Crossovers started today in the women’s water polo World Championships Tournament. Eight teams, countries that ranked at #2 or #3 in their preliminary groups, played cross-group games to fight for the final four spots in the quarterfinal.
When the dust settled, it was Greece, Japan, Italy, and The Netherlands who punched their tickets to the first round of sudden elimination competition. They join Australia, the U.S., Hungary, and Spain, who automatically qualified after topping their respective groups in the preliminary round.
The first thing to note is that #14 Japan had one of their best matches in recent memory. The Japanese gave no fighting chance to #11 Great Britain taking them down 23-10. They jumped ahead from the get-go with a commanding 6-2 lead after the first quarter and never looked back. Japan had several multi-point scorers, led by Eruna Ura with four.
Second, be on the lookout for the heavyweight match-up between the #1 and #2 ranked teams, Spain and the Netherlands, in the quarterfinal on Saturday. Spain had the day off, as the 2024 Olympic Champions went undefeated in the group play and secured their spot based off that. The Netherlands, the 2023 World Champions, earned their quarterfinal berth today by defeating New Zealand 14-9. Simone van de Kraats was responsible for over a third of Dutch points, putting five through the net. They will be looking to ramp up their game to face their stiffest competition yet.
The final two quarterfinal spots went to a pair of Mediterranean powerhouses: Italy and Greece. The Italians had a somewhat surprisingly close victory against China, 13-11. Greece had half of a close game, leading France 8-7 at halftime of their crossover. After halftime, the Greeks kicked it into another gear, scoring another 15 points and only allowing 2 to win 23-9.
The crossovers’ losing teams (China, France, Great Britain, New Zealand) will not be hanging up their caps just yet. They’ll compete among themselves for the #9-12 positions on Saturday before the quarterfinal. The #13-16 positions are also up for grabs between the bottom-ranked countries in the group round: Argentina, Singapore, South Africa, and Croatia. This competition began today, with Argentina topping Singapore and Croatia taking down South Africa.
Quarterfinal Match-Ups:
- #6 Australia vs #5 Greece
- #3 United States vs #14 Japan
- #4 Hungary vs #7 Italy
- #1 Spain vs #2 Netherlands
Aussies have done very well to get to this stage. The silver medallists have to go all out from here. The Aussie men must learn to shoot at goal, not play pass the parcel-coach!