KOS-Sintez water polo players became world vice-champions

Through thorns to the stars

The Russian national team was initially assembled by coach Dejan Stanojevic on the basis of Kazan's KOS-Sintez. The Serbian coach invited Ivan Vasilyev, Bogdan Komarov, Daniil Pronin, and Roman Shepelev, who was appointed team captain, even though Shepelev had never been captain of the Kazan team. Three players represented Volgograd's Spartak — Pyotr Fedotov, Konstantin Sheikin, and Roman Usov — plus Stepan Barabushka from Astrakhan's Dynamo-SShOR. The very principle of assembling teams for mini water polo somewhat resembles streetball, which is more familiar to fans, where what matters is not centers but representatives of other roles — lighter, more maneuverable, and more enduring. So here, the role of center forward was, where possible, handled by Konstantin Sheikin, while nominal defender Daniil Pronin was responsible for defense, but overall the team was swimming, fast — which was emphasized by the presence of Vasilyev and Shepelev in the lineup — and shooting: absolutely everyone possessed this skill, including goalkeeper Fedotov.

Fedotov and Sheikin won the national beach water polo championship this summer, defeating St. Petersburg's Baltika in the final, while Barabushka took second place in the mini water polo championship; the others' playing skills were restored during national team training camps. Its peculiarity was the presence of only one goalkeeper, Fedotov, which increased the number of field players to seven regular positions. Looking ahead: for us, Fedotov at this championship became more than half the team. And it helped a great deal that, before the world championship, the federation held two of these “test runs” in mini water polo and beach water polo.

The start of the championship was encouraging, when the Russian squad defeated the USA in a penalty shootout. Four five-minute periods ended in a 2:2 draw, and in mini water polo there is no rule allowing the goal difference to be added up (15:12 in favor of the Russians). The Americans are a formidable opponent — goalkeeper Whiteleg, the Vavic brothers, and Irving — these are water polo players who have swallowed plenty of “chlorine in the pool," which is partly why the Yankees were considered one of the tournament favorites. As were Montenegro with Danilo Radovic, Murisic, and goalkeeper Andric. Again the score was 2:2 after four periods, again our advantage in goals scored was 13:9, but this time the penalty shootout ended in favor of the opponent.

A good rest before the quarterfinal

These were matches against teams from the strongest pot, after which the Russians played against a team considered an outsider — Saudi Arabia — and Malta, considered roughly equal in strength. Both times the score was 3:0 by periods, but the victory over the Maltese was not so easy — 9:5 in goals scored showed that the battle in each period was practically even.

Before the quarterfinal, the Russians had a chance to face Bulgaria, but this depended on the outcome of the Serbia–Spain match. The Serbs lost to Georgia, the Georgians lost to the Bulgarians, and these sensations demonstrate the difference between classical and mini water polo. Suffice it to say that Hungary, Greece, and Italy did not send men's teams to the world championship. Perhaps this is because they focused on the classical variant, competing at the same time in the Mediterranean Games, where the Italians won and the Greeks competed. But the strongest representatives of the former Yugoslavia delegated teams to all tournaments. The Serbs, having beaten Spain on penalties, earned the right to play the quarterfinal against the Bulgarians, ultimately defeating them.

The Spaniards defeated the Georgians, the Croats beat the Americans. Thus, the summary table after the qualifying tournament demonstrated the superiority of the strongest quartet over the second four, but how differently the quarterfinals actually unfolded. The Croats, who led after the qualifiers, only beat the USA in a penalty shootout, while the Russian team steamrolled the Montenegrins. Perhaps it helped us that the Montenegrins brought two goalkeepers, and the strength of six field players was not enough for the entire tournament distance. The battle was even in the first period, which our water polo players won 6:5, trailing 2:4 during it. In the second period, the teams went fairly evenly for a long time, but at the end the Montenegrins simply fell apart. The score of 8:1 was caused in part by our goalkeeper Fedotov scoring two goals from goal to goal at a score of 4:1, and such goals are worth two points. In the third period, both teams openly played out the match, and the score of 5:1 was explained by the fact that ours did not waste energy before the semifinal. 19:6 in goals scored!

In the semifinal, they defeated the previously unbeatable Croats

The unbeatable Croats consisted of veteran Roko Pelicaric (38 years old) and two juniors, Dragos and Batos, who defended the goal. Although the main goalkeeper was Antonio Vukoevic, one of the Vukoevic brothers from Primorje, and two more players, Busic and Krzic, represented the “Yug” team from Dubrovnik, where the competitions were held. Zvono, who now plays for Solaris from Sibenik, also previously played in Dubrovnik. Six field players, with the seventh supposed to be the loud support of the stands.

