Tuesday, March 4

Preliminaries

Intermediate Ranking

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Games review

Game 13: 13:00, Tuesday, March 4
GROUP B
ITALY 7 CANADA 7
Referees: Erhan TULGA (TUR), Nikolaos STAVROPOULOS (GRE)
Quarters: 2-2, 0-2, 1-1, 4-2

Teams
ITALY: Stefano TEMPESTI, Francesco POSTIGLIONE (1), Leonardo BINCHI, Fabrizio BUONOCORE, Luigi DI COSTANZO (1), Maurizio FELUGO (2), Andrea MANGIANTE, Alberto ANGELINI, Fabio BENCIVENGA (1), Alessandro CALCATERRA (2), Leonardo SOLTANI, Federico MISTRANGELO, Fabio VIOLETTI. Head Coach: Paolo MALARA.
CANADA: Robin RANDELL, Constantine KUDABA, Devon DIGGLE, Kevin MITCHELL, Justin BOYD, Thomas MARKS (1), Brandon JUNG, Kevin GRAHAM (2), Aaron FELTHAM (1), Sasa PALAMAREVIC, Jean SAYEGH, Nathaniel MILLER (3), Nicholas YOUNGBLUD. Head Coach: Dragan JOVANOVIC.

Match report
Canada was unlucky not to win this match, having made the play for the entire game against an Italian team struggling to get shots on target. The largely amateur Canada was the better team and outshone the highly paid professionals of Italy. Canada managed to negate the centre forward play of Calcaterra, with the exception of two goals from him in the first quarter. Miller and Graham had the Canadians ahead before Calcaterra levelled. Felthan and Graham on extra had the lead for Canada at the break. This noticeably upset Italy. Miller flicked in a loose rebound from one metre to take Canada 5-2 ahead midway through the second quarter. Postiglione broke an Italian drought that lasted more than 17 minutes of play. The game turned in the fourth quarter against Canada when a shot on extra barred out. Nine seconds later Bencivenga converted a penalty and at 5-4, Italy was back in the game. Di Costanzo levelled on extra at 3:30. With two minutes left in the game, the drama began. What followed was just amazing. Four goals came in the next 73 seconds. Marks fired in from the top on extra at 1:59. Felugo sent one in off the right post from the top on action at 1:34. Miller, who was injured in the second quarter and only returned to the pool late in the third, snapped in a backhand from centre forward at 1:16 for a 7-6 lead. Felugo levelled at 0:46 on extra from deepish left. Then the fun really started. Italy called a timeout and the clock showed 15 seconds left. An argument ensued and the clock was changed to 17 seconds. The shot was blocked but Italy regained and drew an exclusion at 0:02 with Feltham ejected. Another timeout was called and trouble with the clock, Italy said. However, the time stood, the ball was passed once, dropped, recovered and sent into the net but the referee had called time. The hooter did not sound but the clock was clearly reading 0:00 before the shot was taken. Italy disagreed, approached the score bench en masse to protest but only drew a game it should have lost. Russell McKinnon, FINA Press

Game 15: 16:00, Tuesday, March 4
GROUP B
IRAN 8 MEXICO 8
Referees: Jan BOHAT (SVK), Aaron CHANEY (USA).
Quarters: 1-1, 2-2, 2-2, 3-3

Teams:
IRAN: Ali Reza SHAHIDIPOUR, Arameh AGHAZARIAN, Seyed MIR MEDI (5), Mahdi KARAMIZARANDI, Mohammad MEHDI TEIRAN, Ali PIROZKHAH, Kambiz AFSHARI (1), Khadempir SOHEIL (1), Mohsen JALILI, Shirijian ALIAKBAR (1), Sadjad ABDIHANJANI, Amir HOSSEIN KHANI, Meisam JAFARI. Head Coach: Nevan KOVACEVIC.
MEXICO: Orlando ORTEGA, Diego CASTANEDA, Rainer SCHMIDT, Jorge LOPEZ (2), Daniel VAZQUEZ, Maximiliano AGUILAR (2), Oliver ALVAREZ (2), Fausto VAZQUEZ, Armando GARCIA, Richard SCHMIDT, Gonzalo MEJIA (1), Jorge PEREZ (1), Andres ONETO. Head Coach: Raul DE LA PENA.

