The Romanian national team ranked 10th at the World Water Polo Championship in Doha, after being defeated by the United States team with a score of 13-9 (5-2, 2-2, 3-4, 3-1) , on Thursday, in a match for positions 9-10.
Romania achieved some results beyond expectations in Doha
The tricolors opened the scoring, but the Americans dominated the game and broke away from the first quarter, at the end of which they led 5-2. Romania managed to come within a goal (4-5), but otherwise the USA team kept an advantage of at least two goals on the table, winning without emotions, with 13-9.
Vlad Georgescu (4 goals), David Belenyesi (2), Andrei Ţepeluş (1), Andrei Prioteasa (1) and Silvian Colodrovschi (1) scored for the team coached by Bogdan Rath.
The American goals were scored by Max Irving (3), Alex Bowen (3), Alexander Obert (2), Johnny Hooper (1), Luca Cupido (1), Ben Hallock (1), Dylan Woodhead (1), Chase William Dodd (1).
The US team finished in 7th place at the 2023 World Cup, at the Tokyo Olympics it was sixth, and at last year's World Cup in Los Angeles it won bronze.
The tricolors ranked 8th at the European Championship in Croatia last month. Romania's best ranking at the World Championship is 5th place (1975), but its previous participation dates back to 2013 (13th place).
France, Hungary, Greece, Spain, Japan, the USA, Australia and South Africa were already qualified for the 2024 Olympics. The top four ranked at the World, who are not already qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games, got the tickets for Paris: Serbia, Montenegro , Croatia and Italy.
