Olympic Men’s Water Polo: Marko Vavic, Adrian Weinberg Lead U.S. to Semifinals in Shootout Win
Two saves by Adrian Weinberg and a fifth-round goal from Marko Vavic led the United States to an 11-10 win over Australia in a penalty shootout in the Olympic quarterfinals Wednesday.
The win sends the U.S. into the semifinals for the first time since it won silver in 2008. The Americans are two wins from gold and one win from any medal, starting with a semifinal against Serbia on Friday.
Alex Bowen’s goal with 32 seconds left tied the game at 7 and sent it to penalties. Weinberg, who made 13 saves in regulation, denied Milos Maksimovic in the third round after the first four scorers converted. Bowen made it 10-9 to the U.S., then Weinberg stoned Chaz Poot to consolidate the lead.
It was enough to weather the U.S. missing its first chance to win the match, in the fourth round of the shootout with Alex Obert saved by Nic Porter. But Vavic swam to the spot and buried his chance to send the U.S. onward.
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The U.S. trailed 3-1 after one quarter and needed two unanswered goals in the third to knot the game, Hannes Daube getting it even at 5-all with 3:25 left. Daube’s goal two minutes into the fourth gave the U.S. its first lead of the day, but consecutive goals by Luke Pavillard made it 7-6 to Australia, setting up Bowen’s tying goal.
The U.S. bench erupts after clinching an 11-10 win over Australia in the quarterfinals of the men’s Olympic water polo tournament on Wednesday; Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
Daube tallied a hat trick to go with an assist. Luca Cupido had a goal and three assists. Bowen notched a hat trick. Ryder Dodd and Max Irving had a goal and an assist each.
The U.S. held down Maksimovic, who was limited to 2-for-8 shooting. Pavillard made up for it by going 5-for-5 in an outstanding performance, plus two steals. Jacob Mecep scored twice.
It took a lot to displace Serbia’s 12-11 win over Greece as the game of the day, a quarterfinal that was tied 11 times in a stirring rematch of the Tokyo gold-medal match. That included a goal scored by Greece’s Angelos Vlachopoulos with six seconds left, before Nikola Jaksic won it with a direct foul goal with two ticks remaining.
Dusan Mandic led Serbia with five goals on seven shots. Viktor Rasovic tallied a hat trick on a day that Milos Cuk was shut out. Radoslav Filipovic stopped 11 shots. Serbia is vying for its third straight gold medal.
Dimitrios Skoumpakis led Greece with three goals and two assists. Vlachopoulos scored twice. Alexandros Papanastasiou and Ionnis Fontoulis scored a goal and two assists each.
Croatia, the 2012 Olympic champion, is into the semifinals after a 10-8 win over Spain. A goal by Konstantin Kharkov with 3:24 left put the game away for Croatia, after Spain had gotten within 9-8. Croatia led 2-0 after one quarter and by four goals in the second quarter in a game that it never trailed.
Kharkov scored on both of his shots. Loren Fatovic paired two goals with two assists, and Maro Jokovic added a pair of goals. Marko Bijac backed it with nine saves.
Spain shot just 8-for-30 (27 percent) and 2-for-14 (14 percent) on action shots. Alberto Munarriz led the way with two goals and two assists. Alvaro Granados and Bernat Sanahuja scored twice each, but that trio was a combined 6-for-18 shooting.
Spain will take on Hungary, which survived penalties to beat Italy, 12-10, in the late semifinals. Soma Vogel was the hero with three saves in the penalty shootout, Hungary winning that, 3-1, after the game was tied at nine. Krisztian Manhercz sealed the win with the first shot of the fifth round, his sixth goal of the day
Nicholas Presciutti scored for Italy with 1:23 left to send the game to the shootout. Hungary had two chances to win it, both saved by Marco Del Lungo.
Vogel made 10 saves on the day. Gergo Zalanki scored four goals, albeit on 11 shots. Marton Vamos had a goal and two assists.
Gonzalo Echenique and Francesco Di Fulvio scored three times each for Italy, the latter on 3-for-11 shooting. Prescuitti scored twice, as did Alessandro Velotto.
