Men's WPWL 2016: Youngsters come of age for USA at Intercontinental Tournament

A youthful USA won the first heavyweight clash of the FINA Water Polo World League Men's Intercontinental Tournament on Tuesday, defeating Australia 8-6.

Meanwhile, a powerful-looking Brazil, and hosts Japan, also made a big splash on the opening day of the event at the 4,000-capacity Yokohama International Swimming Pool, respectively brushing aside Kazakhstan and China.

The six teams are vying for four places at the Super Final of the FINA Men's Water Polo World League, in Huizhou, China, from June 21-26.

GAME 1: USA 8-6 AUSTRALIA

Quarters: 0-0, 2-1, 3-1, 3-4

Teams:

USA: Merrill Moses, Jackson Kimbell, Nikola Vavic (1), Alex Obert, Alex Roelse (1), Luca Cupido (1), Josh Samuels (2), Tony Azevedo (2), Alex Bowen, Bret Bonanni, Jesse Smith, John Mann (1), McQuin Baron. Head Coach: Dejan Udovicic

AUSTRALIA: James Stanton, Richard Campbell (1), George Ford, John Cotterill (2), Nathan Power (1), Jarrod Gilchrist (1), Aidan Roach, Tyler Martin, Joel Swift (1), Mitchell Emery, Rhys Howden, Lachlan Edwards, Joel Dennerley. Head Coach: Elvis Fatovic

In the opening match of the round-robin stage, Australia's James Stanton was the busier of the goalies, making three fine saves, as both sides showed great patience with their build-up play in a goalless first quarter.

Richard Campbell broke the deadlock for Australia just 12 seconds into the second quarter, but USA netted the next three to take a lead they never relinquished, in spite of an Aussie fightback in the final period.

"We are building a new team. Now we're in a situation where we have been working with this team for the last four months, 24/7, and for me it's not a surprise to win today," said USA coach Dejan Udovicic.

"Australia beat us in 2014 and 2015, but I think we have reached a level where we can compete against anyone in the world. Right now we have just four players who played in the 2012 Olympics, and we have seven college players. We are fighting to reach a level where we can play against anyone in Rio. We are going in the right direction, so at least 75 percent from this team will play in Rio and at Tokyo 2020 -- we are targeting the gold for our men and women in Tokyo.

"Right now, China and Kazakhstan are the teams a bit below this level of competition, and this tournament will be decided by the other four teams. But everyone is looking at this tournament, and the Super Final in China, as a preparation phase for Rio.

"Our expectation for Rio is to go step by step, but we have nothing to lose. We have the youngest team in the world -- this is our weakness, because we don't have international experience, but looking from the other side this is our advantage, because we are not afraid of anyone."

USA captain Tony Azevedo said the squad was still a bit jet-lagged, but had been itching to get some competitive action.

"We haven't played games since last summer. We hope to get better at this tournament, get better at the Super Final and, hopefully, be 100% prepared for Rio," he said.

"We have a lot of young guys who are either in college or playing professionally, so it's hard for us to get competition. It's nice to come here and get some games under our belt, especially with a younger team -- it's always important to learn how to play games, warm-up for games, and to learn about what happens in the last minute when you make a mistake. Those are all things you've got to learn," said Brazil-born Azevedo, who plays for Sao Paulo-based club side Sesi.

Australia coach Elvis Fatovic knew exactly where his experienced team had got things wrong.

"Our biggest problem was our extra-man attack because we were very passive in our attacks, and because of that we made a lot of mistakes. Our defence wasn't so bad, but definitely we can play a lot better. It's hard to change things during a competition, but we will analyse this game and try to improve the extra-man segment, because that is an important part of the game," said Fatovic.

"But for us, this is some kind of preparation for the Super Final and for Rio."

