Rio Roundup: Brazil Men Blow Out Japan On Water Polo Day 2

2016 Rio Olympic Games

  • Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • Maria Lenk Aquatics Center/Olympic Aquatics Stadium
  • Sunday, August 6 – Sunday, August 20
  • Schedule & Results

In men’s water polo, the home team blew out Japan to claim sole possession of the Group A lead on the second day of action.

Meanwhile in Group B, Croatia and Italy each won to pull into a tie for the overall lead.

Group A

Brazil crushed Japan 16-8 on Monday, getting 5 goals form Josip Vrlic and 4 from Felipe Perrone. Those two by themselves outscored the entire Japanese roster, which had trouble converting shots to goals – no one on Team Japan shot better than 50% overall.

After beating Australia 8-7 on Saturday, this Brazilian team is looking like the home nation’s best shot at an aquatic medal after most of its best swimming threats have missed out on hardware.

They lead with 4 points and were the only Group A team to win Monday. That’s because of two identical 9-9 ties behind them: Serbia tied Greece and Hungary tied Australia.

Greece and Serbia went back and forth for four periods. A Milos Cuk goal put Serbia up with just over three minutes to play, but Ioannis Fountoulis evened things up with 1:47. Two clutch saves from Serbian keeper Branislav Mitrovic later and the game ended in a 9-9 stalemate.

Greece is second behind Brazil in the group, and Serbia sits tied with Hungary for third.

The Hungarians had their own stalemate, giving up the game-tying score with just 26 seconds left to play. That dramatic goal came from John Cotterill of Australia. The big scorer for the Australians was Richie Campbell, who scored 4 of the team’s 9 goals in a vitally important game for Australia.

Hungary had a more balanced effort, with Marton Vamos, Denes Varga and Balazs Harai each scoring twice.

The Aussies are currently outside the 4th-place cutoff, as only 4 teams from each group will move on past the round robin round, but the tie netted them their first point of these Olympics and they are only 1 behind the tied Hungarian and Serbian teams.

Group A Standings:

1. Brazil – 4
2. Greece – 3
3. Hungary – 2
3. Serbia – 2
5. Australia – 1
6. Japan – 0

Group B

Croatia beat Montenegro and Italy topped France to maintain their tie for the lead in Group B. They aren’t set to go head-to-head until Friday, but remain undefeated in competition so far.

It was a dramatic win for Croatia. Playing the day’s final game, Croatia knew the result of Italy’s match and knew it needed a win to keep pace. It looked like things would end in a 7-7 tie right up until the final seconds, but Luka Bukic nabbed his second goal of the game with just 8 seconds remaining to lift Croatia to an 8-7 victory over Montenegro.

Italy’s win over France was far less nerve-wracking. The Italians led by 4 early in the 4th quarter, and even when France’s Igor Kovacevic scored his second goal to narrow the margin, Italy’s Matteo Aicardi came up with the dagger a few minutes later. Aicardi’s 4th goal of the game put Italy up 11-7, and they wound up winning 11-8.

The other Group B matchup was Spain against the United States, which ended in a 10-9 win that could jeopardize the U.S.’s chances of moving on to the next round. The U.S. and France are currently without points in Group B, with the top 4 moving on to the next rounds. You can read more about the Spain-U.S. match here.

Up next, though: the two winless teams meet when men’s play resumes on Wednesday. That France-U.S. matchup will be a must-win for both teams, with the loser all but eliminated from the tournament.

Group B Standings

1. Croatia – 4
1. Italy – 4
3. Montenegro – 2
3. Spain – 2
5. France – 0
5. United States – 0

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About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

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