Kuwait City, Kuwait - December 20 - On the heels of two difficult shootout losses, the USA Men's Junior National Team rebounded to claim seventh place at the FINA Junior World Championship after a 19-14 win over Japan.
Marko Vavic piled up five goals and
Ash Molthen added four in the victory. Team USA finishes play in Kuwait with a 5-3 record.
Recap courtesy FINA/Russell McKinnon
United States of America went one better than two years ago, taking out seventh position in a breath-taking, high-scoring match. There was action aplenty in the first half with USA levelling at one and two then pushing the margin to 6-3 before Japan grabbed one back in the last second of the period. USA did the damage at two metres, the centre forwards too strong for the smaller Japanese. Tommy Gruwell scored his second extra-man goal for 7-4 and USA looked like going away. Not so; Japan scored three of the next four goals to level at seven and, guess who had three of those goals? Senior international Yusuke Inaba, of course. USA took a break and converted the play to regain the lead. There were no early celebrations as Inaba netted twice in a row to close the half at 9-8 in Japan's favour.
USA regained the advantage at 10-9, 11-10 and 12-11, before stretching it to 13-11, only for Inaba to gain his sixth goal — and 36th of the championship — on a penalty conversion 11 seconds from the final break.Â
Garrett Zaan with his second,
Ash Molthen with his fourth and
Hannes Daube with his fourth took it out to 16-12 three minutes into the final quarter. Goals were traded between Shun Kobayashi and Vavic while Vavic repeated the dose for 18-13 at 1:37 off a swift free-throw cross pass. Japan was not finished yet and Tsuta drilled from the left-hand-catch position, however, Vavic nailed his fifth with a high shot from four metres, winning the contest and the player-of-the-match award. To USA's credit was the fantastic extra-man statistic of nine from 10 — the best of the championship. The win was some minor consolation for two soul-destroying penalty shootout losses. In USA college water polo, no shootouts are played, but instead the old system of extra time, so the players are not used to this critical situation. Japan, by finishing eighth, was five places better than Belgrade 2017.
Match 69, 13:30, JAPAN 14 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 19
Classification 7-8
Quarters: 4-6, 5-2, 3-5, 2-6
Referees: Vlaho Radichevic (CRO), Liang Zhang (CHN)
Extra man: JPN: 4/7. USA: 9/10.
Penalties: JPN: 1/1.
Teams:
JAPAN:Â Tomoharu Shinto, Toi Suzuki (2), Shun Kobayashi (1), Shohei Yamada, Fumiya Tsuta (2), Naoki Aoyama, Goro Hizume, Eisuke Takahashi, Takumu Miyazawa, Yusuke Inaba (6), Yuki Maita (2), Taiyo Watanabe (1), Kentaro Tani. Head Coach: Takamitsu Nakashima.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:Â
Adrian Weinberg,
Quinten Osborne,
Marko Vavic (5), Tommy Gruwell (2),
Leo Yuno (1),
Garrett Zaan (2),
Hannes Daube (3), Jacob Ehrhardt (1),
Mason McQuet,
Ash Molthen (4),
Quinn Woodhead,
Warren Loth (1),
Kent Emden. Head Coach: Jack Kocur.
