Sharks Close World League Campaign with Strong Win over Japan

The Aussie Sharks finished their FINA Men’s Water Polo World League Super Final on a high with an 11-4 win over Japan in Russia.

The team bounced back from the disappointment of their earlier defeat to Kazakhstan, with the youthful Australian set-up completing their campaign ranked seventh overall.

It took West Aussie Aaron Younger just 22 seconds to opening the scoring and 40 seconds later, teammate Lachlan Edwards doubled Australia’s lead.

The Sharks carried the same path in the second quarter managing the famous Japanese full-press with skill and authority.

Japan rallied briefly to reduce the deficit, but two straight goals to Joseph Kayes saw the half-time break reached with Australia enjoying a 5-2 advantage.

Aaron Younger hit a penalty to nail his third goal for the game and 19th for the campaign to stand as the tournament’s top scorer. Overall, Australia proved too strong for Japan, eventually posting a comfortable seven goal win.

Australian Team Head Coach Elvis Fatovic said: “This is the first game at the tournament we played without too much stress. We controlled the game in that way that we did not offer them easy counter-attacks, which was the key in this game. They are the most dangerous team in the world if it is about counter-attacking. We also kept an eye on one-on-one game.

“Definitely we will have to improve a lot of things before the coming World Championships. We will work a little bit more to strengthen our conditions part, and we will play a tournament in Sicily featuring three more games and after that select the team for the trip to Budapest. Hopefully, there will be enough time to recover and also to do some technical and tactical drills so that we come to Budapest and present better than here,” he said.