GAME 2: KAZAKHSTAN 7-19 BRAZIL

Quarters: 0-6, 2-4, 3-3, 2-6

Teams:

Kazakhstan: Madikhan Makhmetov, Yevgeniy Medvedev (2), Maxim Zhardan, Roman Pilipenko, Miras Aubakirov, Alexey Shmider (1), Murat Shakenov (1), Yulian Verdesh, Rustam Ukumanov (3), Mikhail Ruday, Ravil Manafov, Altay Altayev, Valeriy Shlemov. Head coach: Nemanja Knezevic

Brazil: Vinicius Antonelli, Jonas Crivella (1), Guilherme Gomes (1), Ives Alonso, Paulo Salemi (3), Bernardo Gomes (3), Adrian Baches (3), Felipe Silva (1), Bernardo Rocha, Felipe Perrone (2), Gustavo Guimaraes (1), Josip Vrlic (4), Bernardo Oliveira. Head coach: Ratko Rudic

In the day's second match, Brazil -- the bronze medal winners at last year's Super Final -- outclassed Kazakhstan with a 19-7 triumph.

Brazil raced into a 10-2 lead at halfway before seeming to ease off a touch in the third quarter, which ended 3-3. Brazil then upped the pace early in the final quarter to extend their lead.

As heavy favourites for the match, the focus for Brazil was in the fine details, not the result or margin of victory.

"Kazakhstan were not on the same level as us. So I was not thinking about the result, but I was expecting us to be better organised, and I'm not quite satisfied with how we played in some parts of the games. Sometimes in defence we were not so good. This gives me something to talk to the players about," said Brazil coach Ratko Rudic.

"We need to play against some stronger teams now, and that will give us a better indication about the state of our game."

The Kazakhstan coach, Nemanja Knezevic, was upbeat about his team and confident about their prospects against China on Wednesday.

"We have a young team. After the Olympic qualifiers we lost five players who were in their mid-30s. This is the first competition for the younger team and they want to improve. We're building up tactics and technique with more experience," said Knezevic.

"We have a plan for this team for the next four years, leading up to Tokyo 2020. This team is mainly made up of guys from the mid-1990s generation. We lost heavily to Brazil, but tomorrow we play China and I think we will win. China have a young team too. For us, playing China and Japan is like a mini-tournament. We always want to beat China and Japan because they are our rivals in Asia."

GAME 3: JAPAN 21-5 CHINA

Quarters: 6-0, 2-3, 8-1, 5-1

Teams:

Japan: Katsuyuki Tanamura, Seiya Adachi (3), Atsushi Arai (5), Mitsuaki Shiga (1), Akira Yanase (1), Atsuto Iida (2), Yusuke Shimizu (2), Yuki Kadono (2), Koji Takei, Kenya Yasuda (1), Keigo Okawa (2), Shota Hazui (2), Tomoyoshi Fukushima. Head Coach: Yoji Omoto

China: Guozheng Wu, Chenghao Chu, Beiyi Wang, Yingyi Gao, Zhongxian Chen (1), Zekai Xie, Wenhui Lu (1), Yimin Chen (1), Gelin Zhu (1), Yu Liu, Zhenrui Lei (1), Wei Tang, Linfeng Li. Head Coach: Lingyun Mao

The noise level inside the arena soared as the host nation took on China in the final match of the day.

And the hosts didn't disappoint, scoring six times without reply in an opening quarter in which each goal seemed to be cheered louder than the last.

China fought back to claim a 3-2 win in the second period, but were simply blown away in the third, which they lost 8-1.

And in spite of holding a 16-4 lead at this stage, Japan showed no sign of slacking in the final period to complete a 21-5 success.

"It's a big margin of victory but China have very young players, and our rhythm was not so good in the second quarter," said Japan coach Yoji Omoto.

"We have a bigger test tomorrow against the USA, who we have never beaten, but with a big support behind us we'll try our best."

A minute's silence was held before the match in memory of the victims of last month's powerful earthquakes in Kumamoto, on Japan's southern island of Kyushu.

Kumamoto is where Japan's captain, Yusuke Shimizu, hails from, and there was a special moment for him.

"We tried to give strength and hope to the people who have suffered in Kumamoto so, in that sense, it was personally good for me to score the first goal for Japan."

China coach Lingyun Mao described his team's performance as "so-so".

"We didn't stop Japan's counter attacks so well. They are very young, and seemed a bit afraid when Japan pressed hard. This is the first match for most of the players, and they are not used to the environment. But tomorrow, we hope to be better organised against Kazakhstan," he said.