Gallant Aussies Pipped by Olympic Champions
A coat of varnish has separated the Australian men’s water polo team, the Aussie Sharks, from one of the greatest victories in world championship history, eventually going down to Olympic champions Croatia 7-6 in extra-time in their quarter-final showdown, after Sharks vice-captain Richie Campbell hit the right post on extra-man attack with 18 seconds remaining in normal time.
Australia had earlier led 4-2 and 5-3 minutes into the deciding term, but as all good champions do Croatia responded and equalised at 5-5 only to see Campbell’s last ditch strike scrape the upright to send the game into extra time.
The match was there for taking in extra-minutes and despite trailing 6-5, Australia rallied through a neat conversion by Campbell on eight metres to square things up, but that’s where the fairy-tale ended.
After a double exclusion and a second Australian exclusion, Petar Muslim delighted the Croatian supporters when he accepted a rebound off Sandro Sukno to steal the lead at 7-6 with 0:54 remaining.
The Sharks had one last chance to equalise after back-to-back timeouts – the second a dubious call given Australia had already used three time outs – but Croatia’s defence held strong as the Sharks failed to fire.
On paper the quarter-final loss will read as the one that got away. If only Campbell’s tap-in at 5-5 went in? The Sharks will now play Greece in their fifth to eighth playoff, while Croatia advances to the semi-finals against Hungary.
But for mostAustralians the result is a statement that our boys are here to play. Australia’s Croatian coach Elvis Fatovic said he was ecstatic with the team’s performance, and whilst gutted at the end score, believed it was a feather in their cap to push the Olympic champions all the way.
“I am very proud with the game. We had great defence against the Olympic gold medallists who are one of the best attacking teams in the world. We didn’t have much luck in the last quarter and on some occasions experience is very important. But we are on the right path to finish the world championships in a good position and all in all I’m so proud of the team’s performance,” Fatovic said.
WAIS had two athletes playing in the quarter final with Aaron Younger and Joel Swift both in action.
It was the sort of result Australia dares to dream about. Knocking off the Olympic champions with their Croatian-born coach Fatovic at the helm, ready to deliver the killer blow against his countrymen.
The match was tight throughout. Paulo Obradovic opened for Croatia on extra after four minutes with Billy Miller levelling the score in the shadows of quarter time with a strike to the top right.
Sukno scored on the first attack of the second quarter and more than six minutes later Aidan Roach slotted in from the top on extra to make it 2-2.
WAIS scholarship holder Aaron Younger was the sole scorer of the third period converting in extra-man and when Miller incredibly made it 4-2 early in the fourth the upset was on the cards.
Maro Jokovic breathed life into the stunned crowd when he scored from deep right after a counter, but Australian captain Rhys Howden responded with a rifle shot from seven metres to restore the two goal buffer.
Croatia kept fighting and eventually levelled through Jokovic and Luca Loncar – the latter the easiest of goals after the Sharks were left stranded by a bizarre refereeing decision.
As it were, the Aussies still had two extra-man opportunities to seal the win, one at 1.33 and one at 20 second, but landed neither with a gutted Campbell left to rue his luckless shot.
“Right now I¬¥m very tired, exhausted, and very disappointed. It has been a very even game as always at this point of the championship, but they have more experience and this helped them. I could have scored the victory goal, but I wasn¬¥t lucky enough and I¬¥m very sad,” Campbell said.
Miller ended the game with two goals with Howden, Younger, Roach and Campbell all notching singles.
Australia’s 5th-8th clash against Greece is at 1130pm on Thursday evening AEST, with Australia’s women’s team, the Aussie Stingers, to play their semi-final against Russia at 4.15am tomorrow morning.
-WaterPoloAustralia