Andrew Yanitsas.
JAPAN: Kazuki Hashimoto, Miki Sato 1, Shu Hamada 2, Kohei Inaba 7, Shingo Ishiyama, Kazuki Omoto, Shotaro Yamada 1, Suguru Kabasawa, Yushi Miyazawa, Yuki Shimizu, Taichi Yamada, Kiyomu Date. Head coach: Takamitsu Nakashima.

Extramen
Australia: 1 for 5
Japan: 6 for 9

Penalties
Australia: 1 for 1
Japan: –

Had it happened in a senior tournament we would have talked about a surprise – but based on the results obtained beforehand the Japanese seemed quite strong, disciplined and skilled. Montenegro suffered a lot while they managed to defeat them 14-10 – and now they proved their qualities by beating the Aussies with a convincing performance. Japan got a flying start, led 0-2, then their rivals came back for 4-4 in the second period but after 5-6 the Asian team simply trounced them. Inaba led the surge. He was simply amazing, was on target time after time, netted seven goals while his team went 5-10 ahead early in the fourth and they never looked back.

Game 37, 16.00, Group C: Brazil vs. Russia 7-12
Quarters: 1-2, 0-4, 2-3, 4-2
Referees: Inesta (ESP), Schlunz (GER)

BRAZIL: Bernardo Oliveira, Pedro Stellet 1, Psanquevich William, Rafael Real 1, Roberto Freitas, Eduardo Wainberg, Lucas Pinto, Henrique Vasconcelos 1, Guilherme Gomes 4, Caio Pereira, Pedro Real, Wisricardo da Silva, Leonardo da Silva. Head coach: Angelo Coelho.
RUSSIA: Vitaly Statsenko, Vladislav Zaytsev, Vasily Egorov 2, Daniil Merkulov 5, Vladimir Zaikin, Ivan Gusarov, Vladislav Egorov, Denis Kolbenov, Arsian Zahirov, Konstantin Kharkov, Adel Giniatov 2, Andrei Balakirev 3, Iurii Poliukov. Head coach: Vladimir Fedorin.

Extramen
Brazil: 1 for 9
Russia: 2 for 10

Penalties
Brazil: 1 for 1
Russia: 1 for 1

Though it seems the Russians buried their 6 on 5s rather ineffectively – in fact they did a fine job and usually scored in the 23-25th second when the expelled player usually returns and the defenders try to mark the others in a rush. The Russians played with patience in these situations and though the stats are not on their side – the score-line is more important. By scoring five goals in this way they kept the match under firm control, won the second period 0-4 and led 1-7 early in the third. The Brazilians fought bravely but couldn’t come much closer as the Russians kept on scoring, especially Merkutov who stopped at five.

Game 38, 17.20, Group D: Canada vs. Serbia 3-20
Quarters: 0-4, 1-6, 2-3, 0-7
Referees: Vasenin (RUS), Ambetov (KAZ)

CANADA: Liam Duncan, Evan Scoffield, Pavle Kotarac 1, Gaetan Patterson 2, Aleksa Gardijan, Paul Bucheff, Sever Topan, Sean Spooner, Jeremie Blanchard, Aria Soleimanipak, Bilel Talah, Giordano Marconato, Samuel Reiher. Head coach: Nikola Maric.
SERBIA: Alen Osmanovic, Aleksa Petrovski 2, Filip Jankovic 1, Filip Radojevic 3, Nebojsa Toholj 1, Ivan Gvozdanovic 2, Radomir Draskovic 3, Aleksandar Andrejevic 2, Nemanja Bakic, Marko Manojlovic 1, Ognjen Stojanovic 3, Borislav Jovanovic 2, Radoslav Filipovic. Head coach: Vladimir Vujasinovic.

Extramen
Canada: 2 for 9
Serbia: 4 for 6

It was a one-way traffic in the pool, the Serbs brought their best to this encounter and demolished their opponents. The Canadians managed to get on the scoreboard in the second period after 0-8. They couldn’t withstand the pressure as the Serbs bettered them in all areas and all but one of their field players scored at least one goal.

