Canada rallies for tie with Dutch in Olympic women’s water polo qualifier
Posted April 16, 2012 4:01 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TRIESTE, Italy – Emily Csikos scored with four seconds remaining to give Canada an 11-11 tie with the Netherlands at the Olympic women’s water polo qualifying tournament Monday.
It was the third goal of the game for the Calgary native.
“I had the defender coming on me and I just heard my captain Krystina (Alogbo) yelling that we needed a shot,” said Csikos.
“I actually had had the ball about five seconds earlier and should have taken that shot and I didn’t, just because I didn’t feel the opening was there,” she added. “But when I got it back it had to be me (to shoot). There was no one else around that had the same opportunity.”
Alogbo, Joelle Bekhazi and Marina Radu each scored a pair for Canada. Singles came from sisters Carmen and Monika Eggens.
The Canadian women led 3-2 after the first period and 6-4 after the second. But the Dutch pulled even at 7-7 going into the final period and scored with 1:21 and 32 seconds remaining to go ahead 11-10.
“It was pretty intense the whole way through,” said Csikos.
The Canadian women are 1-0-1 going into a matchup with world champion Greece on Tuesday.
Canada has history with Greece when it comes to water polo.
The women fell one win short at this stage prior to the 2008 Olympics, losing 5-2 to Greece in the decisive game of another qualifying event in Italy.
The Greek men, meanwhile, ended Canada’s Olympic dreams at a recent qualifying tournament in Edmonton. Greece defeated Canada 10-6 in the quarter-finals.
The Canadian women beat Greece at a tournament in Feburary.
Canada, ranked No. 8 in the world, is in Group B with Brazil, Greece, Kazakhstan and the Netherlands.
Group A is made up of Hungary, Italy, Russia and Spain.
Canada and the Dutch, who were seventh at last year’s world championships, have had a string of close encounters.
Like the men’s qualifying tournament, the four winners of the quarter-final matches will qualify for the Olympics. That will be determined April 20 in the crossover matches between the top four in each group.
Canada finished eighth at the world championship won by Greece last July in Shanghai. Other top teams bidding for the 12-team women’s field in London include No. 3 Russia, No. 4 Italy, No. 7 the Netherlands, No. 9 Hungary, No. 11 Spain and No. 13 Kazakhstan.
Only the host country gets an automatic Olympic berth in women’s water polo.
Like the men, the Canadian women just missed out on qualifying via the Pan American Games.
Canada dropped a 27-26 decision to the U.S. in the final. The teams tied 8-8 in regulation and played two scoreless overtime periods before the Americans won the shootout 19-18.
