Fina World Championship 2013: Serbia going head to head with Montenegro in quarterfinals

POLO AIR INDONESIA, Serbia will face Montenegro in what will be a hotly  contested quarterfinal on Tuesday following the qualification round of  the FINA Men’s Water Polo World Championships at the Bernat Picornell Pool today. Serbia sent Romania packing for home with a 13-5 scoreline and Montenegro defeated Canada 12-4 to set up a tantalising encounter. 

The qualifiers were decisive, unlike the women’s matches the day before where European champion Italy and World League champion China departed the scene.

The other quarterfinals have Greece facing Hungary, Croatia against Australia and Spain playing Italy. Greece started the day’s proceedings with a 13-5 win over South Africa with Alexandros Gounas (GRE) topping the scorers.

Montenegro followed against Canada with Aleksandar Ivovic (MNE) netting three for 13 this championship. Centre forward Nicolas Constantin-Bicari (CAN) finished with eight goals and huge respect.

Olympic champion Croatia repulsed the challenge of New Zealand 21-4. Petar Muslim and Sandro Sukno scored five each for the Europeans. Spain helped United States of America to the airport with a 10-6 margin thanks to Albert Espanol with four goals and Guillermo Molina with three. The championship also saw the last of the talented centre forward John Mann (USA), who scored 10 goals.

Serbia settled for a 13-5 win over Romania with five Serbian players scoring twice and the match’s best Nicolae Diaconu (ROU). Hungary had to come back from 4-2 down at quarter time to send off Kazakhstan 16-7. Five Hungarians scored twice and Sergey Gubarev (KAZ) fired in three. Will this be the last we see of Sydney 2000 Olympic silver medallist Russian goalkeeper Nikolay Maximov (KAZ) at this level? He is 41, after all!

Italy, the London Olympics silver medallist, defeated China 11-3 with Alex Georgetti bagging four goals. Chufeng Zhang and Zhongxing Liang left as China’s best scorers with five each.

In the final match of the day, Australia downed Germany 8-4 with three players scoring twice for the Aussie Sharks. Heiko Nossek, who scored Germany’s first two goals, departs as his team’s leading scorer with 10.

Tuesday quarterfinal programme:

15:30  GRE     v          HUN              
17:00  CRO     v          AUS
20:15  MNE    v          SRB
21:45  ESP     v          ITA

Fina World Championship 2013: Champions China and Italy fail to make quarterfinals

POLO AIR INDONESIA, There can only be one winner and even champions have to fall by the wayside some time. This was the case during quarterfinal qualification matches on the fourth day of the FINA Women’s Water Polo World Championships at the Bernat Picornell Pool.

In the final match of the night, European champion Italy bowed out in controversial fashion, losing a penalty shootout 13-12 to world champion Greece.

China, fresh from a heroic World League Super Final victory in Beijing, was toppled by Netherlands, 2008 Olympic champion.In a must-win match for the Dutch women’s water polo programme, the women in orange emerged triumphant 11-10, a three-goal burst by Lieke Klaassen late in the match proving the difference. The hat-trick took her total to 16 for the championship, proving her worth to the team and the programme. A loss today could have had brutal ramifications back home.

In 2009, World League champion Montenegro arrived in Rome as the recently crowned king and also missed the top eight. The Dutch were in raptures, as if they had already won the title, while China struggled with the moment and will now head home to rethink their future.

The last match of the day also saw drama and excitement missing from some other encounters, as was the nature of this year’s championship where the bottom eight fly home halfway through. European champion Italy came from behind to lead in the final stages against Greece but the world champion levelled and forced the match to extra time. Both teams scored in the first period but not in the second. Italy missed three shots and Greece scored three for the victory.

The controversial part was where Roberta Bianconi failed to shot when the whistle sounded for the final shot, gifting the match to Greece.

Other matches went to form with Russia dispatching South Africa 22-3, Australia downing Uzbekistan 25-2, Spain bundling out New Zealand 18-6, Olympic champion United States of America beat Brazil 14-3, Canada defeated Kazakhstan 14-8 and Hungary had the better of Great Britain 14-5.

Most interest on Monday in quarterfinals, probably focuses on the clash between Olympic finalists USA and Spain.

