Courtesy: USA Water Polo
Quarterfinal Round Results
Spain 18 Germany 9
3pm pt Romania vs Serbia
USA 10 Serbia 9
Hannes Daube’s clutch two goals in the final three minutes seal Team USA’s 10-9 come-from behind win over reigning Olympic champion Serbia, in quarterfinal action of the World Cup.
After a stellar defensive stop on a Serbia power play, Daube received an outlet pass on transition and powered in a cross-cage shot to tie the game at 9. In the next USA possession, Daube drew an ordinary foul from outside and took the shot on his own to give the USA its first lead since a 3-2 advantage in the first quarter. The 10-9 score would stand as final.
Behind terrific goaltending by Adrian Weinberg, the USA defense blanked Serbia 4-0 in the final frame. Weinberg finished with 15 saves in net.
In the game’s opening quarter, the teams went back and forth with Serbia’s Strahinja Rasovich scoring twice around Ryder Dodd’s score for the USA.
Max Irving answered with back-to-back goals to put the home team up by one. The 3-2 lead wouldn’t keep for long, as Serbia scored four unanswered goals to close out the half, keeping team USA and its home crowd at bay.
Irving would then break the USA’s scoring drought, scoring his third goal with under six minutes to play in the third quarter.
Two possessions later, a powerful catch-and-shoot cross-cage shot from Alex Bowen pulled USA within one.
Serbia went into the fourth quarter with a 9-6 lead as Rasovic and Marco Radulovic scored with less than one minute remaining in the third.
Johnny Hooper scored his first goal of the night after Irving came away with the ball during the Serbian transition. Irving drew an exclusion, quickly found Hooper who gained enough ground to power the ball in the back of the net.
Serbia would have four offensive chances before the USA would gain possession back.
Ben Hallock drew a penalty shot from center and Hooper converted to make it a one goal game, 9-8, with 4:26 remaining.
Daube would then score the team’s final two goals to seal the victory. Irving led the USA team in scoring with three, and Daube and Hooper each contributed two.
Hungary 6 Greece 4
Hungary outlasted Greece in a physical, defensive battle to come out victorious, 6-4, in the third game of the World Cup quarterfinals.
Hungary goalie Soma Vogel was brilliant in the cage, keeping Greece without a goal in both the second and fourth quarters en route to saving a total of nine shots.
Greece led 2-0 in the early stages of the game with goals from Konstantinos Kakaris and Dimitrios Nikolaidis.
Bouncing back, Hungary evened out the match scoring on two power-play opportunities in the final minute of first-quarter play. First, Szilard Jansik drew an exclusion and quickly found the back of the net, before Vince Pal Vigvari scored the equalizer with :06 left.
The officials needed to go to the replay booth to ensure the only score of the second quarter, a ball by Gergo Zalanki did indeed fully cross into the goal, before awarding Hungary with its first lead of the game. Hungary would cling to that 3-2 score heading into halftime.
In the opening minute of the third quarter, Greece’s Efstathios Kalogeropoulos found the back of the cage to even the score and break his team’s 12-minute scoring drought.
The Greek’s ball handling skills were on full display, as Ioannis Fountonouslie powered home a slick no-look, over-head flick from Stylianos Argyropoulos to give the Greek a one-goal lead.
The lead wouldn’t last long, however. Just over a minute later, Hungary’s Dene Varga equaled the game at 4.
Hungary scored first in the fourth quarter, a backhanded shot by Jansik to take a 5-4 lead.
Varga powered in a penalty shot with 2:15 remaining to put Hungary up for good, 6-4. Varga and Jansik led all scorers with two goals each.
Italy 20 Romania 2
It was an offensive exposition for Italy, racing out to a 5-0 start in the opening quarter and commanding a 10-1 halftime lead, before running away with a 20-2 victory over Romania in the second overall game of the World Cup quarterfinals.
Italy’s Andrea Fondelli showed off his versatility early, scoring low from the post on a power play and then firing his cannon from deep for his second goal, both within the first 2:14 of the match. He finished the game with three goals.
Italy took advantage of every Romania miscue, exploiting a miscommunication off the second-quarter sprint, with a wide open Luca Marziali scoring in just under :11 seconds.
Romania finally got on the board when Tudor-Andrei Fulea made good on a 6-on-4 power play opportunity with :08 remaining in the half.
Italy enjoyed a balanced scoring attack with eight different players finding the back of the net. Fondelli, along with Francesco DiFulvio, Giacomo Cannella, Edoardo DiSomma and Matteo Iocchi Gratta each posted three goals.
Between the posts, Italy’s Marco Del Lungo saved five in three quarters, while Romania goalie Marius-Florin Tic recorded five saves through three quarters, including a blocked penalty shot in the first.
Spain 18 Germany 9
Spain shot out to a first-quarter, four-goal lead and never looked back while defeating Germany, 18-9 in the opening game of the World Cup quarterfinals. Alvaro Granados Ortega opened the scoring :51 into the game and finished with three goals for a heavily favored Spain team, while teammate Alberto Munarriz Egana led all scorers with five.
Trailing 6-2 after 8 minutes of play, Germany held Spain scoreless in the first four minutes of the second quarter and pulled within a three goal margin on a beautiful lob shot by Mateo Cuk. But Alberto Barroso Macarro found the back of the net for his first of two goals, to extend the Spain lead to four.
The Spanish team made good on two more power play opportunities and took a 9-4 advantage into the half.
Spain controlled the game, drawing 12 total penalties and scoring on seven-of-10 power play opportunities.
Bernat Sanahuja joined Spain’s parade of goal scorers with three.
For Germany, Cuk’s three goals led the team, while Yannek Fabian Chiru, Zoran Bozic and Denis Strelezkij finished the game with two a piece.
Two goalies split time for Spain with Unai Aguirre acquiring eight saves in the first half and Eduardo Barrio saving seven in the final two frames. Germany goalie Felix Andreas Benke turned away six shots in three quarters of work.
