Serbia played smartly and quite effectively to beat the US team in the semis with relative ease, and with the 10-6 win they have reached third Olympic final in a row. They will clash with their arch-rivals Croatia, which edged out Hungary 9-8 in the other semi. The result means that the Croats have reached the finals at the Europeans, the Worlds and this Olympic Games in a span of eight months.
The Serbs came up with another spirited performance to beat the US team. They used all their experience – and they have a lot, even their youngsters – to down the Americans who were visibly overwhelmed by the chance they had to make the final for the first time since 2008. At that competition in Beijing, these two met in the semis and the US came off with a devastating 10-5 win. That time, the Serbs were the heavy favourites, but the tensions blew up that fantastic team.
This afternoon, they were the underdogs. Barely surviving the group stage, with three defeats, several conceded goals and a fourth-place finish, the Serbs entered the knockout phase with nothing to lose. And their skills and experience sent them through against Greece while in the semis they played a smart and disciplined game.
Their man-down defence was superb, limiting their rivals to 5 from 16, while they netted 7 from 10 – it was in these man-down scenarios where the difference between the two sides became clear. The Serbian defence worked quite well while the top US players were under their usual level – Irving took one single shot in the match, with Daube going 0 for 5. While the Serbs put away their chances, they could even survive a rare drop in performance from Mandic. Nikola & Nikola took care of scoring, Dedovic hit four, Jaksic had three, with them all showing up in the most crucial moments. This stunned their rivals enough that they remained scoreless in the last 12:24 minutes while the Serbs hit two in the last period to secure an easy-looking victory.
In the evening battle between the two European powerhouses, Croatia and Hungary, the Croats were the more balanced side and managed to make the third final in a row this year. Though the Magyars took a flying start and gained a 3-1 lead, Loren Fatovic took charge at the other end and scored a series of brilliant goals to push the Croats into combat mode. He hit a double to make it 3-3 before half-time and added two more in the second to equalise again. Despite this, Fatovic went on scoring, with Zuvela also joining in on the action with a fantastic shot from the perimeter. There was more action to come, as with 0:09 to go, Fatovic hit his fifth from a man-up to give Croatia a 5-7 lead by halftime.
This 0-3 surge put the game to a different path. The Hungarians could never really gear up – their offence wasn’t as sharp as it used to be. Even though they managed to halve the distance twice, the Croats responded right away, with Marko Bijac delivering a series of great saves – including two penalty stops. The last one was his third in the game and was another boost for his team’s moral as it happened 57 seconds from time and the Croats kept their 7-9 lead, missing a late extra goal to expand the gap to three goals. Soon in the fourth they lost Fatovic, who was fouled out, and missed another 6 on 5, but the Hungarians also struggled in front. With 4:34 on the clock, Adam Nagy finally found the hole on the Croatian wall in a man-up to make it 8-9.
The remaining time was a thriller – it was felt that a Croatian goal would close the contest, but an equaliser might turn everything around. Despite having some of the best shooters in the world in the pool, no more hits arrived in the remaining four and a half minutes. Hungary had 6 on 5s in back-to-back possessions but Bijac put a hand on Nagy’s and Varga’s ball to deny them. Hungary denied them too, then had a third 6 on 5 but the setup didn’t work when 62 seconds remained in the game. The Croats earned an exclusion and even though they didn’t score, they had two shots and collected both rebounds to kill most of the time. Zalanki had a last attempt under pressure, but his ball flew away and the Croats reached the Olympic final once more after 2012 and 2016, and also took revenge for their quarter-final loss in Tokyo.
The achievement by one of the giants of the sport defies all odds, as it was previously unheard of that a team could make so many finals in such a short space of time. Team Tucak just did that, and they will play for the title with a European silver and a world gold already in the bag.
Men’s tournament
Semi-finals: Serbia v United States 10-6, Hungary v Croatia 8-9
Crossovers: Italy v Spain 9-11, Greece v Australia 15-8
