Olympic Games: Greek men's national polo team goes to quarterfinals, after beating the USA 13-11

The Greek team now faces the two derbies of the first phase, where they will decide the ranking and their next opponents, starting with the match against the world champions Croatia on Saturday 3 August at 13:05, followed by that against Italy on Monday, August 5, at 4:10 p.m.

Stelios Argyropoulos and Yiannis Fundoulis scored the last six Greek goals to seal the win, with Manos Zerdeva holding on after a serious mistake at the end of the first period to finish the match with 16 saves, several of which were impressive.

Unlike the previous two games, the national team showed a willingness to swim fast in order to take advantage of the problematic returns of the Americans (who are faster, but slow to organize). In this way, the internationals found in the opposition a goal with Vlachopoulos and a won penalty with Argyropoulos, which Genidounias took advantage of, and took a 4-2 lead. But Bowen reduced it with a penalty and, as the first eight minutes expired, goalkeeper Weinberg scored from one goal to the other (!), to level the score at 4-4.

Zerdevas was clearly responsible for that goal, but he immediately got his... blood back, with two big saves in phases with a numerical disadvantage. The representative group lost attack with two more players, but found a goal with tremendous energy of Nikolaidis from 2m. The Greek team reached +2 again (6-4 and 7-5), but in the last seconds of the half, the referees awarded a penalty against Zerdevas, in a challenge for the ball with Hallock (and while the defense had essentially come out ), and Vavic cut to 7-6.

The USA found two quick goals in the third period, both off rebounds off Zerdevas saves, to take an 8-7 lead. Argyropoulos stopped the American streak with a penalty and then, he and Foudoulis with successive goals on a player above brought the national team to +2 (11-9) at the end of the third eight minutes. The two Greek internationals continued to "execute" in the final period and, combined with the inability of the Americans to take advantage of the eliminations they were winning (1/12 in total), the "blue and white" consolidated the lead and reached the victory, securing the ticket for the octave.