European Water Polo Championship 2010 in Croatia
This was the 29th European Water Polo Championship
, which was held in Croatia. It started on the 29th of August and finished on the 11th of September. The champion was, for the first time, Croatia, the hosts, having beaten Italy in the finals. The third place was won by Serbia who beat Hungary. The championship was entirely played on an open field pool on Sports Centre Mladost in Zagreb. This was somewhat a surprise, having a tournament in the open area, where you have no control over the weather, but that turned out to be not a big deal, the weather was fine throughout the tournament. There was a backup pool just beside that one, that was indoors and was only going to be used in cases of extreme weather problems, though it had less seating places for the fans. It was considered to put the pool in the newly constructed Arena stadium where the handball tournament was played not even two years ago, but the City of Zagreb would not help finance that project. It was a shame though, Mladost has only 4700 seats for the spectators, and Arena has 15000. And it would be full every time, because Croatia showed how much they love water polo, filling up the stadium every single game and cheering fanatically for their country.
Let us look at some of the basics of water polo. Each team has seven players, six in the field and a goalkeeper. The team can make substitutions of players when they have the ball in their possession, or when play is stopped. Substitutions in water polo are made in the corner of the pool next to their goal. The game is divided into quarters, the length of each depending on the competition, although it is usually 8 minutes. In water polo the game has many stops, due to many fouls that are present in this game. Some will only result in giving up the ball and backing away, but others, like too aggressive play, drowning someone or hitting him will result in an ejection. Each player has 3 ejections allowed, after that he cannot return to the game. Water polo is considered to be a very physically demanding game, each players swims about 3 kilometers during the four quarters. Who gets the ball at the beginning of each quarter is determined by fast swimming, racing to the ball that is in the middle of the field.
Here are the final standings of this European Water Polo Championship (men):1. Croatia 2. Italy 3.Serbia 4. Hungary 5. Montenegro 6. Germany 7. Romania 8. Spain 9. Greece 10. Turkey 11.Russia 12. Macedonia, and for the women: 1. Russia 2. Greece 3. Netherlands 4. Italy 5.Hungary 6. Spain 7. Germany 8. Croatia.
Croatia were among the favorites at the start of the tournament, being both hosts and very strong at water polo. There was also Montenegro, the defending champions, and Serbia, the world champions, which gave the best player of the tournament, Vanja Udovicic. The Croatians lost only one game, the very first game, against Montenegro, but after that their level of play rose up in every game, and eventually won them the title. They also gave the best goalkeeper of the tournament, Josip Pavic. Italy won the second place, which was kind of a surprise, and a great achievement for them. They lost twice from Croatia, once in the group stage and again in the final, both times being completely beaten by the Croats, who showed some excellent water polo. The defending champions, Montenegro, may have been the disappointers of the tournament, having only won 5th place.
It was a great water polo tournament, the hosts making a huge effort to make everyone feel welcome. The crowd was excellent as well, cheering wonderfully for their team every game. There was some concern that due to the political past of the countries in this region there would be some problems on the stadium, like it does in other sports, but no major problems were recorded. Thankfully. It was a great tournament with lots a great moves, goals and saves, and lots of sports behavior. In the end, the LEN flag was handed over by Zagreb to the representatives of Eindhoven, Netherland, the hosts of the 2012
European Water Polo Championship. European Water Polo Championship 2010 in Croatia
By: Mislav
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