USA came through another sudden death penalty shootout over Greece 17-16 to book a place in the final against Serbia at the FINA Men's Water Polo World League Super Final here in Huizhou (CHN) on Saturday.
Italy will face Greece in the bronze medal battle, Japan will play Australia for fourth place and Brazil will meet China in the game for seventh place on Sunday.
Game 17: BRAZIL 10 JAPAN 12
Quarters: 2-4, 1-6, 5-2, 2-0
Referees: Joe Peila (USA), Michail Kouretas (GRE)
Extra Man: BRA 5/16, JPN 3/10
Pens: JPN 2/2
BRAZIL: Slobodan Soro, Ruda Franco, Guilherme Gomes (1), Danilo Correa, Paulo Salemi, Bernardo Gomes (1), Adrian Baches (4), Felipe Santos (Captain), Bernardo Rocha, Felipe Perrone (1), Gustavo Guimaraes, Josip Vrlic (3), Viniclus Antonelli
Head Coach: Ratko Rudic
JAPAN: Katsuyuki Tanamura, Seiya Adachi (1), Atsushi Arai, Mitsuaki Shiga (3), Akira Yanase (2), Atsuto Iida, Yusuke Shimizu (Captain, 1), Yuki Kadono, Koji Takei (3), Kenya Yasuda, Keigo Okawa (2), Shota Hazui, Tomoyoshi Fukushima.
Head Coach: Yoji Omoto
Japan snatched an Extra Man goal in 34 seconds of the game to lead 1-0 and set the tone of the whole game by dominating all the way 4-2, 6-1, 2-5, 0-2. Brazil who seemed sleepy only burst out in the third quarter with 5 goals in which Adrian Delgado contributed 3.
Quotes:
Felipe Santos-BRA Captain: “It was not a good game that we didn't play well. Japanese team was much more focused than we were in this game. Our defence were horrible. We need to improve many things for the Rio Olympic Games.”
Yoji Omoto-JPN: “This is the third game in a row at the world league twice in Yoclohoma continental tournament and here in China. We were prepared for this game. We performed very good in the beginning as we planned, but we became a little bit looser during the middle of the game. We are in the same group with Brazil in Rio Olympic Games, so it was a good chance and preparation to play with them. Tomorrow we will play Australia which is also in the same group with us. If we want to be the best eight teams in Rio, we have to beat Australia and Brazil. We look forward to the game with Australia.”
Game 18: AUSTRALIA 15 CHINA 4
Quarters: 5-1, 3-0, 3-2, 4-1
Referees: Daniele Blanco (ITA) Tadao Tahara (JPN)
Extra Man: AUS 6/9 CHN 1/8
Pens: CHN 1/1
AUSTRALIA: Joel Dennerley, Richard Campbell (2), George Ford, John Cotterill (3), Nathan Power, Jarrod Gilchrist (2), Aidan Roach (1), Aaron Younger (2), Lachlan Edwards (1), Joe Kayes (4), Rhys Howden, (Captain), Tyler Martin, James Stanton,
Head Coach: Elvis Fatovic
CHINA: Liang Zhiwei, Xie Zekai (1), Yang Jianyuan, Huang Weihong, Guo Junliang, Liang Zhongxing (Captain, 1), Chen Chunlin, Zhongxian, Pan Ning, Chen Jinghao, Zhang Chufeng, Liang Nianxiang, Wu Honghui.
Head Coach: Chen Yaohua
Australia claimed an easy victory over China's local Guangdong team 15-4. Australia scored 6 Extra Man goals out of 9 while China only took 1 shot from 8 exclusion fouls. Joe Kayes accumulated 4 goals.
Quotes:
Elvis Fatovic-AUS: “It was an easy game for us compared with the games we played yesterday which could be called stressful. Tomorrow we will play Japan. We will try to start earlier than last time we met in the group matches. We will have two more weeks in Australia and then go to Europe for 2-3 week s then we will go to Rio. We will have three more games before Rio as preparation.”
Chen Yaohua-CHN: “Australia is a powerful team that we could not organize good defence with one-by-one. Their centre was also very strong and skilful that we could shoot the net. Tomorrow we will play Brazil in the 7th-8th game, we will try our best.”
Game 19: ITALY 4 SERBIA 7
Quarters: 1-2, 1-2, 1-1, 1-2
Referees: Sergey Naumov (RUS) Adrian Alexandrescu (ROU)
Extra Man: ITA 0/13 SRB 1/10
Pens: SRB 1/1
ITALY: Marco Del Lungo, Francesco Di Fulvio (1), Niccolo Gitto, Peitro Figlioli (2), Andrea Foundelli (1), Michael Alexandrea Bodegas, Niccolo Figari, Alessandro Nora, Christian Presciutti (Captain), Stefano Luongo, Massim Giacoppo, Nicholas Presciutti, Gariele Vassallo.