Monday programme:

15:30 RUS vs CAN
17:00 AUS vs GRE
20:15 NED vs HUN
21:45 ESP vs USA 

FINA World Championships 2013: Spain stuns USA at Barcelona 2013 Water Polo tournament to reach quarter-finals

POLO AIR INDONESIA, Spain's men's national water polo team dominated the cross-group game against the USA at the Picornell Pool today, sending their American rivals home to secure a quarter-final berth. Coached by Rafa Aguilar, the Iberians won three of four quarters (4-2, 1-2, 2-1, 3-1) to claim a deserved 10-6 victory in front of the home crowd. Spain will face the winner between Italy and China in the Round of the last 8 on Tuesday

Under the eyes of the members of the Spanish Synchronised Swimming team that claimed seven medals at Barcelona 2013, the home team played more confident than in the group stage and showed a brilliant defensive performance from the start of the complicated encounter against the USA. The combination of a superb match of Spain’s goalkeeper Iñaki Aguilar, who prevented the opponent from fighting back in the second half on various occasions, and four goals of Albert Espanyol was sufficient to see off the American side.

“We dealt very well with the pressure today. We are ready to beat any team now and are going to give 100 percent against our next opponent,” said goalkeeper Aguilar after his impressive performance today.

Although the Americans scored to successive goals to get closer to Spain in the fourth period (6-7), the Iberians kept cool and netted three consecutive goals to close out the game. Guillermo Molina (3), Marc Minguell (1) and Espanyol scored the last three goals for the Spanish side.

“We have played the way we wanted. We just had to concentrate on our game and we have made it. If we play against Italy, it will be much more difficult because their system doesn´t fit us — they are very technical,” said Molina in the mixed zone.

It was the fourth win in a row for Spain over USA - 2010 FINA World Cup, 2011 FINA World Championships and the 2012 Olympic Games in London and today

FINA World Championships 2013: Centurions Hungary and Australia battle out draw in second-place decider

WATER POLO, 26 July 2013.

POLO AIR INDONESIA, The team with the highest winning record in Championship history was denied victory in its 100th match on the third day of the FINA Men’s Water Polo World Championships at the Bernat Picornell Pool.

It was the end of the group stage and Hungary was fighting Australia for second in Group C. It was the closest match of the championship with four tied periods and a man called Richard Campbell denying Hungary what was rightfully its to take.

However, by coincidence, it was also Australia’s 100th match at World Championship level and a draw with the country that has won more Olympic gold medals than anyone else (9), would have been unheard of some years ago.

Under the coaching of Croatia Olympic champion assistant coach Elvis Fatovic, the Aussie Sharks took the lead at 3-2, 4-3 and 5-4 and then later levelled at 7-7, 8-8 and 9-9. Campbell featured with five of those goals, including his fifth from the 10m line!

Hungarian head coach Tibor Benedek was happy with the draw that needed delving into the rule book and shovel down to the fourth tie-break rule to find out who gains second place. Serbia won the group with a 16-9 defeat of China.

In Group A, the main match was the group decider between Spain and Greece — the last match of the day. Spain disappointed the near-capacity crowd when bowing 8-7 after playing catch-up water polo for three-quarters of the match. Montenegro had earlier beaten New Zealand for four points and what turned out to be second place.

In Group B action, Croatia topped the quartet with an 18-0 romp over South Africa who had a goal disallowed in the final six seconds. United States of America had the better of Canada for second place, winning 8-7.

Italy swam away with Group D in defeating Kazakhstan 12-6 and Germany battled to a 9-8 thriller over winless Romania.

Final points:

Group A: GRE 6, MNE 4, ESP 2, NZL 0.
Group B: CRO 6, USA 4, CAN 2, RSA 0.
Group C: SRB 6, HUN 3, AUS 3, CHN 0.
Group D: ITA 6, GER 4, KAZ 2, ROU 0.

