2002 FINA Men's Water Polo World Cup

2002 FINA Men's Water Polo World Cup
League	FINA Water Polo World Cup
Sport	Water polo
Duration	20 – 25 August
Super Final
Finals champions	Russia
Runners-up	Hungary
FINA Water Polo World Cup seasons
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The 2002 FINA Men's Water Polo World Cup was the twelfth edition of the event, organised by the world's governing body in aquatics, the International Swimming Federation (FINA). The event took place in the Tašmajdan Swimming Pool in Belgrade, Yugoslavia from August 20 to August 25, 2002.^[1] Participating teams were the eight best teams from the last World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan (2001).

The FINA Cup in Belgrade decided which teams qualified directly to the 2003 World Aquatics Championships in Barcelona, Spain from July 13 to July 27, 2003. Russia and Hungary, as well as the host Spain, already qualified based on the results from the 2002 FINA Men's Water Polo World League (June 28 – August 4, 2002).

Teams

The top eight teams from the previous World Aquatic Championship have qualified.

Teams	Qualified as
Yugoslavia  Spain  Russia  Italy  Hungary  Greece  United States  Croatia	Host (2nd 2001 World Championship) 1st 2001 World Championship 3rd 2001 World Championship 4th 2001 World Championship 5th 2001 World Championship 6th 2001 World Championship 7th 2001 World Championship 8th 2001 World Championship

Seeding

Following ranking of the 2001 World Championship

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Spain (1)  Yugoslavia (2) (H)	Russia (3)  Italy (4)	Hungary (5)  Greece (6)	United States (7)  Croatia (8)

Groups

Group A	Group B
Yugoslavia (H)  Russia  Hungary  United States	Spain  Italy  Greece  Croatia

Preliminary round

Group A

	Team	Points	G	W	D	L	GF	GA	Diff	Qualification
1.	Yugoslavia (H)	4	3	2	0	1	26	19	+7	Semi-finals
2.	Russia	4	3	2	0	1	21	21	0	Quarter-finals
3.	Hungary	4	3	2	0	1	24	19	+5	Quarter-finals
4.	United States	0	3	0	0	3	14	26	–12

• August 20, 2002

Russia	7 – 6	Hungary	2-2 1-1 0-2 4-1
United States	4 – 9	Yugoslavia	0-2 0-2 2-3 2-2

• August 21, 2002

United States	5 – 9	Hungary	1-1 1-2 2-2 1-4
Russia	6 – 10	Yugoslavia	1-4 3-3 2-3 0-0

• August 22, 2002

United States	5 – 8	Russia	0-2 0-3 2-1 3-2
Yugoslavia	7 – 9	Hungary	2-3 1-2 2-2 2-2

Group B

	Team	Points	G	W	D	L	GF	GA	Diff	Qualification
1.	Italy	5	3	2	1	0	19	16	+3	Semi-finals
2.	Greece	3	3	0	3	0	18	18	0	Quarter-finals
3.	Spain	3	3	1	1	1	17	16	+1	Quarter-finals
4.	Croatia	1	3	0	1	2	16	20	–4

• August 20, 2002

Croatia	5 – 6	Italy	2-1 1-2 2-1 0-2
Greece	5 – 5	Spain	1-2 3-1 1-1 0-1

• August 21, 2002

Croatia	4 – 7	Spain	1-3 1-2 2-1 0-1
Greece	6 – 6	Italy	1-1 1-1 1-1 3-3

• August 22, 2002

Italy	7 – 5	Spain	1-1 2-1 2-1 2-2
Croatia	7 – 7	Greece	2-1 2-1 1-3 2-2

Quarterfinals

• August 23, 2002

Hungary	10 – 7	Greece	4-1 2-3 1-2 3-1
Russia	6 – 5	Spain	0-0 1-2 3-2 2-1

Semifinals

• August 24, 2002

Yugoslavia	5 – 7	Hungary	2-2 1-3 1-1 1-1
Italy	4 – 5	Russia	1-1 1-0 2-1 0-3

Finals

• August 23, 2002 — Seventh place

United States	12 – 10	Croatia	4-4 4-3 2-1 2-2

• August 24, 2002 — Fifth place

Greece	4 – 3	Spain	2-1 1-2 1-0 0-0

• August 25, 2002 — Third place

Yugoslavia	6 – 4	Italy	2-0 1-1 1-2 2-1

• August 25, 2002 — First place

Hungary	9 – 10	Russia	3-2 3-2 2-4 1-2

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Final ranking

• Yugoslavia, Italy, Greece and the United States qualified for the 2003 World Aquatics Championships. Russia and Hungary, as well as the host Spain, already qualified.

Individual awards

• Most Valuable Player
  •  Tamás Kásás (HUN)
• Best Goalkeeper
  •  Nikolai Maximov (RUS)
• Topscorer
  •  Tamás Kásás (HUN) — 13 goals

Squads

 Croatia

 Greece

 Italy

 Hungary

 Russia

 United States

 Yugoslavia

References