Ladies water polo toilet
finals
USA – Hungary 8–7 (3–2, 2–2, 0–1, 3–2)
Doha. in: Buch (Spanish), Marcopoulo (Greek)
United State: Johnson-Musselman 1, Rani 1, Romer, Prentice, Stevens 2, Fattal 3. Replacement: Flynn, Gilchrist, Nicole 1, Mammoth, Sikulic. Union Captain: Adam Krikorian
Hungary: Magyari A.-Kestelli 2, Jurisati 1, Rybinska, Parks 1, Garda 2, Valley V. exchange: Nzmeli (goalkeeper), Dr. Szilagyi, Maheu, Lemaitre, K. Farago. 1, Horvath B. Union Captain: Sandor Shih and Attila Mihok
Exploiting human advantage: 3/12 sick. 7/1
Double human advantage: -, will. 2/1
It has been pointed out: Neuschul (30. p.)
Major scale
Adam Krikorian: – The game was volatile on both sides, but after we lost our big advantage and our approach that relied on the advantage of players, which is usually considered a sure point, did not work either, we still managed to score three goals in the fourth quarter. This shows the strength of my team, I'm satisfied in general, but the Hungarian national team also deserves credit, they have improved a lot since the last time I saw them. He will be a formidable opponent in Paris, where everything will be decided.
summary
It was so difficult that the Hungarian women's water polo team did not reach the pentathlon finals after the quarter-finals and semi-finals. During the last attack, we ended up passing to the center instead of shooting, who took the ball underwater, at first everyone complained about five metres, but looking at the footage, unfortunately, the referee seemed justified. The Americans swallowed the ball and won 8-7, thus winning the eighth world title in their history, and we were left with the silver medal, as happened after the 2022 final in Budapest. The Hungarian players cried on each other's shoulders, Rita Kestelli received the tournament's Player of the Year award as the saddest winner ever, and we saw not many sincere smiles as our players hung the silver medal around their necks.
There is something to be proud of.
Let's start by saying that we traveled to the World Championships in order to somehow get the Olympic quota, if we get seventh place, so be it. In the end, the quotas were reached five days before the end of the tournament, and we left the struggle for seventh place to others. Let's continue with the fact that the team came together amazingly and marched to the finals, where they were as close to the Americans as anyone has been in the finals in the last 10 years.
However, the match did not start that way, as the foreign players took a 3-0 lead at lightning speed, and when they attacked with a four-goal lead, even the nightmare of a simple final arose. After some good defending, Krisztina Garda finally got past Ashleigh Johnson, then Rebecca Parkes scored down the middle and we could already see we were going to attack for an equalizer at the end of the quarter, but Johnson made another save.
The Americans again led by two, but Parks was quickly distracted by two defenders, and for the third time we broke the double man advantage. Maddy Musselman's long shot stunned Alda Magyari, in the third minute of the second quarter, when the Americans were leading 5-3, we changed goalkeepers, Nezemeli Boglarka came on, and everything changed.
Our defending was amazingly good, but the lock wasn't on the other side anyway, and on this day Johnson took shots around the head, although he doesn't usually like them, to put it mildly. The huge swimming competition ended with a quick and unexpected shot from Camila Farago, who returned to the team for the finals. We got close to 5-4, and after defending the next attack four times, we went to a three-minute break. That much.
After the change of half, our defense became more active than before, but we could not find a solution in attack, we did not even get a shot from our man advantage after the time-out, and in any case we were very generous with the ball. Opportunities. The Americans almost scored thanks to their individual superiority, but in the meantime the offensive time ran out, and after some video clips, they did not even concede the goal. The Hungarian deadlock was broken by Greta Goresatti's lucky goal, and we equalized after six minutes of struggle! Neszmély had not conceded since he came on, and everything was fine in defence, but nothing up front: we could have attacked to take the lead, but we lost the ball. However, the Americans did not even score in the end – it is completely unbelievable, but we neutralized the formidable opponent in the third quarter. The final eight minutes began with a 5-5 draw.
In the last quarter, they started to run out of steam, which showed in bad decisions. The defense dropped, we sold the ball again with a man advantage, and the Americans' routine players shined. First, Maggie Stevens, then Rachel Fattal, who scored flawlessly, flashed, when Ryan Nicholl's touchdown went down as well, we were able to score that with 4:37 to go, we were down again by three.
However, this team does not give up in any situation.
In continuation, we did not concede a single goal, which created the possibility of a draw. Keszthely scored a ball, and with a bit of back and forth, we got a double man advantage, while our first class player was determined in front of the other goal as well. One minute and six seconds before the end, after another American defensive error, Attila Mihok asked for time, saying that the goalkeeper would attack from one side, and on the other hand he had to shoot after three passes. We shot after two goals, and Garda hit the goal, so it was hard to blame… We had good defence, Garda stole the ball, and we could have equalised, but that led to the already mentioned attacking error from Parkes. It's a pity, but the Hungarian team fought super well, which is also shown by the fact that the opponent's captain, Adam Krikorian, who has fought in many big battles, did not look like pure joy, but relief.
The Hungarian national team won the silver medal at the World Championships, and anyone could have signed this in advance, but the team had come so far in such a short time after the change of captain that the gold medal was also very close. The Americans are still the best team in the world right now, but their advantage is diminishing, and based on what we've seen, we're not convinced that will continue until the Paris Olympics. Our team will certainly make a great effort in the coming months to bridge this gap. The duo Attila Mihok and Sandor Schieh achieved a miracle in five months; What if they had time to work?
Bronze match
Spain-Greece 10-9 (2-1, 4-4, 1-1, 3-3)
The final result
World Champion: USA (Emily Ausmus, Rachel Fattal, Callie Gilchrist, Jenna Flynn, Ashley Johnson, Amanda Longan, Denise Mamolito, Madeline Musselman, Ryan Nicholl, Tara Prentice, Jordan Raney, Joel Roemer, Jovanna Sekulić, Maggie Stevens, Baylee Weber ). Al-Ittihad Captain: Adam Krikorian)
Hungary Captain: Attila Mihok and Sandor Cseh.
3. Spain
4. Greece
5. Netherlands
6. Australia
7. Italy
8. Canada
9. New Zealand
10. China
11. Great Britain
12. Kazakhstan
13. France
14. South Africa
15. Brazil
16. Singapore
