Malta secure silver lining as U-16s secure 17th placing at a World Championship

ISRAEL 8

MALTA 11

(4-2, 2-2, 2-4, 0-3)

Malta ended their commitments in the World Aquatics U-16 Championship with a flourish when they defeated Israel 11-8 following an incredible comeback.

By now we all know that Malta need to give their opponents, a sort of ‘bonus’ in order to start playing. It has happened before against South Africa and Turkey and it happened again against Israel yesterday.

Jokes apart, Malta’s battling qualities and a tenacity which belied the age of the players saw Malta U-16 back from 7-4 down in the penultimate session to win the game 11-8.

More than in any other match, this was a test of character for the boys, if anything for the fact that they overcame the mental handicap of starting on wrong footing but having the strength to bounce back in the last session.

Yesterday’s vigour and intent were positive signs that waterpolo in Malta has a bright future knowing that the ASA, under the leadership of Karl Izzo, are eager to build on the grassroots.

Malta were off to tottering start when conceding two goals but they managed to level through Sam Engerer, profiting from the first man-up situation, and Philip Tabone, only for Israel to open a 4-2 advantage.

With Israel piling up the goals regularly, mostly through their talented Yuval Gal On, who struck four times, it looked as if there was no escape for Malta as their opponents maintained their two-goal advantage to change ends on 6-4.

There was a ray of hope when Malta twice reduced the leeway to a single goal with Max Lanzon and Miguel Cassar, who scored either side of Gal On’s fourth goal.

The fighting spirit was indeed laudable and Lanzon made it 8-7 with a great bounce shot to the top corner. Shailon Cutajar Casha levelled 13 seconds from time from a five-metre effort.

The transformation in the Maltese side was kept up in the fourth session, when they went ahead for the first time in the match when Sean Mifsud scored two quick fire goals to give Malta a two-goal lead.

At this point, the mission was accomplished as the locals showed more intent on utilising possession period to the full with the Maltese coach Jonathan Valletta calling a time-out to calm down his boys. Yet there was still time for Cutajar Casha to cap his man-of-the-match display with a third goal.

ISRAEL: A. Hemsi, I. Manor, M. Mayshev, L. Dercksen 1, A. Ronen, Y. Gal-On 4, I. Levi 2, A. Neeman, I. Goshen, S. Refaeli, E. Vashdi 1, A. Shtrit, R. Gilead.

MALTA: Z. Dzanovic, M. Lanzon 2, T. Fenech, A. Aquilina, S. Cutajar Casha 3, M. Cassar 1, S. Mifsud 2 , S. Engerer 2, J. Pawley Neame, J. Borg Tabone , A. Fava, P. Tabone 1, Z. Attard, B. Lewis.

Refs: G. Gavrilovic (Croatia), R. Fodor (Hungary).