132 goals in the opening round of the Euro League
Great games, 132 goals – but no upsets: a fine start for the water polo Euro
League group stage. None of the traditional powerhouse countries sending two or
more clubs to the battleground produced a clean result sheet. Hungary had a 2-1
win-loss record, Montenegro – the other nation with 3 clubs – finished the first
round with 1-2, Serbia, Croatia and Russia with 1-1, Greece with 0-2, while the
single Italian and Spanish sides both launched their Euro League campaign with a
victory.
In Group A, Spain‘s top club CN Barceloneta had a mouthwatering clash with
Jadran Herceg Novi of Montenegro. The visitors built a two goal advantage by
halftime (4-6), however, the Spaniards hit back in the second half winning the
last two quarters 7-3 – which gave them an 11-9 win. One could almost say that
the World Championships silver medallist faced the European Champions as both
sides had many key players of their respective countries‘ national team in the
line-up.
The other game between a Serbian and a Croatian team produced a typical «exYugoslavian duel» with tough and disciplined defending work in its prime: the
home side Vojvodina could not break the Croatian wall of arms and lost 7-2 to
Mladost Zagreb.
Group B saw two brilliant games: the clash of the Hungarian and the Croatian
Champion produced the highest quality, also enjoyed by the viewers of
Eurosport. Vasas vs. Jug was a great choice, as it was packed with action,
tension and all the beauty water polo can offer. The four Olympic Champion
players from Beijing demonstrated their skills: the Varga brothers, Daniel and
Denes, Gabor Kis and Norbert Hosnyanszky propelled the Hungarian team to an
8-3 lead. Still, Jug was not finished there and came back to 9-7, but the home
side blasted two quick goals which ended the contest. In the other game titleholder Primorac Kotor was in the driving seat throughout the game and after a
strong opening period (4-1) won easily against Panionios of Greece.
The other Greek side in Group C, Olympiakos Piraeus also lost in one of the
most exciting thrillers of the week-end. Though the former ruler of Europe,
Domino Honved (finalist in four straight years between 2002 and 2005) lost most
of its key players and has quite a struggle even in the national championship,
they did an outstanding job against the Greeks. Domino quickly jumped to a 3-0
lead but then came Chatzitheodorou & Co. with five goals in a row. However it
stood 5-5 in half time as Marton Szivos beat the goalie and the buzzer with a shot
from 12 metres! It could have gone either way but it was the Hungarians who
got the upper hand after 9-9, they got to 12-9 and won the game which saw five
penalties awarded to Olympiakos. Group favourite Partizan Beograd played
mercilessly in Montenegro leaving no chance for Budva – Andrija Prlainovic
scored five goals in this match, a record for the opening week-end
(Chatzitheodorou also hit five for Olympiakos).
Finally in Group D the two Russians hosted the opening games with mixed
fortune. Sintez Kazan controlled the contest against ZF Eger and won
convincingly 8-6 (they were 8-5 ahead before the last period). Shturm Chehov
kept the pace with the star-packed team of Italian Pro Recco until half-time but
lost the second half 1-6. Recco featured all of its foreign players – several are
eligible only for Euro League action due to the particular rules of the Italian
championship –, still the hero of the night was Alessandro Calcaterra (one of the
four native Italians in the team) who scored three goals.
The second round is scheduled for Wednesday, 16th December.
LEN Trophy: only home wins
It seems half of the duels have already been decided in the LEN Trophy Eight
Finals which also brought a rare outcome: in each game the home side won.
Building a more than five goal advantage almost always means a secure
qualification for the next round, however, sport can always produce the
unexpected. Still, Patras, Mataró, Jadran Split and Volgograd will need to make
wonders to turn the cards & fortunes.
Former LEN Trophy finalist (back in 1999) Patras lost 10-5 to Cattaro of
Montenegro. The Greeks can have mixed feelings: Vouliagmeni will travel to
Berlin with a two goal advantage against Spandau (8-6), though they led 6-2
after three periods.
In the double Italian–Spanish clashes the hosts ruled the field, Brescia –
eliminated from the Euro League – beat Mataró easily (11-5) and Savona also
took a huge step forward winning a spectacular match (14-10) against Sabadell.
Italy’s only loss came in Oradea where the Romanian champion triumphed in a
truly exciting game over Posillipo Napoli, based on their magnificent record in the
extraman situations (7 for 9).
Some years ago Volgograd belonged to the group of most feared opponents:
now the totally changed Russian side suffered one of its most embarrassing
losses, Marseille beat them badly (13-6) with Frederic Audon hitting six goals
(the best individual scorer of the whole European Cup week-end).
The two «domestic» battles between the Croatian and Hungarian representatives
had some ups and downs: Primorje Rijeka demolished Jadran Split in the Adriatic
duel in a rather odd game, as Jadran was up at halftime 4-3, but Rijeka swept
the second half with 7-0, winning 10-4. As for Hungary, Cup holders SzegedBeton faces a tough second leg against Ferencvaros as the latter managed to
earn a 10-9 win, surprising even themselves...
(December 1, 2009)
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