United States of America needed all its reserves and skills to fend off host nation Japan 15-13, coming back from three down midway through the second quarter and only retaking the lead in the dying seconds of the third.

It was Japan delivering its best water polo in front of a small crowd of Japanese Olympic athletes from other sports, waving the flag. Japan brought out its Olympic defensive pattern, which rattled the North Americans and gave it a big chance of toppling the FINA World League silver medallist.

“Japan is a tricky team. They run a tight system and you have to be very good with your fundamentals to beat them. You have to stay calm. When down three goals we knew it was going to happen and we had to stay calm. If you rush, it feeds their system.”
By Alex Bowen (USA) — Five goals

The first quarter opened for USA with Alex Bowen scoring the first of his five-goal haul before Japan went 2-1 up. The opening two goals were from the penalty line. USA levelled twice for the 3-3 first-break scoreline. Japan scored the first two of the second period, allowed Bowen to slip in his third and then shot out to a 7-4 margin with Seiya Adachi converting Japan’s third penalty attempt.

Japan pushed it out to 10-8 in the third quarter until USA produced a five-goal streak that went three minutes into the final quarter. It proved to be the edge that would secure victory.

Luca Cupido moved the margin to three in favour of USA at 4:14 but Japan was not finished, dragging two back through Kenta Araki and Adachi for his third. With 1:39 left there was hope. On an attack inside the final minute with the draw a possibility, Japan made a bad pass that USA jumped on, went to the other end of the pool and Johnny Hooper scored from the top on extra-man attack for the two-goal victory.

Match 3, 14:00, Group A, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 15 JAPAN 13
Quarters: 3-3, 4-5, 4-2, 4-3
Referees: Sebastien Dervieux (FRA), Arkadiy Voevodin (ROC).
Shots: USA: 15/35. JPN: 13/32.
Extra Man: USA: 6/13. JPN: 5/7.
Pens: USA: 1/1, JPN: 4/4.

Full match statistics: www.olympics.com/tokyo-2020/en

Flash Quotes:

Yoji Omoto (JPN) — Head Coach
“You may have noticed that we implemented a new system on defence. In the first half it worked well but we were not able to keep it going. We will keep doing it and eliminating our mistakes. Other team might not cope with this system.”

 

Montenegro, which has swept all before it this year, had to come back from a shocking start to add Australia to its list of victims, winning their Group B match 15-10.

It could have been a different result as Australia led 3-0 and then 5-4 at the first break, held a slender 7-6 lead at halftime and then watched as Montenegro smashed home four goals for the 10-7 leapfrog, and then taking a 10-8 score into the final period.

“It was a very interesting game, but the start was not interesting for us. They played better and we did not have good defence. In the second session we played better and had better defence. In the third and fourth periods individuals shot well. They made the difference and we had the better defence.
By Vladimir Gojkovic (MNE) — Head Coach

Australia was sublime with crisp passing and excellent finishing in the first half and then the wheels fell off as Montenegro survived the wake-up call and showed off its wares.

With Richard Campbell, playing his fourth Olympic Games alongside Rhys Howden, on fire from the top, his third goal gave the Aussie Sharks the quarter-time lead.

Captain Aaron Younger, in his third Games and playing his 200th international, made it 6-4 on counter-attack. Aleksandar Ivovic, who played his 300th international at the recent FINA World League Super Final in Georgia where he was the Most Valuable Player, converted a penalty and Dusan Matkovic struck on extra-man attack for the second draw. Blake Edwards made sure of an Australia lead at the long break, scoring from the top on extra.

Ukropina (twice), Uros Cuckovic and Marko Petkovic had Australia at a distinct disadvantage at 10-7. Goran Tomasevic, a “find” during the Covid lockdowns, was playing his first international, let along first Olympic match, and he scored his first goal from six metres for 10-8 late in the third.

Ukropina and Blake Edwards swapped goals and Petkovic reinforced the three-goal margin. Australia appeared to have scored a goal, according to the referee and he referred it to VAR, which was rightfully disallowed. However, Australian head coach Elvis Fatovic was livid as after the goal was not originally called quickly enough, an Aussie Shark was fouled trying to score, which normally would warrant a penalty shot. Montenegro struck at the other end and the fizz went out of Australia’s soda bottle. Younger pulled one back but Matkovic with his third and Petkovic with his fourth settled the score.

Montenegro captain Drasko Brguljan, who broke the Aussie spell, scored his team’s first goal to mark the start of his fourth Olympic Games. Look at the Montenegro extra-man statistic is most telling — eight from nine attempts, compared to Australia’s four from 10.

Match 4, 15:30, Group B, AUSTRALIA 10 MONTENEGRO 15
Quarters: 5-4, 2-2, 1-4, 2-5
Referees: Adrian Alexandrescu (ROU), Alessandro Severo (ITA).
Shots: AUS: 10/27. MNE: 15/28.
Extra Man: AUS: 4/10. MNE: 8/9.
Pens: Nil.

Full match statistics: www.olympics.com/tokyo-2020/en

Flash Quotes:

Aleksandar Ivovic (MNE) — Scorer
“It was a very important game mentally. The last two games against Australia we lost — 2015 Kazan (FINA World Championships) and lastly in Gwangju (2019 FINA World Championships). It’s very tough to play Australia as they are one of the strongest teams in the world. This year we have been in good form, so this was a good result.”

Elvis Fatovic (AUS) — Head Coach
“Montenegro deserved to win. We started really well,  but for some reason in the third quarter we couldn’t follow the pace. We made mistakes and gave up some very easy goals. Our extra-man defence was not good and we gave away many goals in the last part. We need to improve that.”

Aaron Younger (AUS) — Captain and 200th match
“Not the best [game], it started off well and obviously lost concentration towards the end and let in some pretty bad goals. Can’t let anyone score 15 goals; we aren’t going to win any games if we play like that, so we are going to focus on the defence now and we have a lot of positives to take away from the first half, but there is a lot to work on as well.”