Water polo at the Games of the XX Olympiad
Water Polo
Venues	Dantebad Olympia Schwimmhalle (final)
Date	27 August – 4 September 1972
Competitors	176 from 16 nations
Medalists
Soviet Union  Hungary  United States
← 1968 1976 →

Final results for the water polo competition at the 1972 Summer Olympics held in Munich.^[1][2]

Qualification

Event	Dates	Hosts	Quotas	Qualified Teams
Host Nation	26 April 1966	Rome	1	West Germany
1968 Summer Olympics	14-26 October 1968	Mexico City	5	Yugoslavia
				Soviet Union
				Hungary
				Italy
				United States
1971 Pan American Games	26 July - 1 August 1971	Cali	3	Cuba
				Mexico
				Brazil  Canada
European Qualifier	14-20 May 1972	Munich	4	Romania
				Spain
				Bulgaria
				Greece
Oceania Qualifier			1	Australia
Asian Qualifier			1	Japan
Reallocation			1	Netherlands
Total			16

Medalists

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Soviet Union[1] Anatoli Akimov Aleksei Barkalov Vadim Gulyaev Aleksandr Dolgushin Aleksandr Dreval Vladimir Shmudski Aleksandr Kabanov Leonid Osipov Viacheslav Sobtschenko Nikolai Melnikov Aleksandr Schidlovski	Hungary András Bodnár Tibor Cservenyák István Görgényi Tamás Faragó Zoltán Kásás Ferenc Konrád István Magas Dénes Pócsik László Sárosi Endre Molnár István Szívós, Jr.	United States Peter Asch Steven Barnett Bruce Bradley Stanley Cole James Ferguson Eric Lindroth John Parker Gary Sheerer James Slatton Russell Webb Barry Weitzenberg

Squads

Preliminary round

Pool A

Nation	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
United States	5	5	0	0	31	18
Yugoslavia	5	4	0	1	35	24
Cuba	5	3	0	2	28	23
Romania	5	2	0	3	38	26
Mexico	5	1	0	4	25	30
Canada	5	0	0	5	14	50

	27 August		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Yugoslavia	12-4	Canada	3-1	4-1	3-1	2-1
Mexico	4-6	Cuba	1-2	0-1	1-1	2-2
Romania	3-4	United States	0-1	1-2	1-0	1-1

	28 August		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
United States	7-6	Cuba	1-1	1-0	2-1	3-4
Mexico	7-3	Canada	2-1	0-1	1-0	4-1
Romania	7-8	Yugoslavia	3-2	2-1	2-2	0-3

	29 August		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
United States	8-1	Canada	2-0	3-0	1-0	2-1
Mexico	3-5	Yugoslavia	0-1	1-1	1-3	1-0
Romania	3-4	Cuba	0-2	2-1	0-1	1-0

	30 August		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Yugoslavia	7-5	Cuba	0-2	3-1	2-1	2-1
Romania	16-4	Canada	1-1	6-1	5-1	4-1
Mexico	5-7	United States	1-1	1-4	1-1	2-1

	31 August		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Cuba	7-2	Canada	2-0	2-0	1-2	2-0
Yugoslavia	3-5	United States	0-1	1-1	1-2	1-1
Romania	9-6	Mexico	2-2	3-1	2-0	2-3

Pool B

Nation	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
Hungary	4	3	1	0	22	6
West Germany	4	2	2	0	21	13
Netherlands	4	2	1	1	14	11
Australia	4	0	1	3	14	27
Greece	4	0	1	3	13	27

	27 August		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Hungary	3-0	Netherlands	0-0	2-0	0-0	1-0
Greece	7-7	Australia	3-3	2-1	1-2	1-1

	28 August		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Australia	2-4	Netherlands	1-0	0-0	0-1	1-3
West Germany	3-3	Hungary	1-0	0-1	0-2	2-0

	29 August		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
West Germany	4-4	Netherlands	2-1	1-0	0-1	1-2
Greece	1-6	Hungary	0-3	0-0	0-2	1-1

	30 August		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Australia	2-10	Hungary	0-3	1-2	0-3	1-2
West Germany	8-3	Greece	3-1	3-1	1-1	1-0

	31 August		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
West Germany	6-3	Australia	1-1	2-0	1-0	2-2
Greece	2-6	Netherlands	1-0	0-2	1-3	0-1

Pool C

Nation	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
Soviet Union	4	4	0	0	30	9
Italy	4	3	0	1	27	16
Spain	4	2	0	2	19	22
Bulgaria	4	1	0	3	18	25
Japan	4	0	0	4	14	36

	28 August		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Spain	6-4	Japan	2-1	1-2	1-1	2-0
Italy	1-4	Soviet Union	1-0	0-2	0-2	0-0

