2017 FINA World Aquatics Championships – Water Polo
- July 16th-29th, 2017
- Alfred Hajos National Swimming Stadium, Budapest, Hungary
- Draws
- Teams/Qualifying
- Men’s Schedule
- Women’s Schedule
- Men’s Results
- Women’s Results
The group winners have a bye in the next round while the other 12 teams will either play to determine who advances, or will play off for 13-16 classifications.
Group A
- MONTENEGRO 13 KAZAKHSTAN 5
- BRAZIL 6 CANADA 6
Montenegro earned its spot at the head of the group, beating Kazakhstan to remain undefeated, while Brazil came from behind three times to draw with Canada, which allowed them to finish in second place.
Montenegro 13-5 Kazakhstan
Montenegro scored the first 7 goals, then topped it off with a 13-5 victory over Kazakhstan, securing their place at the top of the group. Head coach Vladimir Gojkovic, said, “The result was pretty much expected. Now, we will prepare for the next matches that we will be playing, those are going to be tough, but we are ready to give our very best, and show the quality of Montenegrin water polo.” His player Aleksa Ukropina added, “We lived up to the expectations, our goal was to be the best in our group, and we have achieved that. We were doing excellent from the start of the game until the end, and the result shows that, indeed. We are now preparing for the next game, against Greece, which is going to be tough. But we know what we are capable of- we are always playing on the highest level and we surely will give our best.”
Brazil 6-6 Canada
With everything riding on the outcome of this match to see who would move on as the second-place team in the group, Brazil, who needed only a draw, did the necessary. Coming from behind three times, they finished tied with Canada at 6. It was a heartbreaking match for the Canadians, though, who would have been second had they won but instead moved to fourth in the group.
Brazil’s Pedro Stellet said, “I feel great. We have a very young team, Canada as well. We didn’t know what to expect before the championship, but incredibly we made history going through the group stage. The weather is not like here, as in Brazil it’s winter, so we enjoy ourselves outside here in Budapest; it’s beautiful.” Canada’s head coach Giuseppe Porzio said, “We had a chance to win the match, but we were unlucky. I’m very sad for that; we are out from the main competition, but at the same time I trust in this team because they are very young, they are improving a lot match after match and hopefully for Canada we will have more chances to get a proof of our skill and value.”
BRAZIL: Slobodan Soro, Anderson Cruz (1), Guilherme Almeida, Gustavo Coutinho (2), Luis Silva, Ricardo Guimaraes, Pedro Stellet (1), Mateus Stellet, Bernardo Rocha, Hector Carrulo, Gustavo Guimaraes (1), Roberto Freitas (1), Leonardo Silva. Head Coach: Angelo Coelho.
CANADA: Milan Radenovic, Gaelen Patterson, Jeremie Blanchard, Nicolas Constantin-Bicari (1), Matthew Halajian (1), Scott Robinson, Reuel D’Souza (1), David Lappins, Dusan Radojcic, Aria Soleimanipak (1), Georgios Torakis (1), Devon Thumwood (1), Robin Randall. Head Coach: Giuseppe Porzio.
Group B
- HUNGARY 13 FRANCE 7
- ITALY 13 AUSTRALIA 5
To the delight of the crowd, host nation Hungary assured its spot in the quarter finals of the men’s water polo tournament with a win over France. Italy downed Australia in the other Group B match.
Hungary 13-7 France
Hungary got out to a 6-0 lead before France put a goal in the net. The French got the better of the second quarter, though, and the teams went off for the halftime break with the host nation leading, 8-4. Hungary dominated the third period, getting goals from Norbert Hosnyanszky, Denes Varga and Miklos Gor-Nagy. Both teams scored twice in the final period (both French goals were signed Mehdi Marzouki), but Hungary took the W by a six-goal margin, 13-7. Hungary’s head coach Tamás Märcz declared, “It is not easy to get the energy, the rhythm for a game like this, but my team made an excellent performance. The concentration was at a high level during the whole game. Our plan was to give a rest to Balazs Harai, our center forward, and this goal was successful because all my players did their best in the pool.”
