Scores and stats from around the water polo pool in Paris on Tuesday.
Game 1: Australia 8, Serbia 3
On Day 1 of men's water polo competition, Serbia scored more goals than any other team. On Day 2, Australia held the two-time defending gold medalist to just one goal through three quarters.
Serbia didn't find the net until 45 seconds remained in the second quarter as the Aussies took a 6-1 lead into the break. The six goals in the first two quarters was more than Australia scored in all of Game 1 when they lost to Spain, 9-5.
"If we can keep teams to one or two goals, whether we score or not, in the first half, we know that's really going to give us the advantage in the second," said Australia's Luke Pavillard. "We relied on our system. We relied on our blocks. We relied on our goalkeeper and it all worked out... When you've got Nic Porter in goal behind you and he's playing that well, the blocks are in the right places, the communication is good, it feels like he fills all the holes.
Pavillard single-handedly outscored Serbia, putting through four goals on nine shots.
"I’m happy to be the one to put them away, but we've got multiple guys on the team that on any given day can step up and be the guy that's scoring," he said. "It was my role today to do that and I'm just glad I could help the team."
Matthew Byrnes added two goals, and keeper Nic Porter had nine saves and a 75% save percentage.
"He's definitely my MVP for the game today. I think he should be happy with his performance. I know we all are," Pavillard said of his goalie.
“For the boys to only concede 12 shots on target against a team like Serbia – the two-time, defending Olympic champions – is a testament to just how good our defense was," Porter said. "I just played a small part. They were the boys doing all the hard work out there. I just float there in the goal and try to get my arms up... They did their job incredibly well. They were all fantastic and I'm so proud to be an Aussie today."
Dusan Mandic had two of Serbia's three goals. Radoslav Filipovic had just four saves.
Serbia came to Paris looking to become just the second team to ever win three straight Olympic gold medals, but Tuesday's result was alarming. The three-goal total is the least any water polo team has scored in a single game in Paris.
Australia hasn't reached the quarterfinals of the Olympic men's water polo tournament since 2012.
"This team has a lot of belief in itself," Pavillard said. "The last six weeks on tour, we've watched ourselves improve day-by-day and game-by-game. The belief in the team is high and that can really help us go a long way."
Game 2: Italy 14, Croatia 11
After going into the half knotted up in a 6-6 tie, Italy scored six goals in the third quarter to run away with a win over Croatia.
Francesco Di Fulvio led all scorers with four goals. Andrea Fondelli and Gonzalo Echenique each added two goals for the Italians. Loren Fatovic and Konstantin Kharkov had two goals each for Croatia.
“It was a tough game, like we expected," said Croatia's Loren Fatovic. "Every game in this group will be like that. Congratulations to Italy, they were better today from the start... We weren't aggressive enough. They scored some easy goals from the posts and when they had the extra player.
“We will analyze everything and try to be better in the next game against Romania.”
With the win, Italy improves to 2-0 in Paris.
Game 3: France 14, Japan 13
The French players ignited their home crowd with their first win of the Paris Olympics on Tuesday.
The two teams tied five times in the first half. Romain Marion-Vernoux scored for the French squad with 1:43 left in the second to give his team a 7-6 lead at the break.
France's lead grew to four midway through the fourth, the largest lead of any team in the game. Japan responded with three straight goals in a span of 1:18 to draw within one, but 30 seconds later Mehdi Marzouki scored for France to make it 14-12 and essentially put the game away with 2:42 remaining on the clock.
“We were expecting a hard game against Japan, like always, like against every team. We knew that we would go up and down, that they will score a lot.
“We knew we would have to defend very well and take advantage of their counterattack way of playing and do the same.
“We scored three in a row at the very end, then they scored three in a row, so it was very tense. But we did the job, the crowd was amazing and it was wonderful,” said France's Hugo Fontani.
Michael Bodegas had three goals for France. Ugo Crousillat, Alexandre Bouet, Marion-Vernoux, and Marzouki all had two goals each. Yusuke Inaba led Japan with a game-high six goals. Seiya Adachi added three.
"We are getting better and better. We know that everybody knows we can play, and that we can win against everybody. So this is a huge force for us," Fontani said. “We have worked a lot in the past three years and we are still improving... We lack a little experience compared to teams like Serbia and Hungary, as this is the first Olympic Games for the majority of us, but we are in a good way.”
Game 4: USA 14, Romania 8
The U.S. and Romania were tied 3-3 going into the second quarter of Tuesday's men's water polo pool play game in Paris. The rest of the game was all Team USA. The Americans held Romania scoreless in the second quarter and allowed just one goal in the third on the way to a decisive 14-8 win.
Click the link below for the full U.S.-Romania game recap.
Game 5: Greece 12, Montenegro 12 (Greece 5-4 win in PSO)
In the first penalty shootout of the Paris Games, Greece put through all five of their penalty shots to defeat Montenegro.
Montenegro's Bogdan Durdic missed the first shot of the shootout.
The two teams were tied 12-12 the end of regulation. They tied three times in the fourth quarter, and five times in the game. Angelos Vlachopoulos scored with 29 seconds left to put Greece up by one, and Vasilije Radovic responded with a goal for Montenegro with 2 seconds left on the clock to force penalties.
Vlado Popadic led all scorers with four goals, and his Montenegro teammates Marko Mrsic, Duro Radovic, and Radovic added two each. Vlachopoulos led Greece with three goals. Dimitrios Skoumpakis and Efstathios Kalogeropoulos added two each.
Game 6: Spain 10, Hungary 7
Spain improved to 2-0 in Paris with a strong defensive effort over Hungary.
The Spanish squad held the defending Olympic bronze medalists to a single goal in both the first and fourth quarters on the way to the win. Spain goalkeeper Unai Aguirre had eight saves.
Alberto Munarriz, Alvaro Granados, and Marc Larumbe had two goals each for Spain. Daniel Angyal was the only multi-goal scorer for Hungary with two.
Coming up
The men’s water polo competition will resume on Wednesday with six games, starting with the U.S. taking on Greece at 4:30 a.m. ET, followed by Serbia taking on Spain at 6:05 a.m. ET. The second session will feature France vs. Australia at 9 a.m. ET and Italy vs. Montenegro at 10:35 a.m. ET. The day will conclude with Romania facing Croatia at 1:30 p.m. ET and Hungary vs. Japan at 3:05 p.m. ET.