Head Coach: Alessandro Campagna
SERBIA: Gojko Pijetlovic, Viktor Rasovic (1), Gocic Zivko (Captain), Sava Randelovic, Milos Cuk (1), Busko Pijetlovic, Nemanja Ubovic, Milan Aleksic (1), Nikola Jaksic (1), Fillip Filipovic (3), Andrija Prlainovic, Stefan Mitrovic, Branislav Mitroic
Head Coach: Dejan Savic
Both teams played in a cautious way that resulted in few balls into the nets and few Extra Man goals. Italy had none EG out of 13 exclusion fouls while Serbia only snatched one EG from 10 chances. Italy's Francesco Di Fulvio scored the first goal after two minutes but Serbia tied 1-1 after four minutes and changed the lead with a goal from Strahinjia Rasovic with 48 seconds left of the first quarter. Filip Fiipovic of Serbia was the top scorer with 3 shots.
Quotes:
Alessandro Campagna-ITA: “It was a very tough match, very physical. But I believed we played a good game. We did some mistakes, but we tried until to the end to increase the result and we gave 100 percent. We did a good match. Tomorrow we'll fight for the bronze medal. We want to go faster tomorrow.”
Dejan Savic-SRB: “It was a hard game. It is always difficult to play Italy. It was a good game with good defence and offence. We played incredible way with one man less. Now we entered the final and our goal is to win the gold. Super Final is very important for us to check for Olympic Games. Tomorrow whatever we meet, USA or Greece, we will try our best. Greece have shown spectacular so far at the Super Final. Since most of the teams are not in the best forms, we need to continue to strengthen our swimming and physical training in the gym next few weeks before Rio. It will be harder to play with the best teams in Rio.”
Game 20: USA 17 GREECE 16 (FT 11-11 Pens 6-5)
Quarters: 5-2, 1-3, 4-5, 1-1. Pens: 5-5, 1-0
Referees: Francesc Buch (ESP), Daniel Flahive (AUS)
Extra Man: USA 3/11 GRE 1/10
USA: Merrill Moses, Ben Hallock, Nikola Vavic, Alex Obert (2), Alex Roelse, Luca Cupido (5), Josh Samuels (2), Tony Azevedo (Captain, 4), Alex Bowen (1), Bret Bonanni (2), Jesse Smith, John Mann (1), McQuin Baron.
Head Coach: Dejan Udovicic
GREECE: Konstantinos Flegkas, Emmanouil Maylonakis (1), Georgios Dervisis (1), Konstantinos Genidounias, Ioannis Fountoulis (5), Kyriakos Pontikeas, Christos Afroudakis (Captain, 3), Evangelos Delakas, Konstantinos Mourikis, Christodoulos Kolomvos (1), Alexandros Gounas (2), Angelos Vlaschopoulos (3), Stefanos Galanopoulos,
Head Coach: Theodoros Vlachos
USA clinched its second victory through sudden-death penalty shootout, beating Greece 17-16 to earm a place in the final against Serbia. USA started fiercely with 3-0, 5-2 in the first quarter. Greece caught up to tie 5-5 for the first time and finish 6-5 by one goal difference after the second period. Going into the third quarter, USA was 8-6 in five minutes but Greece came back again as Angelos Vlaschopoulos stormed one shot to give Greece lead 10-9 for the first time. Luca Cupido added one goal for USA to end the third quarter 10-10. Both teams were highly defensive in the last quarter as Cupido found the net to 11-10 with 49 seconds left and Greek Captain Christos Afroudakis ended the game with a shot at 0.01 second 11-11. After both teams scored 5-5 in the shootout, it was the Captain Tony Azevedo sealed the victory for USA by smashing a goal into the net in the sudden death penalty shootout.
Quotes:
Theodoros Vlachos-GRE: “It was a very very good game, for everybody was a gain. I am very proud of my guys and how they played to win the game. But finally two teams equalled the same scores and by just one goal to qualify for the final. I am very proud and satisfied of my players.”
Dejan Udovicic-USA: “Our team deserved the win. I need to give credits to my guys. They put all the guts inside and deserved the win. We got some problems in the numbers of exclusions in the middle of the game. But I am proud of my guys more than how did they go through the game. As a young team, we need to learn how to play and finish a close game within 10 seconds. We need to learn how to pass and received the balls.”