After a tense, hard-fought match, the Hungarian women’s national water polo team settled for silver at the European Championship in Funchal, narrowly losing 15–13 on penalties to the defending champion Netherlands in Thursday’s final.
Prior to this, the Hungarian national team had last finished second in 2003, when they suffered a 6–5 defeat against Italy in the final in Ljubljana. The Hungarians last played in a final ten years ago, also against the Dutch, but on that occasion they won 9–7. A further parallel is that at the European Championship ten years ago the two teams also met in an earlier stage of the tournament: then the Netherlands won 14–10, and this time in Madeira they prevailed 5–4.
After 1985, 1987, 1989, 1995, and 2003, the Hungarian team has now become European Championship silver medalists for the sixth time.
Sándor Cseh, head coach of the Hungarian national team, noted a few mistakes but was completely satisfied with his team’s performance in the final and throughout the entire tournament. “The first sentence has to be that I congratulate the girls and that I am incredibly proud,” he began his summary to MTI a few minutes after the Hungarian team lost to the defending champion in the final.
I dare say that this team could not have given more at this European Championship. We could have been gold medalists as well, but that did not depend on how the girls played or what they put into it. And that is the important thing.”
Photo: MTI/Szigetváry Zsolt
Alongside the praise, he highlighted that there were one or two mistakes. “In the last quarter we conceded two goals very quickly one after the other; we drifted a bit in the middle. You cannot do that in matches like this. You have to be much tougher in the airspace in front of the goal — we cannot concede goals like that. And our final attack… in a European Championship final, with the score tied, the shot clock cannot run out without us putting the ball into the center if we cannot create a shooting opportunity. We should have been more aggressive there.”
Photo: MTI/Szigetváry Zsolt
At the same time, he emphasized that if those are taken away, then he is “basically one hundred percent satisfied.”
This is how it turned out now. I no longer believe in coincidences; we hope that we still have room to improve, and that we will win in the future,”
he added.
Goalkeeper Szonja Golopencza. Photo: MTI/Szigetváry Zsolt
The two teams also met in the intermediate round, where the Dutch won 5–4.
“This time we moved the ball much better than in the previous match, there were far more penetrations on both sides. What we learned from the earlier game, we applied — they could not force our attacks to just one side. Overall, I was satisfied with all of that. Those two quick goals in the fourth quarter should not have happened; then maybe we could have pulled the match off by one goal,” he said.
The Hungarian national team has now played in the final of a major tournament for the third time in a row: last April they lost to the Greeks in the final match of the World Cup Super Final, then in July they were defeated by Greece once again in the World Championship final, and now they were beaten in a very tight contest. Just about two weeks ago, the Hungarian men’s national team also won silver at the European Championship in Belgrade.
Via MTI, Featured image: MTI/Szigetváry Zsolt
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