Budapest Journal: Day 12 of FINA World Water Polo Championships

Lost in Budapest? Meet at the Eye! Photos Courtesy: M. Randazzo

By Michael Randazzo, Swimming World Contributor

BUDAPEST, Hungary – July 27. Based on the crowds that have previously descended on Margaret Island for Hungarian men’s and women’s polo competition, tonight’s men’s semifinal match in the 2017 FINA World Championships between Hungary and Greece will be a standing room only affair. Even with the Hungarian women playing a 5th-8th place qualification match on Wednesday, the stands at Alfred Hajos Pool were packed.

If the Hungarians beat the Greeks—and on Tuesday they broke out to an 8-1 lead in a 14-5 thrashing of Russia in a semifinal match—it will be the biggest match on home soil for the Hungarians since they lost the 2014 Men’s European Water Polo Championship title match to Serbia, also at Hajos pool.

There’s no way that the final—if it includes Hungary—will move to the new Duna Arena that has hosted the FINA swim competition. According to Balázs Nemcsik, Managing Director of the Hungarian Water Polo Federation, the logistics are simply too complicated:

This city is CRAZY for water polo!

“With regards to the venue of the water polo finals, I can tell you that this idea was discussed in the past and rejected due to timing. Now this came to light once again, but the practical situation is the same: according to the swimming schedule, the last races will end at around 20:10 hrs at Duna Aréna. “

“This means that a 20:30 hrs start for the water polo final is not possible. Even if the game is played later, let’s say at 22 hrs (which is already quite late), 12 000 people should leave the building and allow another 12 000 to enter within 90 minutes.”
“This, not to mention other technical challenges, does not seem to work, so at the moment water polo finals will take place at the original venue in front of around 6,800 spectators.”

The tickets are sold; the real challenge will be fitting in all the Hungarian VIPs if the men’s go through to the final.

What You Missed:

Bad weather again for Team USA. The best team in the women’s tournament had to play a semifinal match against Russia in a driving rain, which kept spectators away. What they missed was the most compelling U.S. performance of the tournament.

Earlier in the day, Hungary rallied to beat Greece 10-9 in a 5-8 classification match and there were 6,000+ fans in the stand. U.S. head coach Adam Krikorian said he was moved by the tremendous support that the Hungarian fans give to their water polo teams, even when the stakes are considerably lower than hoped for.

After the Hungarian women won, both their head coach, Attila Biro, and captain Rita Keszthelyi, spoke frankly about their disappointment in losing to Canada 6-4 in Monday’s quarterfinal match. If they had made the semis it would have been bedlam at Hajos last night!

Tough luck for Bronte Halligan. The UCLA sophomore and member of the Australian women’s team fumbled and then dropped the ball on her penalty shot, giving Italy the 18-17 win and a place in the 5th / 6th classification match with Italy.

2017 FINA advertising is everywhere!

Speaking of which, the match—which went to nine rounds of penalty shots—was one of the most entertaining this week. Australia rallied to tie in the last second of regulation and then, for a moment, it seemed that the penalty shots would never stop.

Can anyone stop Rachel Fattal when she’s on? With the U.S. down 2-0 against an upstart Russian squad, Fattal went on an absolute tear, scoring four of her five goals in about nine minutes as the U.S. scored 11 goals in the opening half to silence Russia. On a team that has so much offensive firepower—Maddie Musselman picked up four goals and Maggie Steffens had three—Fattal might be the most dangerous player for the U.S. in the championship match.

Serbia toyed with Australia on Tuesday night but it’s sure to be a different story tonight against Croatia in the other men’s semifinal. The Croatians found a way to top a strong Italian team and it seems unlikely that their arch-rivals will beat them decisively again after a one-sided Olympic affair last August.

The Italian men can only wonder how they might have fared if either their starting goalie was not a late scratch OR if Stefano Tempesti was in match shape. As FINA reported, the Azzuri goalie Marco Del Lungo—along with Valentino Gallo and Alessando Velotto—caught a virus and were late scratches. A desperate call brought Tempesti out of retirement, and he was huge in getting Italy to the quarterfinals (he is 6-9). Because of fitness, he was splitting time with back-up goalie Goran Volarevic—who one Italian journalist labeled a “specialist”… at being a backup. Italy was tied with Croatia 5-5 with Tempesti in goal; when Volarevic relieved him, the Croatians lit him up for seven goals on their way to a 12-9 win. In today’s 5-8 classification match, an 8-4 win over Australia, Tempesti came in for the second half and stopped all seven shots he saw. Let’s hope he gets to enjoy his retirement this time!

Yakult is everywhere!

What is Yakult? If you’ve spent any time around the 2017 FINA World Championships, you could not have missed the simple block letter logo of Yakult, a soft drink that originates in Japan. In a world where multi-national brands—can you say Coke or Pepsi?!—tend to pop up everywhere, it’s downright refreshing to have Yakult in the forefront of one’s beverage options.

According to the Yakult webpage, the beverage in question is a fermented milk that has a healthy dose of probiotics. I’ll drink to that!

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