Serbia beats Spain 14-13 in dramatic water polo final with Spain; Croatia takes bronze

Serbia beats Spain for gold, US loses bronze game

ROME — Serbia won a dramatic shootout at the world championships, claiming the gold medal in men’s water polo 14-13 over Spain on Saturday night.

Xavier Garcia scored for Spain with 11 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 6. Spain’s Guillermo Molina and Serbia’s Nikola Radjen matched goals in extra time to make it 7-7. Then it was on to the penalty shootout, which required extra time as well.

The teams were still tied, 10-10, after five shots apiece, and it took four more rounds before Serbian goalie Slobodan Soro blocked a low shot by Blai Mallarach, and Milan Aleksic won it by rifling one past the right arm of Spanish netminder Inaki Aguilar.

“This is a great victory for us,” said Vanja Udovicic, who led Serbia with five goals. “It means a lot because we are back on top of the world.”

Earlier, Croatia, the 2007 world champion, salvaged a bronze by defeating the United States 8-6.

The Serbian fans set off flares in the stands as the players and coaches hopped in the pool to celebrate after Aleksic won the country’s first title since 2005, when it was still aligned with Montenegro. Both countries were once part of Yugoslavia, which won back-to-back titles in 1986 and 1991 before splitting up.

Spain lost despite getting seven goals from Garcia.

“I cannot think of something that we did wrong tonight,” Spain coach Rafael Aguilar said. “We did everything very well. We made a very big effort. My players couldn’t do more than this.”

Serbia’s Filip Filipovic scored four times.

The Serbians bounced back after losing to Spain 18-17 on penalties for the bronze medal match at Melbourne two years ago, then falling 11-9 in the opening game of this tournament.

“This victory over them is good revenge,” Serbia coach Dejan Udovicic said. “We are world champions!”

Paulo Obradovic and Samir Barac scored two goals apiece for Croatia in the bronze medal game. Obradovic broke a 5-all tie with 4:54 remaining, and Igor Hinic’s goal with 27 seconds left wrapped up third place. Josip Pavic made 11 saves for the winners.

Anthony Azevedo scored twice for the Americans, silver medalists at the Beijing Olympics.

The U.S. women won the gold medal Friday with a win over Canada.