Game 39, 18.40, Group D: New Zealand vs. Peru 15-6
Quarters: 2-1, 2-2, 7-2, 4-1
Referees: Zambrano (VEN), O’Brien (IRE)

NEW ZEALAND: Matthew Taylor, Lachlan Watson, Mathew Hansen, Tomati Harris 3, Cameron Hayes 1, Daniel Marsden 2, Jack Ross, Christopher Cormack 4, James McLean, Anton Sunde 5, Phillip Hargraves, Callum Lane, Denzel Njuelua. Head coach: Andrew Skora.
PERU: Jefferson Pinedo, Nick Pizarro, Javier Chueca, Santiago Nunez 2, Gabriel Noriega, Rodrigo Gonzales, Eduardo Angulo, Piero Padro, Sebastian Morales 2, Diego Villar 1, Augusto Otero 1, Sebastian Dancourt, Sebastian Bravo. Head coach: Jose Luque Garcia.

Extramen
New Zealand: 0 for 5
Peru: 3 for 5

Penalties:
New Zealand: –
Peru: 0 for 1

Though they missed a penalty at the beginning, the Peruvians managed to keep up with their rivals until the third period, they even levelled the score for 4-4 with 5:43 to go (in the 3rd) but their reserves lasted only till that point. After that a whirlwind blew them away, the New Zealanders netted four connecting goals in 3:04 minutes for 4-8. The Peruvian coach called for an ‘emergency’ time-out after this but it didn’t help. Two more goals in 39 seconds virtually ended the contest at 4-10. In fact, it was a comfortable ride afterwards while Sunde netted a game-high five goals.

Game 40, 20.00, Group C: Turkey vs. Italy 8-10
Quarters: 3-2, 4-2, 1-2, 0-4
Referees: Stankevich (USA), Kun (HUN)

TURKEY: Emirham Ozdemir, Engin Ege Colak 1, Yordan Yordanoglu, Atamer Albayrak, Safak Simsek 2, Anil Yaman, Davud Sutcuoglu, Atakan Destici 2, Kaan Baskaya 1, Sertan Gectan 1, Cemil Bahadir Ozbakis 2, Kaan Ozden Yildiz, Burak Banda. Head coach: Mehmet Alp Olcaytu.
ITALY: Massimiliano Cicali, Giacomo Bannella, Christian Gandini 2, Nicolo Rocchi, Gaetano Baviera, Filippo Gavazzi, Emilio Calvaviva 1, Eduardo Campopi 2, Jacopo Alesiani 3, Mario Guidi 1, Biagio Borelli 1, Gabriele Bassani, Fabio Viola. Head coach: Ferdinando Pesci.

Extramen
Turkey: 4 for 6
Italy: 4 for 8

Penalties
Turkey: 2 for 3
Italy: 0 for 1

What a game it was! Until half-time the Turks were on the verge to clinch the top spot in the group and a berth in the quarter finals – they led 7-3 while the Italians seemed to struggle at both ends of the pool. When they missed a penalty at the beginning of the third, still trailing 7-4, the hosts had the psychological advantage, but only for a while. The Italians regrouped themselves, a goal from an dying extra was a huge boost and in the middle of the third they came back for 7-6. However, 35 seconds from the end of this quarter Simsek converted a man-up so the Turks turned into the last eight minutes with an 8-6 lead. What came next was a nightmare – for them and a magnificent display of water polo from the ‘Settebello Jr.’. Within 57 seconds in the middle of the fourth they equalised for 8-8 and after a huge battle they netted another couple of goals in 64 seconds, completing their 0-4 rush in the closing period. The Turks missed a huge chance and instead of earning a rest day they have to clash with the strong Japanese team and in case of a win they will face the Hungarians in the quarter finals.