Dubai: Brazil recovered from Monday’s 15-5 defeat to Montenegro with a 12-9 win over China in the second group match of the Fina Water Polo World League Super Final at the Hamdan Sports Complex on Tuesday.
Jonas Crivella, Felipe Silva and Guilherme Gomes gave the Brazilians a 3-0 first-quarter lead before efforts from Adrian Delgado, Bernando Gomes, Gustavo Guimaraes, Guilherme Gomes and a second from Silva made it 8-0 before the interval.
China’s Jinghao Chen pulled one back early in the third quarter before Silva replied. Then Lun Li and two goals from Chufeng Zhang saw China threaten a comeback, until Silva’s fourth and Marcelo Franco’s effort made it 11-4.
Nianxiang Liang and Feihu Tan then both added two apiece in the fourth quarter, each getting one either side of Gustavo Guimaraes and Liang Gu’s quick reply, to end the game 12-9.
Brazil coach Ratko Rudic was delighted his team were able to bounce back from their opening defeat against Montenegro.
“We analysed Monday’s game and found a lot of things weren’t functioning,” he said. “We prepared better for this game and entered with more concentration. We were more organised and it made the difference.”
Despite China pulling nine goals back in the second half to win the last two quarters 4-3 and 5-1, Rudic was unconcerned with his team’s complacency.
“It’s psychological that, when a team starts to lose, they play risky and press heavily. It’s very difficult to maintain the same intensity from the beginning until the end, but we will try to play better in the next game.”
Next up Brazil face defending champions and record seven times winners Serbia in Wednesday’s third set of group games. Despite Serbia’s strength, Rudic said Brazil would continue to play an open game.
“We won’t enter thinking about a result or about losing. Our goal in this tournament is to try and do something against the best teams in the world, to confront them and to gain experience, because this is our only opportunity to do so. Serbia have better players than us but it doesn’t matter, maybe we will play better than we did against Montenegro, who knows?”
A three-game round-robin decides the seedings for Thursday’s quarter-finals, where the first, second, third and fourth-ranked teams from Group A play respective fourth, third, second and first-place sides from Group B.
The tournament not only gives European teams the perfect chance to prepare for next month’s European Championships in Budapest, Hungary, from July 14 to 27, but the two finalists will also qualify to next year’s World Championships in Kazan, Russia. The champions will also take home a cheque for US$100,000.
European nations usually dominate the sport, but the annual event — now in its 13th year — gives the rest of the world an opportunity to test themselves against the best.
