Defending champions Serbia enjoyed a comfortable victory 10:6 (2-0, 3-1, 3-0, 2-5) over USA and grabbed the World League today in Huizhou (CHN) where men’s Super Final of the event was taking place, while Greece defeated Italy 11:7 for the bronze medal.

In the fifth-place game, Australia beat Japan 12-7 and Brazil crashed China 16-4 for the seventh-place.

Best Shooter: Tony Azevedo (USA)
Best Goal Keeper: Konstantinos Flegkas (GRE)
MVP: Branislav Mitrovic (SRB)

Game 21: BRAZIL 16 CHINA 4
Quarters: 2-1, 3-0- 5-1, 6-2

Referees: Ivan Rakovic (SRB) Joe Peila (USA)
Extra Man: BRA 2/9 CHN 0/6
Pens: BRA 2/2

BRAZIL: Slobodan Soro, Jonas Crivella (2), Guilherme Gomes (2), Ives Alonso (1), Ruda Franco (1), Bernardo Gomes (2), Adrian Delgado (2), Felipe Santos (1), Bernardo Rocha, Felipe Perrone (1), Gustavo Guimaraes (2), Josip Vrlic(2), Vinicius Antonelli.
Head Coach: Ratko Rudic

CHINA: Liang Zhiwei, Xie Zekai (1), Li Yongxuan, Huang Weihong, Guo Junliang, Liang Zhongxing (Captain, 1), Chen Rui (1), Chen Zhongxian, Pan Ning (1), Chen Chunlin, Zhang Chufeng, Liang Nianxiang, Wu Honghui,
Head Coach: Chen Yaohua
Game:

Brazil dominated an easy game 16-4 and blocked most of the shooting attempts from China. Ten Brazilian players scored while China could not make use of 6 exclusion fouls.

Quotes:

Ratko Rudic-BRA: “We prepared the game carefully. We had a well-organised defence that stopped many shots from the Chinese. It was a good game. We corrected mistakes we made yesterday. Every game was difficult in the Super Final and every game was useful to prepare for the Olympic Games. We will continue to work hard and expect to show a more balanced game in Rio.”

Chen Yaohua-CHN: “We have a poor mental, poor physical skills, power and swimming speed aspects as opposed to the other teams. We lost some key players due to injury and had to put on some young players who are inexperienced. When they faced the strong defensive Brazilians, they panicked and did not know how to deal with them. We need to learn from it and get stronger.”

 

Games 22 : JAPAN 7 AUSTRALIA 12
Quarters: 2-4, 2-3, 1-3, 2-2

Referees: Francesco Buch (ESP) Natacha Florestano (BRA)
Extra Man: JPN 3/6 AUS 3/8
Pens: JPN 1/1 AUS 0/1

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

AUSTRALIA: Joel Dennerley, Richard Campbell (2), George Ford, John Cotterill (1), Nathan Power, Jarrod Gilchrist, Aidan Roach (1), Aaron Younger (5), Joel Swift (1), Joe Kayes (1), Rhys Howden (Captain, 1), Tyler Martin, James Stanton.
Head Coach: Elvis Fatovic

Australia played a game in their own way by leading 4-2, 3-2, 3-1, 2-2 over Japan, placing fifth at the Super Final. Japan never gave up by keep shooting carefully and moving quickly. Aaron Younger was the top scorer of the game with 5 shots.

Quotes:

Yoji Omoto-JPN: “We could play better in defence during the Extra Man occasions. We did not organise good counter attacks. Our edges kept moving in counter attacks but were distracted. We started well and kept moving fast in the first quarter but then we began to lose energy. That was the point we need to improve for the Olympic Games. Our way of defence is clean and unique. It is based on fair-play and quick moving that I think it maybe a trend in the next 10 years. It will create better atmosphere in the pool.”

Elvis Fatovic-AUS: “We controlled the game from the beginning. But in the second quarter we had some errors. Definitely I would like to finish the game in one of the top three places. Hopefully our best form will come at the Rio Olympic Games.”