	28 August		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Soviet Union	11-1	Japan	1-0	4-1	3-0	3-0
Italy	8-5	Bulgaria	3-1	3-2	2-1	0-1

	29 August		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Soviet Union	7-2	Bulgaria	2-0	2-1	2-0	1-1
Italy	6-2	Spain	1-0	0-1	2-1	3-0

	30 August		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Bulgaria	7-4	Japan	3-1	0-1	2-1	2-1
Spain	5-8	Soviet Union	0-1	1-2	2-2	2-3

	31 August		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Italy	12-5	Japan	4-1	3-0	1-1	4-3
Spain	6-4	Bulgaria	0-0	2-1	2-1	2-2

Final round

Group II (Classification 7th – 12th)

Pos.	Nation	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
7	Netherlands	5	4	1	0	29	20
8	Romania	5	3	1	1	24	19
9	Cuba	5	3	1	1	24	23
10	Spain	5	2	0	3	26	26
11	Bulgaria	5	0	2	3	17	23
12	Australia	5	0	1	4	18	27

	1 September		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Romania	7-4	Spain	1-2	2-0	0-0	4-2
Netherlands	5-2	Bulgaria	1-0	0-1	2-1	2-0
Cuba	6-5	Australia	1-1	3-2	1-1	1-1

	2 September		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Romania	4-3	Bulgaria	2-2	1-0	1-0	0-1
Australia	4-8	Spain	0-1	2-1	1-3	1-3
Cuba	6-8	Netherlands	2-1	2-5	0-2	2-0

	3 September		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Australia	4-4	Bulgaria	2-2	1-0	1-1	0-1
Romania	5-5	Netherlands	2-2	1-2	0-1	2-0
Cuba	4-3	Spain	2-1	1-2	0-0	1-0

	4 September		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Cuba	4-4	Bulgaria	0-0	2-3	1-0	1-1
Romania	5-3	Australia	1-1	2-1	1-0	1-1
Netherlands	7-5	Spain	0-1	3-0	2-2	2-2

Results taken from Preliminary Round

			1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Cuba	4-3	Romania	?-?	?-?	?-?	?-?
Netherlands	4-2	Australia	?-?	?-?	?-?	?-?
Spain	6-4	Bulgaria	?-?	?-?	?-?	?-?

Group I (Classification Gold – 6th)

Pos.	Nation	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1	Soviet Union	5	3	2	0	22	16
2	Hungary	5	3	2	0	23	18
3	United States	5	2	1	2	24	23
4	West Germany	5	0	3	2	15	18
5	Yugoslavia	5	1	1	3	20	24
6	Italy	5	0	2	3	21	26

	1 September		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Hungary	8-7	Italy	1-0	2-1	3-4	2-2
United States	4-4	West Germany	3-1	1-1	0-0	0-2
Yugoslavia	4-5	Soviet Union	1-2	0-2	2-0	1-1

	2 September		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Yugoslavia	6-6	Italy	2-2	2-1	1-1	1-2
West Germany	2-4	Soviet Union	1:1	1:3	0:0	0:0
United States	3-5	Hungary	0-0	1-2	2-2	0-1

	3 September		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
West Germany	2-2	Italy	1-2	0-0	0-0	1-0
Yugoslavia	2-4	Hungary	0-1	1-1	0-1	1-1
United States	6-6	Soviet Union	0-1	3-1	2-2	1-2

	4 September		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Yugoslavia	5-4	West Germany	3-0	0-1	1-1	1-2
United States	6-5	Italy	2-1	1-1	2-1	1-2
Hungary	3-3	Soviet Union	2-1	1-1	0-1	0-0

Results taken from Preliminary Round

			1st	2nd	3rd	4th
United States	5-3	Yugoslavia	?-?	?-?	?-?	?-?
Soviet Union	4-1	Italy	?-?	?-?	?-?	?-?
West Germany	3-3	Hungary	0-1	1-0	0-2	2-0

Final ranking

Soviet Union [1]  Hungary  United States  West Germany  Yugoslavia  Italy  Netherlands  Romania  Cuba  Spain  Bulgaria  Australia  Mexico  Greece  Japan  Canada

1972 Men's Olympic Games winners  Soviet Union First title

Top goalscorers

Rank	Name	Goals
1	Carlos Sanchez	18
2	Bruce Bradley	17
3	Mart Bras	16
	Juan Janac
5	Eraldo Pizzo	12
	Gheorghe Zamfirescu
	Les Nunn
8	Aleksandr Dreval	11
	Ingulf Nossek
	Gianni De Magistris
	Toma Tomov
	Armando Fernandez
13	Anatoly Akimov	10
	Oleksiy Barkalov
	Viorel Rus