Quarterfinal qualifiers:

Sunday, July 28 (times to be decided):
GRE vs RSA
MNE vs CAN
CRO vs NZL
USA vs ESP
SRB vs ROU
HUN vs KAZ
ITA vs CHN
GER vs AUS

FINA World Championships 2013: Water Polo Men: Day 3. USA 8 CAN 7

POLO AIR INDONESIA, The incredible North American rivalry between the United States and Canada continued in Barcelona with the USA winning 8-7 and taking second place in Group B. Canada was on the verge of levelling the game when the wing player inexplicably did not shoot for goal, instead passing to the far side of the pool as fulltime sounded.

Canada won the final quarter 4-3 and looked the better team but the gap appeared too much to bridge.

USA started strongly with two Alexander Bowen goals, followed by Canada’s Jared McElroy’s pair, the second a slider on extra-man advantage. The high-performing John Mann scored the only goal of the second quarter, giving USA a one-goal lead at the major break.

Bowen and Mann stretched the margin to 5-2 within three minutes of the second half. Canada replied through Nicolas Constantin-Bicari on counter, receiving a huge pass, rolling over and sending the ball over the head of Merrill Moses.

McElroy scored on the first attack of the fourth and the game was electric. Matthew De Trane and left-hander Janson Wigo took it out to 7-4 only for John Conway on a short drive and Constantin Kudaba, with a six-metre bounce shot, closing the gap.

USA captain Tony Azevedo made a rare appearance to the scoresheet with a penalty conversion. Canada went to a timeout with no joy, USA had a shot blocked and then Kevin Graham scored from the deep right at 0:50. It proved to be the last goal.

It was the sixth victory for USA over Canada at World Championships.

FINA World Championships 2013:Water Polo Men: Day 3: GER 9 ROU 8

POLO AIR INDONESIA, Germany held out a fast-finishing Romania 9-8 for second place in Group D, leaving the Romanians winless at the end of the preliminary round. Germany had the game intact at 7-3 by halftime before the Romanians found some symmetry within the team.

Petru Ianc found himself free at the from, had his first shot spat back at him by Morita Schenkel and then scored for 7-4 three minutes into the third period. Andrei Busila scored after the extra-man 20 seconds for 7-5. Paul Schueler responded for 8-5 from the top to close the third.

Dennis Eidner emerged as a star with three goals. He scored on extra-man attack in the opening quarter, snapped in a shot on rebound in the second and produced one of the goals of the championship when he accepted a cross pass from his left at centre forward, took the ball cleanly above the water, turned his wrist and right-back-handed the ball into goal for 9-5.

Romania was not finished and Ianc thundered a shot under the right arm of the goalkeeper; Andrei Busila scored cross cage at 3:19 and Alexandru Ghiban was free on a short drive, accepted a pass and scored at  2:33 for 9-8. The game was alive, big time.

Germany had trouble getting past Romanian goalkeeper Dragos Stoenescu and in the final stages Romania had three chances to score, losing the ball twice and Ghiban inexplicably not taking a shot with the final attempt, attempting to gain a 5m foul, but instead waiting for a defender to steal the ball, which he did. Any chance of a draw was expunged.

Romanian head coach Vlad Hagiu appealed for some minutes after the match to the referee but it was clearly a bad mistake by the player.

It was Germany’s sixth consecutive victory against Romania since losing in the 2006 World League.

FINA World Championships 2013: Water Polo Men: Day 3: ITA 12 KAZ 6

POLO AIR INDONESIA, Unbeaten Italy won Group D, turning a 6-2 halftime lead into a 12-6 victory over Kazakhstan, a team it has now beaten seven times on the elite world stage. Five of those appearances Italy won with 13 goals so the average has changed little against a team that went into the match with a win against Romania and a one-goal loss to Germany.

Italy held sway in the opening stages and led 4-0, thanks to a pair of goals by centre forward Matteo Aicardi and master blaster Pietro Figlioli.

Kazakhstan improved it to 5-2 midway through the second quarter and 7-3 by the final break. Figlioli, probably the fastest swimmer and hardest shooter in world water polo, scored his fourth goal and seventh for the championship at 11-4, just before Anton Koliadenko scored twice inside the last four minutes.

The coup de grace was delivered by Valentino Gallo with his second from five attempts a 10:54 for 12-6.

Alex Georgetti was in fine touch with a goal either side of the final break to go with his strike in the second quarter