Match report:
The excitement level might have down a little from the first match of the day but the intensity levels were there throughout. Both teams played with vigour and the scores were level at one, two, three, four and five but in the final quarter Iran started to pull away. The teams seemed to get better as the game went on but too often there was hesitation and overlaps weren't punished. Iran relied heavily on Mir Mehdi, scoring the first four goals and gaining another in the final period. When Iran went three up, Mexico was stung into action and scored twice in less than a minute on two extra situations. Alvarez's deflected goal was a thunderbolt. Much like Italy earlier, Mexico was desperate to atone but lost a player inside the last minute, giving Iran a timeout for Croatian coach Kovacevic to mastermind the victory. Mir Mehdi's shot was blocked and when the ball went under, the referee went to a jump ball, which Iran won. An Iranian shot unnecessarily early in possession was tipped over and the ball regained but it was turned over and Mexico went on counter with Lopez lobbing to equalise. Mexico had done an Italy. Iran had a shot deflected by the goalie and in the last two seconds tried for a penalty but no joy. Iran had thrown away victory. Russell McKinnon, FINA Press

Game 15: 16:00, Tuesday, March 4
GROUP B
IRAN 8 MEXICO 8
Referees: Jan BOHAT (SVK), Aaron CHANEY (USA).
Quarters: 1-1, 2-2, 2-2, 3-3

Teams:
IRAN: Ali Reza SHAHIDIPOUR, Arameh AGHAZARIAN, Seyed MIR MEDI (5), Mahdi KARAMIZARANDI, Mohammad MEHDI TEIRAN, Ali PIROZKHAH, Kambiz AFSHARI (1), Khadempir SOHEIL (1), Mohsen JALILI, Shirijian ALIAKBAR (1), Sadjad ABDIHANJANI, Amir HOSSEIN KHANI, Meisam JAFARI. Head Coach: Nevan KOVACEVIC.
MEXICO: Orlando ORTEGA, Diego CASTANEDA, Rainer SCHMIDT, Jorge LOPEZ (2), Daniel VAZQUEZ, Maximiliano AGUILAR (2), Oliver ALVAREZ (2), Fausto VAZQUEZ, Armando GARCIA, Richard SCHMIDT, Gonzalo MEJIA (1), Jorge PEREZ (1), Andres ONETO. Head Coach: Raul DE LA PENA.

Match report:
The excitement level might have down a little from the first match of the day but the intensity levels were there throughout. Both teams played with vigour and the scores were level at one, two, three, four and five but in the final quarter Iran started to pull away. The teams seemed to get better as the game went on but too often there was hesitation and overlaps weren't punished. Iran relied heavily on Mir Mehdi, scoring the first four goals and gaining another in the final period. When Iran went three up, Mexico was stung into action and scored twice in less than a minute on two extra situations. Alvarez's deflected goal was a thunderbolt. Much like Italy earlier, Mexico was desperate to atone but lost a player inside the last minute, giving Iran a timeout for Croatian coach Kovacevic to mastermind the victory. Mir Mehdi's shot was blocked and when the ball went under, the referee went to a jump ball, which Iran won. An Iranian shot unnecessarily early in possession was tipped over and the ball regained but it was turned over and Mexico went on counter with Lopez lobbing to equalise. Mexico had done an Italy. Iran had a shot deflected by the goalie and in the last two seconds tried for a penalty but no joy. Iran had thrown away victory. Russell McKinnon, FINA Press

