Hungary take World silver after USA battle
The brave efforts of the Hungarian women’s water polo team – backed by 6,000 enthusiastic fans – pushed the US team to its limits on the penultimate day at the FINA World Championships. Still, the host side had to settle for the silver medal after a thrilling final. The Netherlands produced a great comeback to pip Italy for the bronze.
Playing against the US female water polo team is the biggest challenge in this sport for a decade. Beating them in the knockout phase at majors? Only Spain could do that once, in Barcelona 2013, in the World Champs quarters. Ever since, the US won each of their knockout matches at four World Championships and three Olympics. And their dominance can only be highlighted by the fact that their cumulative goal-difference in championship finals since 2012 was +31; apart from a tight game with the Netherlands (5-4) in Kazan, they usually thrashed their actual opponents for the gold, by 6-8 goals.
However, this Saturday night turned out to be different. The Magyar ladies, backed by a capacity crowd of 6,000, put up a huge fight, defended extremely well as they managed to hold the Americans on 4 goals in the first half. Still, the physical superiority of the title-holders started dominating in the third when they killed four man-downs while took a 7-4 lead. Soon they were 8-4 up in the fourth and the final seemed to head to the usual conclusion, a huge US win.
Instead, the Magyars hit back, netted three connecting goals – the last one from a 7 on 6 –, with 1:13 to go it stood 8-7 and the crowd went wild on the stands. The happy end didn’t come though, Madeline Musselman netted her fifth from a disputed penalty 49 seconds from time for 9-7, securing a fourth consecutive world title to the Americans.
“First of all, I have to thanks this to my girls, they played a fantastic match tonight, were next to their maximum” head coach Attila Biro said. “We would have needed a bit more luck a couple of smarter play in front but all in all I’m content with this result. It was a huge celebration for international women’s water polo, though I must admit that every now and then I’d be keen to change with Adam (Krikorian). They would play in front of 6000 people for a couple of times while we win some gold medals.”
“I think we did a great job today” team captain Rita Keszthelyi-Nagy added. “Our goal was to be as close to the US team as we could and apart from the smaller lapse in the third, we managed to play a tight game. There is nothing we should be ashamed of, we really did our best, though I still have the feeling that it was a chance we missed. We’ll have to continue like this and be in the finals in the next two years as well.”
The bronze medal match between Italy and the Netherlands produced some twists and turns. The Italians stormed to a 1-4 lead, but the Dutch climbed back, shut them out for almost 20 minutes, scored six goals in a row for a 7-4 lead, conceding only one late goal to claim a medal for the first time since 2015.
“For us, it was a chance to prove ourselves that we could compete on the highest level, to show that we are back. I expect that this is only the first step which we have taken towards Paris” Dutch head coach Evangelos Doudesis said.
The only diving final of the day, the women’s 3m didn’t see Europeans in the top three, Tina Punzel finished 4th, missing the bronze by 10 points.