 

Bronze medal game : ITALY 7 GREECE 11
Quarters: 4-1, 2-4, 1-4, 0-2

Referees: Nenad Peris (CRO), Sergey Naumov (RUS)
Extra Man: ITA 2/13, GRE 5/12
Pens: 0

ITALY: Marco Del Lungo, Francesco Di Fulvio (2), Niccolo Gitto, Peitro Figlioli (2), Andrea Foundelli, Michael Alexandrea Bodegas, Massimo Giacoppo, Alessandro Nora (1), Christian Presciutti (Captain), Stefano Luongo, Niccolo Figari (1), Nicholas Presciutti (1), Gariele Vassallo.
Head Coach: Alessandro Campagna

GREECE: Konstantinos Flegkas, Emmanouil Maylonakis, Georgios Dervisis (1), Konstantinos Genidounias (2), Ioannis Fountoulis (1), Kyriakos Pontikeas, Christos Afroudakis (Captain), Evangelos Delakas, Konstantinos Mourikis (1), Christodoulos Kolomvos (2), Alexandros Gounas (2), Angelos Vlaschopoulos (2), Stefanos Galanopoulos.
Head Coach: Theodoros Vlachos

Greece shrugged off slow start and rallied to clinch the bronze medal after upsetting Italy 11-7. Italy started strong 4-1 in the first period and was 6-2 before Greece woke up to shoot 4 goals in a row in the second quarter to finish 6-5. Greece kept its shooting pace with 4 goals compared with Italy's 1 shot in the third quarter. Italy could not found the net in the last period but committed 2 goals to the defensive Greeks.

Quotes:

Alessandro Campagna-ITA: “We were a little disappointed about this match, because we could have won. But in some important moments we didn't play well and missed the change. Congratulations to the Chinese Swimming Federation. It was a fantastic tournament, very well organised.”

Theodoros Vlachos-GRE: “We were disappointed from last night game in the death penalty shoot 17-16 to USA. We thought we should qualify for the final but we missed just by one goal. Everyone was very sadlast night. But in a way it was good because my players have now experienced this kind of feeling and kept hungry for victory. We started bad and lost pace until 1-6 behind. Then we started getting better in the defence and easy goals came. Finally we finished the game with a win.”

 

Gold medal game: SERBIA 10 USA 6
Quarters: 2-0, 3-1, 3-0, 2-5

Referees: Adrain Alexandrescu (ROU), Blanco Daniele(ITA)
Extra Man: SRB 5/8, USA 0/12
Pens: SRB 1/1 USA 0/1

SERBIA: Gojko Pijetlovic, Viktor Rasovic (1), Gocic Zivko (Captain, 1), Sava Randelovic (1), Milos Cuk (1), Dusko Pijetlovic (2), Nemanja Ubovic, Milan Aleksic, Nikola Jaksic, Fillip Filipovic (3), Andrija Prlainovic (1), Stefan Mitrovic, Branislav Mitrovic
Head Coach: Dejan Savic

USA: Merrill Moses, Jackson Kimbell, Nikola Vavic (1), Alex Obert, Alex Roelse, Luca Cupido (1), Josh Samuels (1), Tony Azevedo (Captain), Alex Bowen (1), Bret Bonanni (1), Jesse Smith, Ben Hallock, McQuin Baron.
Head Coach: Dejan Udovicic

A penalty goal by Filip Filipovic at 5:35 started the hunting pace of Serbia in the final. The defending champion met no challenges from USA to lead 2-0 , 5-1, 8-1 after three quarters. USA smashed 5 goals in the last period but it was too late to catch up with the Serbians, ending the game 10-6. Serbia received 5 Extra Man goals out of 8 fouls while USA scored none out of 12 chances.

Quotes:

Dejan Savic-SRB: “It was a tough game that we didn’t give up from the beginning to the end. We deserved the victory because we played better and focused on this game. We also want to say thank to the Organising Committee and Huizhou Municipality for their excellent job.”

Dejan Udovicic-USA: “Serbia is the best team in the world. We had two hard battles in a row to qualify for the final. We were really tired and did not play our best today. Our first centre got a fever last night and did not play in the final. These were not excuse but if we want to play with Serbia, we must be in 100 percent in shape. Serbia deserved the win. Congratulations to them.”