Yes-drawing kick outs is important-but being an actual offensive threat is far more important-and that’s what we see in Hallock. You need a center that draws players to him, leaving the shooters with some space. Right now, the team does not have that. Just like we all want a strong lefty, we need 2 strong centers. Centers that can shoot, do lay outs, play smart and tactically.-and not just utility players thrashing around in hopes of a kick out.
They were phenomenal at u20s.
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Anybody know why the quarterfinals are not available to watch on the World Aquatics website? Is there another link / site to watch?
Everything is on Peacock you can watch game replays on there as well.
Don’t you think if Dejan wanted them there they’d be there? Just saying.
Yes, obviously. That’s what people are wondering about - his decision process re: centers, or should I say his “lack of centers”.
Not sure what confused you.
Not sure if anyone watched the Men’s semis today. Peacock had them live with great commentary by Tony and the British play-by-play guy.
Exciting games between Greece-Spain and Serbia-Hungary that both went down to the wire.
I would highly recommend watching the replays. (On Peacock too.)
The Greece Spain game was crazy. The intensity and drama in it is why we play. Highly recommend watching the replay
Just watched both Semi Final games on Peacock. Both great games, 2 complete different styles of play. Was super impressed with the Greeks and see them as a huge favorite for the next couple of years. Great goalie, centers, shooters with Kostas Genidounious still absolutely dominating and serving as their captain.
Congratulations to Spain for winning the gold medal, beating Hungary 15-13 in the championship game. Greece beat Serbia 16-7 to win the bronze medal.
The United States lost to Italy 9-8 in the 7th place game. Since Dejan Udovicic became the men’s senior national team coach in May 2013, the United States has finished no higher than 7th in the World Championships:
2013 - 9th
2015 - 7th
2017 - 11th
2019 - 7th
2022 - 8th
2023 - 7th
2025 - 8th
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Spain was very impressive in this tournament. A well-deserved championship and an incredible exclamation point on the end of the career of one of the sport’s greatest ever - Felipe Perrone. Will definitely miss watching him play.
Having now won both the men’s senior World Championship and the men’s U20 junior World Championship this summer, Spanish water polo appears to be in a very good place.
It seems safe to say we will never see a player like Felipe Perrone again. However, his nephew, Tomas Perrone (one of the best players on the Spanish team that just won the 20u World Championships), is part of Cal’s stellar incoming class.
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Yes, he will be fun to watch!
What would Kirk do without Spain? 
(*And Greece)
Watching the US mens team this tournament, I don’t see any of the newcomers really wowing (ex: Ryder Dodd last cycle) and replacing Hooper, Bowen, and Cupido.
Hopefully Hallock comes back and all we need is to get another center (Schneider or Castillo). Assuming Herzer is the new backup goalie.
Hallock is a very seasoned international center, the two centers at U20 are coming off a freshman college year, Given time they should grow and finish more.
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Famed coach and former USA men’s coach, Ratko Rudic, was interviewed regarding the recent World Championships. He speaks on the Croatian team performance specifically but also shares some thoughts on the tournament in general, the new rules, and the officiating. Below is a Google Translate copy of the article:
A little less than two weeks have passed since the end of the Senior World Championships in Singapore. The impressions are slowly settling, the national team members and staff members are currently on vacation, but that does not mean that the preparations for Singapore and the games there will not be analyzed and evaluated more closely over time. First, of course, through the reports of the coach Ivica Tuck, and then the position, the opinion of the Expert Committee of the Croatian Water Polo Federation.
Before the official part, we were interested in hearing the preliminary opinion of the president of the Croatian Water Polo Association’s Expert Committee, an experienced expert, coach for decades and member of the World Aquatics Hall of Fame, Ratko Rudić.
We ‘hosted’ the former Barakud coach in our “Under 2 Meters” column, and the most decorated water polo coach in the world first emphasized…
Solid tournament
– Of course, we went to Singapore with slightly higher aspirations than what we ultimately achieved when it comes to placing, but I have to say that we played a very solid tournament – Ratko Rudić said at the beginning.
