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ROME, Italy, July 20. THE second day of water polo competition featured preliminary rounds of the men's draw at the FINA World Championships.
Germany opened the day with a 14-4 thrashing of South Africa. Moritz Oeler paced Germany with five goals, while Heiko Nossek tallied three. Germany went 14-for-31 overall. Four separate players scored for South Africa, as the team converted 4 of 21 shots.
Hungary smashed Canada, 15-6, in the second match. Peter Biros led the way for a balanced Hungarian attack with three goals. Hungary connected on 15 of 28 shots for a 53.6-percent success rate. Kevin Graham tallied nearly all of Canada's goals with four. Canada went 6-for-24 from the field.
Montenegro beat up China, 14-4. Boris Zlokovic touched China with four goals, while Nikola Janovic collected three. Montenegro wound up 14-for-23 from the field for a 60.9-percent success rate. Tan Feihu totaled half of China's goals, as the team went 4-for-24.
In another bad beatdown, Croatia swamped Brazil, 11-2. Croatia utilized a balanced attack as no single player scored more than two times, as the team went 11-for-33. Two separate players scored a goal for Brazil, as it connected on 2 of 20 shots.
Australia doubled up Kazakhstan, 14-7. Thomas Whalan collected four goals, while Robert Maitland posted a hat trick for half of Australia's goals. The team went 14-for-26 from the field for a 53.8-percent success rate. Three players hit the back of the net twice for Kazakhstan, as the squad went 7-for-23.
Spain edged Serbia, 11-9, in their preliminary tilt. Xavier Garcia notched a hat trick for Spain, which went 11-for-25 from the field. Vanja Udovicic and Stefan Mitrovic each totaled two goals to lead Serbia, which went 9-for-27.
Romania clipped Macedonia, 6-4, in the second straight close contest after a day of unbalanced matches. Cosmin Alexandru Radu collected two goals for Romania, which went 6-for-29. Marko Basic went 2-for-2 for Macedonia, which converted on 4 of 23 shots.
In the final match of the day, the U.S. cleared Italy, 9-8. Tony Azevedo led the U.S. with four goals, while Ronald Beaubien tallied three goals as the team went 9-for-24 from the field. Alessandro Calcaterra posted three goals for the hosts, which went 8-for-27.