Game 16: 17:30, Tuesday, March 4
GROUP A
GREECE 18 KAZAKHSTAN 8
Referees: Mario BRGULJAN (MNE), Mariano DAVALOS (MEX).
Quarters: 6-2, 6-1, 5-2, 1-3

Teams:
GREECE: Nikolaos DELIGIANNIS, Anastasios SCHIZAS, Dimitrios MAZIS (1),Konstantinos KOKKINAKIS, Ioannis THOMAKOS (3), Argyris THEODOROPOULOS (2), Christos AFROUDAKIS (2), Georgios NTOSKAS (2), Georgios AFROUDAKIS (2), Dimitriy MITELOUDIS (3), Matthaios VOULGARAKIS, Emmanouil MYLONAKIS (3), Georgios REPPAS. Head Coach: Alessandro CAMPAGNA.
KAZAKHSTAN: Dimitriy AXYONKIN, Mixail KOLOTVIN, Amirbek SAPAROV, Nurlan SARTAEV (1), Alan ORAZALINOV (1), Roman PILIPENKO (2), Yernur KOILEYEV, Rustam UKUMANOV (2), Mikhail RUDAY (1), Ravil MANAFOV (1), Adil TEMRXANOV, Alexex DENCHENKO. Head Coach: Askar ORAZALINOV.

Match report:
Greece took a third win from as many games with a comfortable demolition of Kazakhstan. Greece was 17-5 up before Campagna used his bench and lost the final quarter 3-1. Greece sharpened its game and looked a contender for top spot at this event with a barrage of accurate shots and six from seven on extra-man attack. Kazakhstan, on the other hand, struggled to find a way through the tight defence that resembled some of the denuded trees outside the pool. The pressure Greece put on Kazakhstan all around the pool made it hard to set up attacks and shots came from outside on a regular basis. Greece had the luxury of space and with Thomakos firing in four missiles, a big win was inevitable. Captain Georgios Afroudakis was not injected into play until the third quarter when he scored twice in a dominant cameo. While Greece revelled in its extra-man statistics, Kazakhstan could only manage to earn one ejection, which it didn't convert. Russell McKinnon, FINA Press

Game 17: 19:00, Tuesday, March 4
GROUP A
BRAZIL 4 ROMANIA 13
Referees: Ulrich SPIEGEL (GER), Nader GHAFOURI (IRI).
Quarters: 0-3, 2-2, 2-3, 0-5

Teams:
BRAZIL: Luis SANTOS, Vicente HENRIQUES, Gabriel ROCHA (1), Lucas VITA, Marcelo FRANCO (1), Conrado BERTOWZZI, Bernardo ROCCA, Felipe SILVA (1), Erik SEEGERER, Bruno NOLASCO, Mario CAROTINI (1), Rafael FARIAS, Anderson SOUZA. Head Coach: Barbaro DIAS.
ROMANIA: Bertina NENCIU, Cosmin RADU (4), Tiberiu NEGREAN (1), Florin BONCA (1), Andrei IOSEP, Andrei BUSILA (1), Gheorghe DUNCA, Ramiro GEORGESCU (1), Edward ANDREI-DINA (3), George GEORGESCU (1), Cosmin BAIDOC, Kalman KADAR, Robert DINU. Head Coach: Vlad HAGIU.

Match report:
Romania took a long time to satisfy its insatiable fans. Brazil proved a worthy opponent for three quarters of the match but struggled to keep up with the Europeans in the final quarter. Romania could have finished the Brazilians earlier but easy scoring options went begging. Romania and Andrei-Dina in particular, had the crowd happy with a 4-0 lead early in the second quarter. By the time Andrei-Dina added his third goal, Romania was 7-3 ahead and it could have been 8-4 if Andrei-Dina didn't bounce his extra-man chance high over the crossbar after a timeout. The 8-4 came thanks to a Radu shot on extra, that barely crossed the line before being snatched out by Santos just 15 seconds from the final break. Five different scorers cleaned out Brazil in the final period, including the popular left-handed Radu with his fourth. Russell McKinnon, FINA Press

