Women’s Water Polo Team Reaches the Final at Doha World Championships

The Hungarian women’s water polo team has qualified for the final of the Doha World Aquatics Championships: the team of Attila Mihók and Sándor Cseh won 13-11 against Greece on Wednesday.

Just like in the quarter-final against the defending and European champions the Netherlands, the Hungarian team did not make any mistakes in the penalty shootout, while the Greeks made two mistakes.

The Hungarian team last played for gold at Margaret Island in 2022, when they lost to the Olympic champion USA, whom they will meet again on Friday in Qatar.

Attila Mihók, co-head coach of the Hungarian women’s water polo team, said that both teams managed to spoil each other’s game a bit in the semi-final of the World Championships. “We tried to impose our game on the Greeks and they did the same to us, thus both teams played a lot of water polo with a lot of mistakes,” he noted after the 13-11 win.

“In the end we did not score the goal we wanted to, it was nicely taken away by the Greeks, so the ball had to go one more round and luckily this time we were not scared by the fact that we only had two seconds of the lead. We worked very hard on that,” emphasized the head coach.

As for the final against the Americans, he underlined that he expects them to pick up the gauntlet. “We have already had a training match with them here, they are very solid, it is hard to get a grip on them, and they have an extra goalkeeper in Ashleigh Johnson, hence they do not have to take too many risks defensively, they can let the shooters go.”

One of the heroes of the game, Dora Leimeter, said she was relaxed because she knew that even if she made a mistake in a key situation, her teammates would not pin it on her. “I have scored last-second goals before, I knew that whoever would take the shot would be up to the task, and we were so together in the head that I was sure it would be a goal,” stressed Leimeter.

If we can play as free as we are now, be as cohesive, we can play a very good game against the Americans,”

she added, looking ahead to the final.

Dorottya Szilágyi, who scored important goals late in the third quarter and early in the fourth, was extremely confident about the final: “Obviously, as always against the Americans, it will be a very tough game, but I feel that no matter who we face, we can beat them.”

The Hungarian-American final will take place on Friday at at 3.30 p.m.

Via MTI; Featured image via MTI/Kovács Tamás