FRANCE: Remi Garsau, Remi Saudadier, Igor Kovacevic, Logan Piot, Dino Guillaume, Thibaut Simon, Ugo Crousillat, Michal Izdinsky (1), Mehdi Marzouki (4), Manuel Laversane, Mathieu Peisson, Alexandre Camarasa (2), Hugo Fontani. Head Coach: Hrvoje Hrestak.
HUNGARY: Viktor Nagy, Bela Torok, Krisztian Manhercz (1), Gergo Zalanki (2), Marton Vamos (4), Norbert Hosnyanszky (1), Adam Decker, Miklos Gor-Nagy (1), Balazs Erdelyi (1), Denes Varga (3), Tamas Mezei, Balazs Harai, Attila Decker. Head Coach: Tamas Marcz.
Italy 13-5 Australia
Italy got the win, but fell short of the Italy 11-goal differential they needed to advance straight to the quarter-finals. Michael Bodegas scored a hat trick in the first period for Italy. At half-time, leading 8-2, the Italians were hopeful they could increase their margin to the 11 points they needed, but Australia won the third period, and Italy needed 6 unanswered goals in the fourth. They scored three, but not six, and now must get through the round of 16 to continue.
AUSTRALIA: Edward Slade, Timothy Putt (1), George Ford, Joseph Kayes, Nathan Power, Lachlan Edwards (1), Jarrod Gilchrist, Aaron Younger (1), Andrew Ford (1), James Fannon (1), Lachlan Hollis, Nicholas Brooks, Anthony Hrysanthos. Head Coach: Elvis Fatovic.
ITALY: Stefano Tempesti, Francesco Di Fulvio (2), Niccolo Gitto, Pietro Figlioli (3), Nicholas Presciutti (1), Cristiano Mirarchi, Alessandro Nora, Andrea Fondelli (1), Vincenzo Renzuto (1), Michael Bodegas (3), Matteo Aicardi (2), Zeno Bertoli, Goran Volarevic. Head Coach: Alessandro Campagna.
Group C
- SPAIN 16 SOUTH AFRICA 4
- SERBIA 11 GREECE 6
Serbia won a tough match against Greece to top Group C. It was Greece’s first loss of the tournament. Spain handled South Africa rather easily, and will move on the second round, while South Africa will play for 13-16th place.
Serbia 11-6 Greece
Serbian captain Filip Filpovic scored three goals en route to beating undefeated Greece in their last match-up of group play. Greece scored on two penalties but failed to convert in 9 extra-man situations. The match was extremely tight through the first half, but Greece fell apart in the third quarter and Serbia took advantage with three unanswered goals. There wasn’t anything Greece could do to get back into the match at that point, and Serbia pocked the 11-6 win.
SERBIA: Gojko Pijetlovic, Dusan Mandic (2), Viktor Rasovic, Sava Randelovic (1), Milos Cuk, Dusko Pijetlovic (1), Nemanja Ubovic, Milan Aleksic (1), Nikola Jaksic (1), Filip Filipovic (3), Andrija Prlainovic (1), Stefan Mitrovic (1), Branislav Mitrovic. Head Coach: Dejan Savic.
GREECE: Konstantinos Flegkas, Konstantinos Genidounias (1), Evangelos Delakas (2), Georgios Dervisis, Ioannis Fountoulis (2), Marios Kapotsis, Kyriakos Pontikeas, Kanakakis Argyropoulos, Konstantinos Mourikis (1), Christodoulos Kolomvos, Alexandros Gounas, Angelos Vlachopoulos, Emmanouil Zerdevas. Head Coach: Theodoros Vlachos.
Spain 16-4 South Africa
Spain earned their first win of the tournament with a convincing rout of South Africa. Spain opened the score and led 2-0, but South Africa evened it with a pair of their own. Spain ended the first quarter with a 3-2 lead, then added another goal in the second. The next two quarters were all Spain, with South Africa only managing to put one into the next in each period.
