10th Volvo Cup final test for Belgrade 2016

IX VOLVO Cup

Volvo Cup day 3: Hungary completes revenge for last year's fumble

 By: Kevin Vernooij  

The results on day 2 pretty much decided the outcome of this year’s Volvo Cup already. Hungary impressed in their match against Croatia with tight defense and efficient offense and was expected to wrap the tournament up in style against Canada. Before this, Croatia attempted to restore their confidence against USA and they looked to do just that after a huge 5-1 first period. At 7-1 score halfway in the second period the 2012 Olympic champion seemed to lose focus a bit though. Motivated by the extrovert coaching style of head coach Dejan Udovicic, team USA set out to save themselves from another embarrassment. Whether or not this was successful is hard to decide. Croatia did not score as much as Hungary did against USA on day 1, but it is evident that Udovicic still has a lot of work to do before USA can even be considered an outsider at the Olympics next year. USA top scorer Brett Bonnani hit an impressive 3 goals but could still not compete with Croatian star shooters Sandro Sukno and Paulo Obradovic who scored 5 and 4 goals respectively.

Photograph: Kevin Vernooij.

The 3rd and final match for the Hungarians against Canada was expected to be a victory march for the superior home side and although the goals did not come as easy as earlier in the tournament, Hungary was leading 4-2 at half-time.

Immediately after the break Canada fought their way back into the game and silenced the 900 Hungarian fans when Nicolas Constantin-Bicari completed a hattrick for team Canada to make it 4-5 and take the lead.

It took Hungary until deep into the final quarter before they could restore the balance and take over again thanks to a goal by Balázs Erdélyi. But even at this point in the game Canada refused to give up. John Conway made it 8-8 with just over 3 minutes to go and an upset was still in the air. 3 missed penalty shots for Hungary did not help to put the game away either. Szolnok lefthander Márton Vámos then cashed in during a man up situation for Hungary and allowed his team some breathing room. With 30 seconds to go Erdélyi hit his 4th of the afternoon to finally secure the victory and complete Hungary’s 100% score for this weekend.

Photograph: Waterpolo.hu (Anikó Kovács).

 

Hungary will now continue their preparation for the World League match against Slovakia on Tuesday. 

Croatia	USA	15-8
Hungary	Canada	9-7

Team	Points	Goal Difference
Hungary	9	15
Croatia	6	10
Canada	1	-8
USA	1	-17