Friday schedule:
Final 17-18
60.    10:00        RSA          11      IRI  15
Final 15-16
61.    11:20        UZB          22       CHN  23 in penalty shootout (FT: 19-19. Pens: 3-4
Final 13-14
62.    12:40        JPN 27v       CAN  12
Final 9-10
64.    15:40        KAZ 18v       EGY  10 
Final 11-12
63.    14:00        MEX  9v      NED  19
Round 5-8 Semifinals     
65.    17:00        CRO         v      ESP
66.    17:40        MNE v      AUS 
Round 1-4 Semifinal:
67.    19:40        GRE v      SRB
58.    20:20       HUN v      ITA

Match reports:

Match 63: 15:40, MEXICO 9 NETHERLANDS 19

Classification 11-12

Quarters: 1-4, 3-4, 3-5, 2-6

Referees: Kunihiro Sato (JPN), Viktor Salnichenko (KAZ).

Extra Man: MEX: 4/9. NED: 4/5.

Pens: Nil.

Teams:
MEXICO: Alfredo de la Mova, Hazed Veya, Raul Vargus, Raul Muniz (1), Rodrigo Avalos, Sinahi Gonzalez (3), Arturo Ocejo (2), Alexey Grubnik, Diego Mercado (2), Jorge Cervantes (1), Isaac Contreras. Head Coach: Raul de la Pena.
NETHERLANDS: Milan Koff, Kjeld Veenhuis (3), Guus van Iperen (4), Sam Burg (1), Guus Wolswinkel (1), Tarik Scherrenburg (3), Harmen Muller (1), Pascal Janssen, Bilal Gbadamassi (2), Benjamin Hoepelman (4), Brent Hofmeyer. Head Coach: Jacob Spijker.

Match Report:
Netherlands goes home with 11th place after a strong showing against Mexico. The only other time it competed at this level was when it finished sixth in 1989. Guus van Iperen did not see out the match, instead watching from the stands after being suspended late in the third period in which he scored two of his four goals. The Dutch seemed to be enjoying the match, playing in the right spirit on their final day of action. Eight field players scored goals with standout shooter and centre forward Benjamin Hoepelman joining Iperen as a four-goaler. Sinai Gonzalez took three for Mexico, which finished 17th in 2007, the last time it played in the 20-and-under tournament.


Photo: Russell McKinnon

Match 64: 14:00, KAZAKHSTAN 18 EGYPT 10

Classification 9-10

Quarters: 4-1, 4-4, 3-3, 7-2

Referees: Haldun Toygarli (TUR), Ulrich Spiegel (GER).

Extra Man: KAZ: 10/20. EGY: 5/11.

Pens: KAZ: 1/1.

Teams:
KAZAKHSTAN: Aleksandr Lopatkin, Stanislav Shvedov (3), Ruslan Akhmetov (1), Sultan, Shonzhigitov, Miras Aubakirov (1), Sergey Bogomolov, Maxim Zhardan (5), Egor Berbelyuk (3), Altay Altayev (2), Yulian Verdesh (2), Valeriy Shlemov. Head Coach: Nemanja Knezevic.
EGYPT: Omara Osama, Moustafa Essmat, Aly Elaassar, Mahmoud Tarek (1), Ahmed Barakat (1), Abdelrahman Haroun (2), Ahmed Sherif (2), Hassan Haroun (1), Karim Mahmoud, Mahomed Mohsen (3), Marwan Ayman. Head Coach: Denes Lukacs.

