Teddy » 04 июл 2010, 10:43
23 3:00 PDT RUS RUS 7 – GRE GRE 8 (3rd place)
Greece beat Russia in a sudden-death shootout, 8-7, to take third place in the 2010 FINA Women's World League Super Finals in a battle between two previous Super Finals champions. In a defensive battle that ended tied at 5 at the end of regulation, shooters struggled in a shootout that took six attempts for each team to decide a winner. After Greece converted its first attempt, Russia missed its first three and Greece its next two. Each team scored its fourth shot, and after a Greek miss and a Russian score on the fifth attempt, the shootout headed into a sudden-death round. Greece's Stavroula Antonakou confidently sent her first attempt in the second round into the upper corner past Russian keeper Maria Kovtunovskaya, and Maria Tsouri blocked Ekaterina Prokofyeva, sealing the victory for the Greeks.
After a tight first three quarters that ended in a 3-3 tie, Kyriaki Liosi put a lob past the Russian goalie, and Triantafyllia Manolioudaki pushed in a rebound on a man-advantage opportunity to give the Greeks a 5-3 lead early in the fourth. The Russians, however, were unwilling to give up. Ekaterina Prokofyeva responded immediately with a laser from the outside, and with less than a minute remaining in regulation, Sofya Konukh netted a man-advantage goal to tie the game and send it into the first shootout of the medal round.
GRE 8 (2, 0, 1, 2, 3) A. Asimaki 2, S. Antonakou 2, K, Liosi 1, A. Roumpesi 1, T. Manolioudaki 1, V. Mavrelou 1
RUS 7 (1, 1, 1, 2, 2) S. Konukh 3, E. Prokofyeva 2, E. Ivanova 1, Y. Gaufler 1
Saves
GRE - Tsouri 9
RUS - Kovtunovskaya 10
"A lot of things were working better on defense today, but on offense, hardly anything was working right."
-Alexandr Kabanov, Head Coach, Russia
"I am very glad that the team showed enough resilience and physical strength to finish the tournament well."
-Alexandr Kabanov, Head Coach, Russia
"I was not extremely stressed and we knew we would win if there was a shootout."
-Maria Tsouri, Goal Keeper, Greece
"This was our second game with the same team that resulted in a shootout, and it was also our second time to beach them in a shootout. I think we deserve to be in the top three and get bronze in this tournament."
-Maria Tsouri, Goal Keeper Greece
"This was not a good game and not very good water polo. My team was tired so it was hard, but they found the courage to fight until the end."
-Greorgios Morfests, Head Coach, Greece
"We are very good mandown and that was key in the game and the key to winning."
-Greorgios Morfests, Head Coach, Greece
"Maria and the USA goalie [Betsey Armstrong] are the two best goalies in this tournament."
-Greorgios Morfests, Head Coach, Greece
''Я идеалист без иллюзий!'' Джон Кеннеди