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The Hungarian men’s water polo team unexpectedly lost 15-9 to Spain in the World Cup qualifying final in Bucharest on Sunday. However, there is little reason to be downhearted as the team secured their place in the eight-team Super Final of the series with a smooth win over Georgia (21-10) on Friday.
The Hungarian team, who played brilliantly in the semi-final against the Greeks on Saturday (20-10), started the game in a subdued manner, failing to score even with the same number of players and with a man advantage. In the first eight minutes, only Tátrai could find the net, thus the second quarter started with a serious Hungarian disadvantage (4-1).
In the next quarter, not only were the shots inaccurate, but as time went on, more technical mistakes crept into the Hungarian game. Meanwhile, the Spanish defense, led by their goalkeeper Aguirre, was close to flawless, and they were also confident in attacking, doubling their lead by half-time (8-2).
In the first half of the third eight minutes, the rival’s lead grew to 10-2 and it looked like a knockout defeat could be the end of the game, but in the second half, Ádám Nagy and Ákos Nagy reduced the gap.
Finally, in the fourth quarter, the Hungarian national team became much more determined in attack.
Nevertheless, the team could not catch up, as the Spaniards continued their strong dominance, led by Granados, who finished with eight goals in a world-class performance.
Hungary’s head coach Zsolt Varga told the Hungarian Water Polo Federation: “I am not saying that this is the real face of the team, just as I am not saying that Saturday’s match is the real face of the team. That turned around today, and you could see where the more routine and experience is, because we faced one of the best teams in the world, who were really complete today.
A match like the one we experienced today is part of the learning process, we have to use it to our advantage and see how hard we still have to work to do well at this level against such big teams.
(…) It is important to be able to roll over, to learn even more for the summer or even for the Super Final, how to manage a match in the best way when it turns out like this.”
The final games of the series, in which Varga’s team has already secured their place, will be played in Kotor, Montenegro, from April 11-13.
Via MTI, Featured image: MTI/Kovács Tamás