Match report:
Egypt was embroiled in controversy for the second consecutive day, when it went down 18-10 to Kazakhstan. Egypt had six of its 11 players excluded from the match with the last in the final second. Two were suspended and it seemed that the biggest Egyptian bench was just over the rails near the poolside bench. Assistant coach Aly Haroun was sitting out the match, but was very animated throughout. The ejected players started joining him and were soon surrounded by security guards. After the match finished, the nearest referee was shadowed and shouted at by all the team and as he walked away two Egyptian players allegedly threw a bottle and ball at him. Someone in the stands also pelted him with a water bottle. It was a sad ending to an excellent match played by Kazakhstan, always in front, borne from a 3-0 start. Kazakhstan finished off strongly as the frustrated Egyptians lost concentration in the final period. Kazakhstan was not blameless with Altay Altayev suspended and two team-mates gaining three major fouls and two more sitting on a pair. Tarek Mamoud gained his second suspension in two days — when 8-11 down early in the final quarter — while Hassan Haroun was suspended when 9-16 behind. Altayev was binned in between the two Egyptians. Seven players from each team scored goals with the best Maxim Zhardan for the home team with five. Kazakhstan was 15th two years ago so this was a huge leap. Ninth position is its best since 11th in 1995. Egypt was 15th in Volos, Greece in in 2011, its last outing at this level.


Picture: Russell McKinnon

Match 62: 12:40, JAPAN 27 CANADA 12

Classification 13-14

Quarters: 6-3, 7-3, 6-2, 8-4

Referees: Michail Skalochoritis (GRE), Amirhossein Safabakhash (IRI).

Extra Man: JPN: 5/9. CAN: 4/10.

Pens: JPN: 3/3.

Teams:
JAPAN: Kazuki Hashimoto, Kenta Araki (2), Mitsuru Takata (2), Shuma Kawamoto (2), Shotaro Yamada (3), Daichi Nagano (2), Shu Hamada (3), Seiya Adachi (9), Miki Sato (4), Kohei Inaba, Ryosuke Oshima. Head Coach: Yoshinori Shiota.
CANADA: Samuel Reiber, Giordano Marconuto, Maxime Schapowal, Gaelan Patterson, Matthew Halajian (3), Julien Allard (1), Paule Kotarac (1), Sean Spooner (3), Jeremie Blanchard (2), Aria Suleimanipak (2), Benjamin Bolduc. Head Coach: Nikola Maric.

Match Report:
Canada had no answer to the speed and inventiveness of the Japanese, who swam away with the match. Canada was three down at the first break was still in the match at 5-6 and 6-8, however, five goals in less than five minutes had the game sewn up for Japan and a healthy 13-6 halftime advantage. Four of Japan’s seven were scored by Seiya Adachi, who also claimed three in the final period for a tally of nine. He also scored nine goals against China on the fifth day of competition and closed the tournament with 28. Only two other players have scored double figures here in Almaty. Canada was still fighting at the end, scoring four goals within four minutes. Mathew Halajian and Sean Spooner, before he was fouled out, scored three each for Canada and Halajian, in particular, was a standout during the event. In Hungary two years ago, Japan was ninth and Canada 11th.


Photo: Russell McKinnon

Match 61: 11:20, UZBEKISTAN 22 CHINA 23 In penalty shootout (FT: 19-19. Pens: 3-4)

Classification 15-16

Quarters: 1-2, 6-7, 7-6, 5-4. Pens: 3-4

Referees: Michael Baty (RSA), Daniel Daners (URU).

Extra Man: UZB: 6/12. CHN: 4/11.

Pens: UZB: 1/2.

Teams:
UZBEKISTAN: Radion Knabibullaev, Mirjalol Nagmatov, Doniyor Umarov, Artur Kim, Maksim Krakhotin, Aleksey Zaytsev, Kirill Rustamov, Egor Chumachenko, Grorgiy Mamedov, Aleksey Massel, Khayotson Rakhimov. Head Coach: Aleksandr Sokolov.
CHINA: Guozheng Wei, Zekai Xie, Zhongxzan Chen, Jiahao Peng, Rongkun Lie, Bezyi Wang, Yingyi Gao, Rui Chen, Yi Lu, Dong Ni, Xiang Fu. Head Coach: Yaohua Chen.

