Replay of Budapest final in World Cup gold medal match

The gold-medal match at the World Men’s Cup Final in Los Angeles will be a replay of the final of the 2022 World Championships in Budapest. Spain and Italy will face off.

Spain beat Hungary 10:8 in the semifinals, while Italy defeated host Team USA 15:12.

By advancing to the final of the tournament at Uytengsu Aquatics Center, Italy, and Spain became the first two teams to qualify for the men’s water polo tournament at the 2024 World Championships in Doha. The remaining tickets will be allocated at the World Championships in Doha and continental tournaments.

The third quarter was crucial in each of the semifinals. Spain earned a 5-goal lead in the third period (9:4), and there was no way back for Hungary.

As for the match Italy – USA, the Americans had a 9:7 lead in the middle of the third period. Then, Italy produced a 5:0 run in less than three minutes and turned around the 2-goal lead to a comfortable 12:9 lead, which put the “Settebello” on the right track.

Greece and Romania will play in the 5th-place match.

Romania upset Serbia in a 31-goal game. The Romanians bounced back from a 2:20 defeat to Italy in the quarterfinals and beat Serbia by three goals (17:14).

Greece beat Germany with ease (19:6).

2023 World Cup Final (Los Angeles, June 30 – July 2), Day 2

Semifinals

Spain – Hungary 10:8 (1:0, 4:3, 4:1, 1:4)

Spain: Aguirre, Munarriz 3, Granados, Sanahuja 2, De Toro, Larumbe 1, Famera, Cabanas 1, Tahull 2, Perrone, Mallarach 1, Bustos, Lorrio. Head coach: Martin.

Hungary: Levai, Angyal 2, Manhercz 1, Molnar, Vamos 2, A.Nagy 1, Zalanki, Fekete 1, Nemet, Varga, Jansik 1, Ven.Vigvari, Vogel. Head coach: Zs. Varga.

The Spaniards’ long-range shots and the excellent performance of their goalie Unai Aguirre were crucial for the world champions’ victory in the semifinals against Hungary.

Spain dominated in the middle two quarters.

Munarriz was the only one who found the net in the first quarter. He did it in the fourth minute with a shot from seven meters.

Munarriz made it 2:0 with another “bomb” early in the second period. Tahull added one goal shortly after, and Spain went to 3:0. The Hungarians managed to stop Alvaro Granados, who didn’t score a single goal today, but other players made the difference.

Hungary needed 12 minutes to get on the scoreboard. Danial Angyal converted a man-up for 1:3, but Sanahuja replied immediately (4:1). Hungary cut the deficit to one (3:4). Still, Tahull closed the first half by scoring from a 6 on 4 with 50 seconds left in the second quarter.

By the middle of the fourth period, Spain earned a 4-goal advantage. Leftie Blai Mallarach converted a man-up for 7:3. Fekete narrowed the distance, but the finish of the quarter belonged to the Spaniards. Larumbe made it 8:4 in the 23rd minute. The same player committed a personal foul 30 seconds after and Hungary had a great chance with a man-up. But, an outstanding Unai Aguirre saved a shot from Marton Vamos, and started Spain’s counterattack, which was finished by Bernat Sanahuja, who made no mistake and gave his team a 9:4 lead before the final eight minutes.

Hungary put a lot of effort into a comeback, but Spain held back all their attempts. Hungary’s start to the fourth period was promising. The silver medalists from the 2022 Europans scored three straight goals. Krisztian Manhercz closed that series with a goal from a counterattack in the 30th minute – 7:9.

Alberto Munarriz scored another long-distance goal in Spain’s next possession for 10:7 and the contest was practically over. A minute before the end, Nagy set the final score.

Each team scored two power-play goals each, but shot percentages differed significantly. Spain scored converted two man-ups from four opportunities, while Hungary’s percentage was only 20% (2/10).

Unai Aguirre posted 13 saves with 62% of efficiency (13/21). Marton LEvai, who was in front of Hungary’s goal for 32 minutes, blocked 10 shots (10/20).

Italy – USA 15:13 (3:3, 3:3, 6:3, 3:3)

Italy: Del Lungo, Di Fulvio 1, Alesiani, Marziali 1, Fondelli 3, Cannella 2, Renzuto, Echenique, Presciutti 1, Bruni 1, Di Somma 1, Dolce 1, Nicosia. Head coach:Campagna.

USA: Weinberg, Hooper, Vavic, Gruwell, Daube 4, Cupido, Hallock 1, Woodhead, Bowen 4, Ch.Dodd, R.Dodd 3, Irving, Holland. Head coach: Udovicic.

The result by quarters mirrors the course of the match. The first two quarters were quite balanced, and Italy broke the hosts’ resistance in the third eight-minute period. More precisely, Italy’s 5:0 run in less than three minutes in the third quarter was the turning point.

USA took a 2:0 lead before Di Somma, the MVP of the match, put Italy on the scoreboard in the 4th minute. Shortly after, Daube doubled the hosts’ advantage, but Edoardo Di Somma replied with two goals. Six seconds before the first break, he leveled at 3:3. Early in the fourth, Fondelli put Italy in front with a goal from a distance. The teams exchanged goals from that point until the end of the first half.

Italy’s goal for 6:5 was one of the most interesting details of the first half. Dylan Woodhead was excluded, but the Italians had a double man-up in that attack due to the hosts’ mistake. One of the youngest on the home team, Chase Dodd, thought he was excluded, so he swam out the field and gifted Italy a 6 on 4 possession. The world silver medalists made no mistake. Fondelii found the net for 6:5. Still, in the dying seconds of the first half, Alex Bowen scored with an extra player for the USA and the teams were tied at 6:6 at halftime.

