Spain 14 – Russia 13

(2-3, 4-1, 2-1, 0-3 // Penalties: 6-5)

The Spanish side continued their 2009 World League preliminary season last night with a successful match against Russia at home. The final score was 14 to 13 for the Spaniards. The game took place at the M-86 swimming pool of Madrid. The Catalan players demonstrated high-quality play, particularly Xavi Garcia, who contributed the greatest number of goals (4). Blai Mallarach, Felipe Perrone and Ivan Gallego netted one each, as did Guillermo Molina, who had an excellent performance.

Spain scored in the first 30 seconds of the match, but Russia managed to win the first period with a score of 2-3. In the second period, Spain decided to impose their rhythm and overcame Russia with a score of 4 -1 to give themselves an overall lead of 6 to 4. In the third period Spain continued their acceleration, allowing them a 2-1 advantage, resulting in a total of 8 to 5. But in the final 8 minutes Russia, turned the tables and regained control by bombarding the Spanish net until the end of regular time and equalising the score at 8 apiece.

From the penalties, the home team of Rafa Aguilar emerged victorious with a score of 14 to 13. The Spanish goalkeeper Daniel Lopez Pinedo made a spectacular save over the shot of Russia’s Vishnyakov before Guillermo Molina netted the deciding point to decide the game in Spanish favour at 6-5. The team of Spain therefore adds two more points to their 2009 World League tally, following their 8-7 defeat of Germany in the first round of the European World League preliminaries held on January 21, 2009.

Spain: Inaki Aguilar, Mario Garcia, Sergi Mora, Blai Mallarach(1), Guillermo Molina(1), Oscar Carrillo, Ivan Gallego(1), Adria Sanz, Albert Espanol, Felipe Perrone(1), Ivan Perez, Xavi Garcia(4), Daniel Lopez Pinedo. Coach: Rafa Aguilar
Russia: Viktor Ivanov , Pavel Katkov, Vitaly Yurchik, Alexei Ryzhov-Alenichev(2), Yuri Zheltovskiy(1), Dimitry Antipov, Evgeny Finaev(1), Ilya Yablonovskiy, Konstantin Stepanyuk(2), Viktor Vishnyakov(2), Sergey Lisunov, Alexei Agarkov, Egor Rastorguev.Coach: Vichieslav Sobchenko

Penalties:
Spain: Blai Mallarach(1), Guillermo Molina(2), Albert Espanol(1), Felipe Perrone(1)Xavi Garcia(1)
Russia: Vishyankov(1), Stepanyuk(1), Alenichev(1), Finaev(1), Zheltovsky(1)


Guillermo Molina (ESP)

Croatia 13 – Germany 7
(3-1, 2-3, 5-1, 3-2)

In the end, Croatia easily won over Germany in this match of the second round of European Men's World League play at the Sibenik Swimming pool. The key moment of the match was in the final 2.5 minutes of the third period. Until that point Croatia had only a 6-5 advantage. Then, Boskovic, Jokovic, Buslje and Sukno launched an attack that resulted in four goals and a 10-5 lead for Croatia by the end of the period.
It was too much for a German team that was without some of their best players: Nossek and Kreuzman. Although Croatia played without heir first hole man, Igor Hinic, who was sick.

Croatian coach Ratko Rudic said he was satisfied with the match and the kind of play his team brought to it, esspecially in the second part of the game.

Hagen Stamm, coach of Germany, said they were playing against world champions with some youngsters on the team, so the final result is not in any way suprising for him.

Croatia: Ivo Brzica, Damir Buric, Mimo Boskovic(4), Niksa Dobud(1), Petar Muslim,  Maro Jokovic(1), Pavo Markovic, Andro Buslje(1), Sandro Sukno(4), Samir Barac, Frano Karac, Paulo Obradovic(2), Josip Pavic
Germany: Roger Kong, Florian Naroska(1), Fabian Schroedter, Marko Savic(3), Marko Stamm, Marc Politze(2), Tobias Gietz, Tobias Preuss, Ingo Pickert, Moritz Oeler(1), Andreas Schlotterbeck, Paul Schueler, Tim-Ole Fischer

Montenegro 13 – Romania 7
(3-2, 4-2, 3-1, 3-2)

This match, which was played in front of approximately 2,500 spectators, saw the team of Montenegro dominate throughout, except at the beginning when the Romanian team scored the first goal. However, after that initial goal the Montenegro team took the lead, a position they consistently held until the game concluded with a high final score for the home favourites.

On the winning team the best player was Vladimir Gojkovic and Nikola Janovic, while on the other side the MVP was Andrei Dina Edward. It is interesting to mention that Edward played for the water polo club Primorac form Kotor (MNE) 10 years ago. Petar Porobic, the head coach of the Montenegro team, underlined that this is the first match for Montenegro this year and that he is satisfied with his team's play but there is a lot of space for improvement before the World League Super Final that will be held in city of Podgorica (MNE) and the FINA World Championships in Rome this summer.


Vladimir Gojkovic (MNE)

Montenegro: Zdravko Radic, Drasko Brguljan(1), Vjekoslav Paskovic, Nikola Vukcevic(2), Nikola Janovic(1), Milan Ticic(2), Mladjan Janovic(2), Damjan Danilovic, Aleksandar Ivovic(2), Boris Zlokovic(1), Vladimir Gojkovic(2), Aleksandar Radovic, Milos Scepanovic
Romania: Mihai Dragusin, Dimitri Goanta, George Tarnovetchi, Florin Musat, Mihne Chioveanu, Andrei Busila(2), Alexandru Matei(1), Andrei Cretu, Andrei Dina Edward(3), Nicolae Diaconu, Alexandru Ghiban, Kalman Kadar(1), Dragos Stoenescu

The next games of the World League amongst the European teams will be held on February 17, 2009 with the following match-ups: Spain vs. Russia (Madrid), Croatia vs. Germany (Sibenek), Greece vs. France (Athens) and Romania vs. Montenegro (Kotor).

Greece 16 – France 6
(4-2, 3-3, 4-1, 5-0)

Just 300 were in attendance to watch thier home team defeat France with a score of 16-6. Georgios Doskas was the most valuable player on the Greek side, netting four goals. Tasos Doumpas, the new national coach of the Greek team, said “It's no meaning for us that we won against France with more goals than Serbia (Serbia defeated France on January 21 with a score of 12-6). We don't concern ourselves with the score. We try hard to make a new team. It was the first game for the new national team, with new and young players, so we had stress. We need time. The next games will be more difficult for us. This team works not for the World League, but for the years to come and the big games.”

Greece (scorers): Georgios Doskas(4), Christos Afroudakis(3), Nikolaos Doulos(2), Ioannis Foudoulis(2), Argyris Theodoropoulos(2), Manolis Mylonakis(1), Evaggelos Delakas(1), Marios Chatzikyriakakis(1).
France (scorers): Bodegas(2), Audon(2), Marzouki(1), Jablonski(1)

The next game of the World League amongst the European teams will be held on March 3, 2009 between Italy and Montenegro at Trieste (ITA), before the three following match-ups on March 10, 2009: Greece vs. Serbia (Piraeus), Croatia vs. Spain (Dubrovnik) and Russia vs. Germany (Moscow).

Many thanks to Dean Bauer (Sportske novosti, Croatia), Carlota Bestit (www.natacio.cat), Panagiotis Nikolopoulos (Hellenic Swimming Federation) and Montenegro WP for submitting this information.