Game 18: 20:30, Tuesday, March 4
GROUP A
RUSSIA 12 SLOVAKIA 3
Referees: Luka VULETIC (CRO), Doriel TERPENKA (CAN).
Quarters: 4-0, 2-2, 3-1, 3-0

Teams:
RUSSIA: Seman DAVITASHVILI, Sergey LISUNOV, Sergey EVSTIGNEEV (2), Evgeny FINAEV, Roman BALASHOV (1), Alexander ERYSHOV (2), Pavel KHALTURIN (2), Dmitry STRATAN (1), Andrey REKECHINSKIY (1), Marat ZAKIROV (1), Sergey GARBUZOV (2), Irek ZINNUROV, Dmitry DUDKIN. Head Coach: Boris POPOV.
SLOVAKIA: Michal GOGOLA, Peter NEBAL, Juraj ZATOVIC (1), Josef HROSIK (1), Lukas SEMAN, Alexander NAGY, Martin PALASCAK (1), Karol BACO, Andrej JANICEK, Martin MRAVIK, Michal KRATOCHVIL, Thomas BRUDER, Michal HRUSKA. Head Coach: Ante NAKIC.

Match report:
Slovakia was a worthy adversary but Russia was too strong and proved that with a quick start of four goals in the first quarter and improved it to five. Evstigneev started the rout with two shots from the top in the first two minutes with the second sliding into the bottom right corner. Slovakia hit the scoresheet through Zatovic on extra at 5:29 of the second quarter and two minutes later through Hrosik from the penalty line. Stratan made it 6-2 and 30 seconds from halftime. Zatovic had the opportunity to convert a penalty. However, Dudkin stopped it with his left hand. Garbuzov and Eryshov shut out the Slovakians with goals in the third for 8-2. Palascak claimed one from the top but Eryshov did the same at the other end last in the period for 9-3 at the final break of the day. Rekechinskiy added to Slovakia's woes with a score on counter a minute into the fourth period. Russia and then Slovakia took timeouts but neither gained an advantage from the resulting plays. Khalturin made a name for himself with two quick goals in the last three minutes, one on extra and the other on counter. Slovakia's second timeout at 0:46 yielded nothing but at the other end Russia secured a penalty foul with one tenth of a second remaining. Khalturin's shot was blocked by Gogola. Russell McKinnon, FINA Press

Day 3 report

Group of death far from decided

In every tournament there is usually one group harder than the rest and in Oradea it's Group A at the men's Olympic Games Qualification Tournament at the Ioan Alexandrescu Pool. The Group of Death contains three teams, each of whom is capable of winning the group and the real action doesn't start happening until tomorrow. Greece made it three from three with a capable 18-8 dumping of Kazakhstan. Greece is yet to play its two toughest matches, Romania tomorrow and Russia on Thursday. Romania took time to shrug off Brazil with a five-goal final quarter for a 13-4 win. Russia and Slovakia are the other teams capable of doing well here but Slovakia's chances are quickly slipping out the door, especially after losing 12-3 to Russia in the final game of the day. With Slovakia out of the picture, it will be left to the big three to decide who wins the group and gets the easy route to Beijing. Germany took a stranglehold on Group B with a cruising 9-4 victory over the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia. With three straight wins it leads the group from Italy, who almost lost its game with Canada. Canada was three up on Italy in the final quarter but allowed the Italians back into the game in a final period littered with goals. Most everyone would agree that Canada was the better team and deserved a second win. The other team to throw away victory was Iran, who, despite drawing each of the first three quarters with Mexico went to a three-goal lead and then watched as Mexico equalised and nearly snatched victory. Canada and the Macedonians will clash in the first game tomorrow in what is their most important game, probably deciding who will advance to the quarterfinals. The group decider between Germany and Italy is not until Thursday. Russell McKinnon, FINA Press