At the beginning of the second half, Italy killed USA’s double man-up, and immediately after, Bruni scored an action goal for 7:6. However, the hosts didn’t say their last word. They netted three goals in a row. Daube leveled at 6:6. Then, Ryder Dodd netted two power-play goals and the Americans earned a 2-goal lead for the third time in the match – 9:7 in the 21st minute(after the opening 2:0 and 3:1).

Italy’s head coach Alessandro Campagna made a good move after the ninth goal from its rival. He switched the goalkeepers (Nicosia replaced Del Lungo) to shake the team. The Italians leveled quickly at 9:9. Two minutes before the last break, Francesco Di Fulvio scored his first goal in the game for 10:9. In the remaining time, the Italians widened the gap to three. Di Somma converted a penalty, and Cannella converted a man-up after a nice long pass from Ecnehique for 12:9.

Team USA returned from a three-goal deficit after the third quarter in the quarterfinals against Serbia. However, the hosts weren’t able for another feat. Maybe they ran out of energy because they had a very challenging game in the quarters, unlike Italy.

Daube gave some hope to the hosts scoring from an extra for 10:12. However, midway through the final period, Italy increased its lead to four. Marziali found the net from a close-range shot to make it 14:10 in the 29th minute and sealed the Italians’ victory.

Semifinals, 5th – 8th place

Romania – Serbia 17:14 (7:4, 3:3, 3:4, 4:3)

Romania: Tic, Neamtu 3, Lutescu, Fulea 5, Tepelus, Prioteasa 2, Dinca, Antipa, Colodrovschi, Georgescu 4, Iudean 1, Vancsik 2, Dragusin. Head coach: Rath.

Serbia: Misovic, Radulovic 7, S. Rasovic 1, Randjelovic 1, Lazic, Milojevic, Drasovic 1, Dimitrijevic 1, Jankovic 2, Gavrilovic, Vucinic, Martinovic 1, Mitrovic. Head coach: Stevanovic.

After a promising start and a good performance in the first three periods of the quarterfinal match against the USA, Serbia stopped in the fourth quarter of that duel. The game against Romania was the continuation of the Serbs’ sinking.

Serbia played without Nikola Jaksic and Nemanja Ubovic, but the team that head coach Stevanovic lined up in the 5th-8th place semifinals was a favorite against Romania.

Romania scored only two goals in the quarterfinals against Italy (a 2:20 loss). The Romanians surpassed their yesterday’s outcome in the attack after less than three minutes of the match. They took a 3:0 lead and controlled the game until the end.

Romania did its best and deserved a win against Serbia, which disappointed with its approach to the game and with its play in defense.

Serbia never recovered from a 0:3 start. It reduced the gap to two several times but couldn’t come closer. Romania, which stretched the margin to five early in the second period (9:4), imposed its rhythm and didn’t let Serbia come back.

Deep into the third quarter, Romania led 13:9. The Serbs halved the deficit before the final quarter (11:13), and one could think that the favorite started catching up with the rival. However, the course of the game didn’t change. Romania rebuilt a 3-goal lead in its first possession in the fourth period (Fulea converted a penalty for 14:11) and kept the advantage until the end.

The best scorer of the match was Marko Radulovic, with seven goals from 10 attempts, but his performance didn’t help Serbia because of poor defense. Tudor-Andrei Fulea netted five goals for Romania from as many attempts.

Both teams had an excellent percentage of powerplay shots (Romania 6/8 and Serbia 7/8), but these data tell more about the defenses in this match than the attack.

Germany – Greece 6:19 (0:3, 2:4, 2:6, 2:6)

Germany: Benke, Bozic, Korbel 1, Cuk 1, Schuetze, Juengling, Strelezkij 2, Chiru, Sekulic 2, Dolff, Schipper, Gansen, Vernet. Head coach: Sekulic.

Greece: Zerdevas, Ganidounias 2, Skoumpakis 1, Kalogeropoulos 3, FOuntoulis 1, Papanastasiou 3, Dervisis 1, Argyropoulos 3, Nikolaidis 2, Solanakis 1, Alafragkis, Chalyvopoulos 2, Tzortzatos. Head coach: Vlachos.

Greece proved to be a far stronger team than Germany.

Greece dominated the 5th-8th semifinals. The Greek team started strong, taking a 5:0 lead and keeping Germany from scoring until the 12th minute. They continued to dominate throughout the game, reaching a double-digit lead early in the fourth period (Papanastasiou scored from a counter-attack for 14:4 in the 26th minute). The Greeks didn’t stop there, they added five more goals for 19:4. Germany managed to score two consolation goals in the last 82 seconds of the game.

Schedule

Visit Total Waterpolo Arena for the scores and statistics of the Men’s World Cup.

Friday, June 30

QF1: Germany – Spain 9:18
QF2: Italy – Romania 20:2
QF3:Hungary – Greece 6:4
QF4: Serbia – USA 9:10

Saturday, July 1

Semifinals 5th – 8th: Germany – Greece 6:19, Serbia – Romania 14:17
Semifinals: Spain – Hungary 10:8
Semifinals: Italy – USA 15:12

Sunday, July 2

7th-place match: Serbia – Germany (13:00 local time – 22:00 CET)
5th-place match: Greece – Romania (15:00 – 00:00)
Bronze-medal match: Hungary – USA (17:00 – 02:00)
Final: Spain – Italy (19:00 – 04:00)

Visit Total Waterpolo Arena for the scores and statistics of the Men’s World Cup.

More articles about the World Cup and the former World League

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