Group play in the men’s water polo tournament has concluded, and the crossover games have begun. Today, eight teams competed for the final four quarterfinal spots. Greece, Montenegro, Serbia, and Hungary each won their respective games, advancing themselves onward in the tournament. They join Italy, Spain, Croatia, and the U.S., who all qualified by going undefeated in the preliminary group play. This makes for an all-European quarterfinal with the exception of the U.S.
#5 Serbia, the 3x Olympic defending Olympic Champions, took out #12 Japan in a 21-14 crossover match-up. Boris Vapenski led the way in points for the Balkan nation, netting four. They will face the United States in the quarterfinal.
In #3 Hungary’s crossover match, they faced #14 Romania. Hungary squeezed out a victory 15-11, but two players, Daniel Angyal and Kristof Csoma both told the press that their team played subpar. They’ll have a chance to improve when they meet #1 Croatia for a sudden death quarterfinal game this Sunday.
#4 Greece and #8 Montenegro advanced with little drama, taking down their western hemisphere opponents by a sizable amount. Greece faced #10 Brazil, and they churned out a 17-5 victory. Montenegro, meanwhile, defeated #13 Canada 22-10.
There were no major surprises with respect to what teams made it to the quarterfinal. In fact, the tournament consists of the entire top eight in the World Aquatics rankings. While these elite eight duke it out for a spot in the semifinal, today’s losing teams will compete for the #9-12 positions. Japan and Brazil will play against each other on Sunday as will Canada and Romania.
In the first round of the #13-16 face-offs, Australia topped South Africa and China won over Singapore.
Men’s Quarterfinal Match-Ups (7/18):
- #7 Italy vs #4 Greece
- #2 Spain vs #8 Montenegro
- #6 United States vs #5 Serbia
- #1 Croatia vs #3 Hungary
Can someone explain why the Australian team is performing so badly
All Balkan semifinal would be epic
Veni, vidi, vici. Make the Roman Empire Great Again