Serbia will be playing for an incredible eighth title when they take on world champions Hungary in the final of the FINA Men’s Water Polo World League Super Final at the Hamdan Sports Complex today, while Australia will fight it out with Montenegro for the bronze medal.
Serbia advanced to the final with a comprehensive 12-5 win over the Aussie Sharks, while Hungary accounted for a resurgent Montene¬gro by 10-8, who found some form yesterday after a lackluster week.
Serbia defeated Hungary to take the title in 2013, while Hungary won the last of their two consecutive World League crowns in 2004 when it beat Serbia & Montenegro.
In reaching the final both teams have also qualified for next year’s FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia.
In earlier matches to determine who would play off for fifth to eighth place, USA and China faced off first, with USA seeking redemption after winning the intercontinental qualification tournament last month, then missing out on the top four in Dubai.
China had yet to post a win in the competition but had been improving with each game.
USA was not to be denied a chance to finish in fifth place though, and put in a powerful team effort that showed improvement from the start of the week.
A strong second-quarter gave them a 10-2 half-time lead. China rebounded in the second half, but could not recover the margin, and USA ran out winners 15-5.
USA’s head coach Dejan Udovicic was much happier with the result, saying: “I’m glad we responded after yesterday (against Hungary). It was good to be going in the right direction. We need such experiences, bad and good, from this tournament to learn for the future.”
USA’s Alex Bowen scored a tournament-best six goals for the match.
China’s coach Paolo Malara was satisfied despite the result. “USA were very good, China very tired,” he said. “But we’ve given it 100 percent in every match.”
The second match to determine the playoffs for fifth to eighth place was between Brazil and Canada.
The game had a slow start but it delighted the crowd with the most exciting finish of any match of the tournament so far.
Impressive defence from both teams saw the scores locked up 1-1 at quarter-time and 2-2 at half-time.
Brazil were up by one at three quarter-time, 4-3, then extended their lead for what seemed a sure victory when they were 7-3 up with three minutes left on the clock.
To the crowd’s delight, Canada’s Justin Boyd then went on a shooting spree, netting four goals in quick succession, the last shot being fired in with .02 seconds to go to make the score 7-7 at full-time.
The penalty shoot-out could not break the deadlock, with both teams scoring all five penalty goals.
The teams then went into a sudden death shoot-out and both Canada and Brazil scored with their first shots.
Canada scored again, then claimed victory when the shot from Brazil’s Adrian Delgado hit the crossbar.
Canada will now play USA for fifth and sixth place while Brazil face China for seventh and eighth.
