The second game of group A at the World Aquatics Water Polo World Cup in Berlin between the men from New Zealand and Kazakhstan offered pure excitement on Friday morning. In a close and hard-fought game, Kazakhstan finally prevailed 10:9 (3:2, 2:3, 1:2, 4:2).
Both teams have a lot of experience on the world stage: Kazakhstan was World Cup-14 last year in Budapest (HUN), New Zealand participated in the previous World Championships 2019 in Gwangju (KOR). It was correspondingly tight from the start, with the lead constantly changing back and forth. Kazakhstan were 3-2 up after the first quarter, but neither side was able to gain a significant advantage. At half time it was 5:5. Kazakhstan presented themselves mercilessly efficient, especially in the majority.
The two defensive lines dominated the game in the second half as well, and goals were rare. New Zealand went into the last eight minutes with a narrow one-goal lead (7:6). The Kazakhs initially equalized there and then after more than 18 minutes took the lead again for the first time. Shortly thereafter, Ruslan Akhmetov converted a penalty and extended the lead to two goals. Although Keegan Wicken equalized for New Zealand about three minutes before the end, the team from Oceania was then unable to counter Eduard Tsoy’s decisive 10:9. New Zealand still had two great chances to equalize in the closing stages, but they didn’t want to equalize again. The top scorers of the game were Murat Shakenov for Kazakhstan with four goals and Jamie Ogilvie-Lee and Keegan Wicken for New Zealand, who each scored three goals. Shakenov became player of the match. “This win is very important for us,” he said.
Secure tickets for the other games of the Water Polo World Cup at https://waterpolo-worldcup.berlin/tickets/ and follow the games live at https://www.youtube.com/@WorldAquatics.
