“KOS-Sintez” became the sole leader of the Eurasian Water Polo League

Not a minute of peace

The imaginary wheel into which the strongest water polo players of “KOS-Sintez” fell — the first world championship in beach water polo in Croatia (Fedotov, Vasilyev, Pronin, Sheikin, Shepelev participated from us), the tournament of the Spartakiad of the Peoples of Russia, the return to the European arena, the start in the European Cup and the home round of the Eurasian Water Polo League championship — certainly should have knocked the physical strength out of the field players. To play without breaks from August 31 to October 18, having been in Zagreb, Pervouralsk, Athens and returning to Kazan — this is the strongest tension considering that the preparatory period began considerably earlier than the start of the tournaments.

How it was possible to reach peak form and hold it — this is a question for the rehabilitation doctors and Evgeny Yaroshchuk, since here the task stood of bringing to peak readiness not one or two athletes, but a whole collective. It is precisely with this aim that superclubs sometimes keep practically two equally interchangeable squads. On this topic we hope to talk with the coach of the water polo “KOS-Sintez” a little later, for example, at the national team's training camp, since it was important to work out the home round with an A plus and to unload psychologically a little. By the way, the Kazan team earned that very A plus without questions.

The confrontation with Astrakhan became the hardest

Changes in the regulations of the country's water polo championship, carried out under the aegis of the Eurasian Water Polo League, led to the fact that the participants of the European cups — Kazan and Volgograd — could not sacrifice a single match. If earlier in the Kazan team's history there were a not entirely successful regular championship and a victory in it based on the results of the playoffs, now the value of each point grows many times over. But the Kazan team looked brilliant and straight away rolled over Volgograd's “Spartak” like a steamroller 16:6. Further the game calendar took mercy, and one could catch one's breath a little in the game with the next opponent — MK SSHOR “Vostok” from Moscow 15:8. After which a match with an asterisk was again ahead, since the Astrakhan “Dynamo” had already firmly entered the number of leaders of Russian water polo.

Astrakhan, by the way, will most likely over time manage to accomplish the unthinkable for our sport, moving interest from football to water polo. Since the local “Volgar," even with such mastodons as Igor Kolyvanov and Alexander Podshivalov working in the coaching staff, does not shine at the level of the second league, while the water polo team is close to taking 2nd place in Russia. And it was precisely the confrontation with the Astrakhan team that turned out to be the most difficult for the Sintez players. To the overall victory 17:12 one had to go through a difficult period in the game, when the guests equalized the score 10:10 at the end of the third period. At this moment Roman Shepelev scored a goal that became the beginning of a rout in the final period 6:2.

In the penultimate game the Kazan team beat the hitherto undefeated St. Petersburg “Baltika” 25:13 and completed the home round with a calm victory over the first squad of Moscow — MK SSHOR “Vostok” — 16:10.

Much more interesting from the point of view of intrigue were the events in the trio of Astrakhan, Volgograd and St. Petersburg. The Astrakhan team was losing along the course of the match to Volgograd, but in this case they conducted a brilliant final stretch, winning both it with a score of 3:0 and the duel as a whole — 12:11.

Since in this trio victories were exchanged: Astrakhan over Volgograd, Volgograd over St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg over Astrakhan, the representatives of this trio are located in the tournament table very closely. The Dynamo and Spartak teams have 9 points each, the Baltic team — 8, since they won their St. Petersburg-Moscow derby only in a penalty shootout.

Hello, Conference Cup

Meanwhile Volgograd's “Spartak” starts in the qualifying tournament of the Conference Cup, preparing to perform in Greece, at the venue of the local “Panionios.” Besides the Volgograd team, in the group are the Croatian “Zagreb 1952," the German “Kannstatt 1898," and the Portuguese “Vitoria.” The holding of the matches is appointed from October 22 to 25. Based on the results of the group stage the three best teams from each group pass to the second qualification round. In 2014 the team under the leadership of Vladimir Karabutov won the European Cup — the second most significant club trophy of the continent, beating in the final by the sum of two meetings the Croatian “Mladost” (11:5 at home and 5:9 away). Of the composition of the winners in Volgograd there remained Stepan Andryukov, and four — Petr Fedotov and Sergei Lisunov, Nikolai Lazarev and Adel Latypov — now defend the colors of Kazan.

The Volgograd team's opponents have curious players in their rosters. The Serbs from “Partizan” Dimitrije Risticevic and Djordje Lazic are at “Panionios”; Konstantinos Gouvis, a former member of the national team, whose players are scattered across many teams of the Greek championship, in which 14 teams perform. “Zadar 1952," the figures in whose name indicate the year of the club's founding, is oriented toward local players, and only the goal is defended by a legionnaire from Canada, Brodie McKnight. There are very many Croatians in Canadian water polo, but the scouts of “Zadar” managed to find a player with British roots. The roster of the German club “Kannstatt 1898," which was formed back at the end of the 19th century, looks international, but the paradox is that both Dimitri Vasilyev and Tariel Khokhobashvili are Germans. And Arseny Pashkovsky is a Czech who in his youth combined water polo with hockey, playing in the team of HC “Letci” from the Prague district of Letnany.

The advantages of the starting European cup

Why may information about the third-ranked European water polo cup be interesting to anyone besides the fans of Volgograd and “KOS-Sintez," which starts in this tournament already at the group stage, where the Volgograd team still has to qualify? The thing is that this European cup can serve as a kind of “road map” for the other Russian sports. Now for our country there remain very few countries in Europe where one can enter visa-free. In the context of developing ties in water polo — these are only Serbia and Montenegro.

How participation in a tournament in a country where one needs to get a visa may be complicated can be read from the tribulations of the Russian gymnasts who are now performing at the world championship in Holland. But the water polo Conference Cup has an obvious advantage even over the Champions League and the European Cup. There the practice of matches of teams against each other on the principle of home and away is widespread. In the Champions League they play this way already from the start, in the European Cup from the round of 16. But Russian teams initially do not have such an option as a “home game.” No one will come to Russia, and one must look for neutral countries and cities in which one would need to play the so-called “home” match. In such a format sport has existed for several years in Israel and Ukraine, where sports officials look all over Europe for a place for the numerous national youth-junior teams and teams in all game sports.

But to the Russians hardly anyone would provide an arena for holding “home matches.” In this, by the way, will lie the main problem when representatives of the other game sports are allowed to return to the international arena, while the holding of matches in Russia remains under ban.

At the same time the Conference Cup is a tournament with the participation of teams weaker in level and richer in budgets. Therefore they hold all their matches on a group principle, including two quarterfinals and the “Final Four.” This is cheaper for the participants and much simpler for the Russians from the point of view of visa support and logistics. And the visit of the vice-president of World Aquatics, the Portuguese António Silva, to Kazan, which coincided with the holding here of the start of the Eurasian Water Polo League, directly demonstrates that the international federation is interested in the return of international starts to Russia.

And Volgograd, which won the Europe League in 2014, after which it suspended participation in European cup tournaments, and now has returned, and “KOS-Sintez," which 20 years ago won the LEN Trophy-2007, of course, have ambitions connected with the Conference Cup. And the Kazan team also has the example of CSKA and “Zenit," which won the UEFA Cup in 2005 and 2008, having earlier been knocked out of the group stage of the Champions League.