The Hungarian national team kicked off its campaign with a victory at the Men’s Water Polo World Cup Division 1 tournament in Greece. Head coach Zsolt Varga’s squad triumphed over the hosts 13–12 in a hard-fought match on Monday. The Hungarians will face the Netherlands on Tuesday and the Olympic and European champions Serbia on Wednesday.
The Division 1 tournament will use the format previously tested in the women’s competition last year: after the group stage, the top two teams from each group form a new group of four and play another full round, determining the rankings for places 1–4. The matches for places 5–8 will be conducted in a similar way. Five teams from this tournament will advance to the Final Eight, scheduled for July 20–26 in Sydney, where they will be joined by two teams from Division 2 and the Australian national team.
National team coach Zsolt Varga immediately placed his trust in two players, Döme Dala and Péter Szalai, who were making their world stage debuts, while Olivér Leinweber and Csongor Lugosi were left out of the roster, and Kristóf Csoma played in goal.
The two teams last faced off in January, in the semifinals of the European Championship in Belgrade, where the Hungarians triumphed confidently with a 15-12 victory.
Just as in the continental tournament, the first two quarters saw an extremely even battle between the two sides, with Greece holding a one-goal lead at halftime (6-7).
At the start of the third quarter, Soma Vogel replaced Csoma in goal, and the Hungarian team turned the game around with a 3-0 run. However, the Greeks did not fall behind decisively this time; they evened the score at the end of the quarter, even though the FTC’s world-class goalkeeper saved a five-meter throw (10-10).
In the final quarter, fans had to wait nearly three minutes for the first goal. After Zsolt Varga’s successful challenge, Vince Vigvári converted the five-meter throw, but the rivals responded immediately. With less than two minutes remaining, Ádám Nagy converted a turn into a goal, while on the other end, the Greeks capitalized on a power play after a timeout, with Stylianos Argyropoulos scoring.
The Hungarians called a timeout with 34 seconds left, then gained a man advantage, and Burián scored the winning goal five seconds before the final buzzer.
I rate the game highly because, since neither team had more than a few practices under their belt, the ones who make fewer mistakes will come out on top. That was proven today, and there were even periods—especially the third quarter—when the game looked really good,”
said head coach Zsolt Varga.
“Then in the fourth quarter, we made a couple of mistakes and closed out a few plays too slowly, but when it really mattered—in the final minutes—we managed to tighten up our defense again, which is how we were able to make the ending so exciting. I am very proud of the guys for managing to defeat a very strong Greek team here, in their own pool, in the first round.”
Via MTI, Featured image: MTI/Czeglédi Zsolt