SPAIN: Daniel Lopez, Alberto Munarriz (2), Alvaro Granados (1), Miguel Del Toro (1), Alejandro Bustos, Marc Minguell, Alberto Barroso, Albert Espanol (3), Roger Tahull (2), Francisco Fernandez (1), Blai Mallarach (3), Victor Gutierrez (3), Jose Maria Motos. Head Coach: David Martin.
SOUTH AFRICA: Julian Lewis, Etienne Le Roux, Devon Card (1), Ignardus Badenhorst, Christopher Brown (1), Joao Marco De Carvalho, Lodewyk Rabie (1), Nicholas Rodda, Dean Whyte, Pierre Le Roux, Nicholas Molyneux, Roarke Olver, Themba Mthembu. Head Coach: Paul Martin.
Group D
- UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 14 RUSSIA 11
- CROATIA 16 JAPAN 6
Unbeaten Croatia won Group D with a 16-6 romp over Japan. The United States defeated Japan in its final match-up, but failed to get the 8-goal differential it needed to avoid having to play for 13-16th.
Croatia 16-6 Japan
Croatia controlled all four quarters to remain undefeated in group play. Japan didn’t have the same punch they had against Russia, and they were overwhelmed early on when Croatia went up 5-1 in the first quarter and 10-4 at the half. It was a scoring bonanza for the Croatians with 8 different players finding the net. Croatia scored in all seven extra-man situations, while Japan only converted one of eight.
JAPAN: Katsuyuki Tanamura, Seiya Adachi, Shuma Kawamoto, Mitsuaki Shiga, Takuma Yoshida (1), Atsuto Iida (1), Yusuke Shimizu, Mitsuru Takata, Atsushi Arai (2), Kohei Inaba (1), Keigo Okawa (1), Kenta Araki, Tomoyoshi Fukushima. Head Coach: Yogi Omoto.
CROATIA: Marko Bijac, Marko Macan, Loren Fatovic (3), Luka Loncar (3), Maro Jokovic (3), Ivan Buljubasic (1), Ante Vukicevic (1), Andro Buslje (1), Sandro Sukno (3), Ivan Krapic, Andelo Setka, Javier Garcia Gadea (1), Ivan Marcelic. Head Coach: Mile Smodlaka.
USA 14-11 Russia
The USA beat Russia in a tumultuous match that eventually saw their head coach Dejan Udovicic red-carded. Although the Americans beat the Russians, their three-goal margin wasn’t enough to allow for the possibility of earning a berth into the quarter-finals. USA will play for 13-16th place for the first time, as previously their lowest finish was 11th in 2005. The Americans started well, gaining the upper hand early with a 6-1 lead at the first quarter. Russia won the second period though, and it was 9-6 at the half. Five more goals for each team did nothing to change the USA’s margin, though, and they finished fourth in the group.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: McQuin Baron, Johnathan Hooper (2), Marco Vavic, Alexander Obert, Benjamin Hallock, Luca Cupido (4), Thomas Dunstan (2), Nicholas Carniglia, Alexander Bowen (4), Chancellor Ramirez, Alex Roelse (1), Maxwell Irving (1), Drew Holland. Head Coach: Dejan Udovicic.
RUSSIA: Kirill Korneev, Nikolay Lazarev, Egor Vasilyev, Nikita Dereviankin (1), Alexey Bugaychuk (2), Artem Ashaev, Daniil Merkulov (2), Ivan Nagaev (2), Ivan Suchkov, Dmitrii Kholod (1), Sergey Lisunov (1), Roman Shepelev (2), Vitaly Statsenko. Head Coach: Sergey Evstigneev.
Final points:
Group A
- Montenegro 5
- Brazil 3
- Kazakhstan 2
- Canada 2
Group B
- Hungary 5
- Italy 5
- Australia 2
- France 0
Group C
- Serbia 6
- Greece 4
- Spain 2
- South Africa 0
Group D
- Croatia 6
- Russia 2
- Japan 2
- USA 2