– We had one bad game at a time when it matters, in the quarter-finals, and that is the moment that either ‘pushes’ you into the fight for a medal or lower. However, all in all, I would say that we had an acceptable performance. Yes, we could have had a better result, but that can simply happen in a tournament, a competition. Sometimes a game ends the way it did for us in the aforementioned game. However, what I think is important and what should be emphasized is that we still showed that we have the strength, organization, play and players. We wanted a high ranking, but it is also true that this cannot always be achieved. I still think that it is important that we were and remained among the world’s top. That is important.
A large number of goals
The World Championship in Singapore was also the first senior competition at the highest level, which was organized according to modified rules of the game. Could this information also have partially influenced the result, or the final standings and 5th place of the Croatian national team?
– The rules and the shortened playing field, in my opinion, I’m not saying that they influenced the result, but they left an image that I personally don’t like very much. My opinion. We saw what the results were, especially between two great national teams, battles for medals and the like. Many of them ended with a large goal difference, and I don’t remember when before, in the last 30-40 years, they ended in a way where someone lost by 7 or 8, even 9 points. That’s how much Serbia lost to Greece for the bronze medal, for example. I don’t think that’s good for water polo in general.
The fact is, there were matches with a lot of goals or with a large goal difference, but also matches that ended with some ‘usual’ results for our sport. We are thinking, for example, of the semi-final Spain – Greece (7:7, then five-pointers) or our group matches (Croatia – Montenegro 13:11 and Croatia – Greece 10:9).
– There were such truths, but I still think more of those with too large a difference. In my opinion, this is unacceptable and something that has never happened before. Previously, when we lost by 3-4 points, it was remembered, and today, games are usually won or lost by that or a larger difference.
Refereeing criteria
After every major competition, the play of the team and individuals is analyzed, but what is your assessment of the second segment – the referees?
– My opinion is that the refereeing was generally below the level it should be for such a major competition. The greater number of actions also caused a greater number of refereeing errors. I am not saying that the referees made mistakes that would then have helped someone or that they influenced the result. This is not because these errors were somehow distributed correctly so that they did not influence the results. I do not have exact statistics yet, but I have the impression that there were a greater number of refereeing errors, and that it was not at the level expected. I would not even talk about rule changes here, but about refereeing certain situations that would be refereed regardless of the rules. For example, contact play, 2-meter refereeing. It was quite uneven.
Maybe the referees will also need a little more time to adapt to this changed water polo?
– Probably yes. I think we have lost a lot of the tactical part of water polo. I already have some statistics, so I know that, for example, there were far fewer goals scored from counterattacks, compared to previous world championships, major competitions. There were fewer goals from crosses, even fewer goals from shots from outside 6 meters, directly on goal. We lost a large part of the game. Of course, more goals were scored from situations with more players. The most important segment of the game has become that, player less or player more. In my opinion, there is still a lot that needs to be studied carefully, but some statistics indicate that this may not be the best direction we have chosen in water polo.
That’s what’s most important. In the first reactions of coach Tuck, our players, and even the media after the defeat by the Hungarians and at the end of the tournament in Singapore, the most common was that it was unfortunately ‘one bad day’. Can we leave it at that or do you have a different opinion? Did the Hungarians perhaps outsmart us in something, did we do something wrong? - You can really say that it was one bad day. That style of play that the Hungarians presented, they have always played that way. They didn’t have any tactical game before, but they were always aggressive. Even when I was a player, it was always rightly said that when the Hungarians take the lead by a few goals, it’s very difficult to stop them. Then they shoot from all their ‘weapons’ and that’s when you get into an awkward situation. What bothers me more is that we didn’t respond in a similar way, so to speak. Maybe that’s how we should respond, under the current rules. I repeat, that was one of our worse games, but all the others were very good.
Bronze youths
At the beginning of this summer, another world championship was held. The one in Zagreb, for the under-20s, and these are young men who are the direct successors of the current Barracudas. Some of them ended up on the wider list of coach Tuck already this summer for Singapore. At the beginning of the Olympic cycle, it looks like we have got, like we have several very interesting players for the new cycle. Do you agree?
– We have several players who are very promising, very usable, quality, and especially even in this shortened playing field and the new rules. It now depends on the sequence of things how much they will fit in and clearly, it is now primarily the decision of the coach himself how much he will use them, give them a chance. At least, I think they will get a chance at some point.