FINA Water Polo World League, Group A Update: Montenegro Beat USA 11-9, Spain Defeat China 11-5
The third round of fixtures at the 2010 FINA Water Polo World League Super Final saw the most anticipated game of the group stages, as defending champions Montenegro matched up against an emerging nation in the sport, United States of America.
Both teams went into the game with two wins each and this game was going to decide who took the top spot in the group. Montenegro had easy wins over Spain (11-7) and China (16-4) before this game, and it was the same for the men from the United States, who had a fairly comfortable ride to the third game of the group phase, also beating Spain (7-3) and China (11-5).
The match was hotly contested and up until the fourth period, it was the men from the United States who were on top. At the end of normal time, the Montenegro team had dragged themselves back in to the match, making it 7-7.
Since the score was level at full time, the match was going to be decided by penalty kicks. The momentum at the end of the game was with Montenegro, and it was them who managed to overturn the deficit to win the game on penalties.
United States could only manage to score two penalties, against four from Montenegro, and so the eventual score was 11-9 to Montenegro who now top their group. Montenegro's two best players were Predrag Jokic and Damjan Danilovic as they were almost entirely responsible for the comeback win against the Americans. Both players scored one goal each to cut down the two goal lead of the United States, and took the game to penalties.
In the other game of the group, as expected, Spain defeated China 11-5. The Chinese have had a very bad time at the tournament, and this was their third successive defeat and yet another comprehensive one. For Spain, on the other hand, this was their first victory at the tournament, which means that they finish third place in the group and will play the second placed team from Group 2.
Xavi Valles was the star of the show for the Spanish, scoring three goals in total. Felipe Perrone, Albert Espanol and Xavi Garcia also chipped in with two goals each. The Spanish were particularly impressive in the first half, as they completely dominated the play. However, as the game progressed, they had to deal with a string of attacks by the Chinese, who started playing more freely, perhaps due to the knowledge that the game was beyond their grasp.
Lijun Yu was the most impressive player for the Chinese team, scoring two times in the game. China's performance in the tournament has been very poor, but some individual players, such as Lijun Yu, have shown that the team may have a bright future ahead of it if it continues to get experience at the highest level.
With the group games over, things are starting to look a lot clearer. Montenegro, despite only winning on penalties against the United States, have stated their intent on defending their crown and look like the team to beat from this group, closely followed by the United States.
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