Match report:
China needed a penalty shootout to beat Uzbekistan in the play-off for 15th place. In fact, China beat Kirill Rustamov, the machine gun for hire as he totalled a competition-high and possibly a record for this event with 15 goals. Held scoreless in a rather timid first quarter, Rustamov, who came into the match with 41 goals, scored four in the second quarter and then a staggering seven in the third and then a subdued three in the fourth. He blasted in his penalty attempt as Uzbekistan and China both missed early attempts before the final Uzbek player bounced his shot into the bar to give China the shootout 4-3. While China was recalcitrant in gifting Rustamov so many fouls at the five-metre line, it was also sad that it gave up so many good advantages. It was three up four times in the second quarter and twice in the third before Uzbekistan drew the match level at 12-12, 13-13 and then one down at the final break. With Rustamov almost wearing his arm out, China set about going three up again at 5:58. At 3:26, the score was 17-17 and 18-18 at 2:31. Uzbekistan went into the lead, for only the second time (3-2) at 2:00. China had to come back, scoring through the brilliant Zhongxzan Chen for his seventh at 0:36. China went to a timeout and gained a foul at five metres, but inexplicably the player did not shoot, instead sending the ball to the right side of the pool and then back out to seven metres for that player to shoot and miss. A wasted opportunity meant the penalty shootout. China’s Rui Chen was another in the goals with five as China used seven players to score. Rustamov will go home a hero with his 55 goals, plus one in the shootout for a total of 56 and finishes as the top goal-scorer and with it, inclusion to the Media All Star team. He was indeed a star at this tournament. Chinese head coach Yaohua Chen did not see out the match, gaining a red card at 3:26 in the final quarter. China was 12th in 1999, the last time it competed at this level and has a best result of 10th from 1987. Uzbekistan’s best was 12th in 2013.

 
Photo: Russell McKinnon

Match 60: 10:00, SOUTH AFRICA 11 IRAN 15

Classification 17-18

Quarters: 5-5, 0-3, 3-3, 3-4

Referees: Miodrag Stefanovic (SRB), Radu Matache (ROU).

Extra Man: RSA: 4/7. IRI: 5/7.

Pens: RSA: 0/1.

Teams:
SOUTH AFRICA: Gareth May, Roarke Olver, Tim Rezelman (2), Shane Fourie (2), Claudio Fernandes, Nicholas Downes (1), Jason Evezard (5), Liam Neill (1), Keanan Alexander, Wyatt Edwards, Themba Mthembu. Head Coach: Jason Sileno.
IRAN: Hamed Karimi, Masoud Ahmadi (4), Mehdi Yazdankhah (1), Arshia Almasi (2), Amirhossein Keihany (3), Peiman Asadiaghajari, Mohammadmahdi Heydari (2), Hamidreza Moghaddam (2), Soheil Rostamian (1), Aminghavidel Hajiagha (1), Shayan Ghasemidaryan. Head Coach: Vahid Rezaeiashtiyani.

Match Report:
Iran closed out the tournament in 17th place with a pleasing result built on excellent outside shooting. South Africa was in the picture, but poor defence at times and non-reaction of the goalkeeper in the early phases made a big difference. Iran built on that confidence and went three ahead by halftime and on to victory. South Africa worked hard at times and thrived on coming back from 1-3 down to 3-3 and 3-5 to 5-5 by quarter time. The Africans came to 7-8 in the third period and 8-10 to be in the hunt. However, when Roarke Olver was suspended early in the fourth period, the margin slipped out to five. Iran went out to 15-9 before Nicholas Downes and Tim Rezelman narrowed the gap in the last 40 seconds. Jason Evezard topped the scoring with five, four in the opening quarter. For Iran it was solid team effort eight players scored with Masoudi Ahmadi getting one in each quarter. Amirhossein Keihany gained a yellow card for simulation, one of only two from the tournament so far. Two years ago in Szombathely, Hungary, South Africa finished 14th while Iran’s last participation at this level was 10th in Volos, Greece in 2011.

 


Picture: Russell McKinnon