But our numerical advantage in manpower — 7 field players — evaporated by the end of the match, as Pronin and Shepelev were sent off for 4 fouls. But they themselves worked conscientiously, and their teammates worked for two. In the first set, a hat-trick by Sheikin brought victory; the third set was won 6:4, and the outcome of the match could have been decided in regulation time. But leading by one goal at the end of the final period, ours first allowed the score to be equalized, and then lost in extra time. In the end, the match went to a penalty shootout, but before that we had a psychological advantage. During the game, Fedotov saved five penalties; in the end, the Croats, to deprive him of the chance to save their shots, twice hit the crossbar. We won on penalties and advanced to the final against Spain, which in the other semifinal took revenge on Serbia and also reached the main match of the championship.

In the world championship final, the Russians were close to the title, leading by periods 2:1, but the fourth period was lost, after which the Russians performed slightly worse in the penalty shootout. Spain are champions, the Russians made a strong return to the international arena, especially since our women's team also took third place in their tournament.

All water polo roads lead to Croatia

This summer, Croatia became one of the sports centers, successively hosting the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships and the World Junior Water Polo Championships in Zagreb. Now water polo has moved to Dubrovnik, attracting the attention of the local public, which is natural — they love this sport there. But in the current historical period, water polo players were also actively followed by a wide circle of fans. This was facilitated by the breakthrough nature of the Russian water polo community, which was the first of all team sports to return to the international arena, just as it happened 126 years ago. Let us recall that at the second Olympics in Paris in 1900, among the first to compete in team sports were footballers, rugby players in the classic 15-a-side format, and water polo players. The successively held World Cup, two championships: the U-16 World Championship in Croatia and the U-21 European Championship in Portugal — attracted the attention of the general public, beyond the simply authentic community of water polo fans. The Russian U-21 youth team with Sintez player Ivan Vasilyev (namesake and namesake of the world vice-champion) took fifth place in the world. And the U-16 juniors with a product of Kazan water polo, Said Khabibullin, won the second group of the European Under-21 championship.

The next stage of water polo competitions will be the Russian Spartakiad competitions in the city of Pervouralsk, Sverdlovsk Region. From September 15 to 20, women's teams will start, and from September 22 to 27, men will enter the competition.

After that, water polo fans will watch the qualifying round of the men's Champions League, and for Russians, the second-tier European cup — the Europe Cup — will be extremely important, where Russian teams will again return as participants.

Russian teams will return to participation in European cup tournaments

From October 9 to 11, Kazan's KOS-Sintez will face Italy's “Rari Nantes” from Savona, Greece's “Apollon Smyrnis," Serbia's “Partizan," and Germany's “Duisburg.” The weakest of this quartet appears to be the German opponent, one of the main teams of the German youth team, but in the context of water polo this does not look very serious. Another young team that Kazan can quite successfully compete with is Serbia's “Partizan.” Having lost a large number of leaders due to financial problems, the “Partisans” replenished their roster with reserves from the second team “Banijica.” The Bodiroga brothers, Canepa — they are all from there, as are the youth team players — Djokanovic, Neshkovic, Papic. And this “young gang," which fought for medals at this summer's Youth European Championship, may be dangerous or not so dangerous for the super-experienced Kazan club. How it goes, as they say.

Savona with “Apollon” are the two opponents who will definitely fight with KOS-Sintez for the two tickets to the next round. We played against the American Marco Vavic from Savona in the 4x4 format, and three more representatives of Savona won the Mediterranean Games this summer as part of the national team — Gullotta, Occhione, and one of the Condemi brothers — Andrea Condemi.

The Italians even had Valerio Rizzo and Pietro Figlioli in last year's roster, 42-year-old masters whom we remember from the times when we ourselves competed on the international arena. Just like 36-year-old Marco Del Lungo. And the Greek “Apollon Smyrnis” is a team that Sintez even met during one of their unsuccessful forays into European cups. They started confidently, after which the Greeks outplayed us and did not let us into the next round. In last year's Greek roster were the Serb Bogdanovic, the American Daube, and 35-year-old veteran Marios Kapotsis, and these are serious opponents in themselves.

Perhaps it was precisely for the European starts that KOS-Sintez carried out a reset of the roster, strengthening it with goalkeeper Pyotr Fedotov and Konstantin Sheikin from Volgograd's Spartak, players of the national teams, both in the 4x4 format and classical. Fedotov replaced Igor Chirkov, who left for the Georgian championship, the “Sport Management” team, led by Dmitry Stratan.

By the way, we note that Fedotov and Sheikin at the Spartakiad tournament will have to play for the Volgograd Region team, since this tournament relates to the past season. Whether Chirkov will play for us is a big question.