Long weekend of excellent water polo. @AmateurDad Thank you for the updates; it was great to sit next to another American and watch such high-level play. The best improvement to watching water polo in Europe has to be the drinks cart right outside the pool.
The finals are set: CN Barcelona vs. Szeged. Both reached the last stage with upsets, but the level among the top four teams is roughly equal.
Just to calibrate the level: CNAB, which at Quicksilver won handily against the Beast Boys, is now playing for 9th against Mladost (Croatia). Brunswick lost 13–6 to Mladost in the 9th–12th semifinal. It wasn’t Brunswick’s finest game, but it was another learning experience against a different style of water polo. Overall, Brunswick has performed extremely well against some of the best teams in Europe, with a one-goal loss (11–12) to Sabac (Serbia), a close 7–9 match against Sabadell (Spain), and a 13–6 win over Onda Forte (Italy). Tomorrow, Brunswick will play its last game against another Italian team, Monza, for 11th–12th place.
Each country and team has its own style of water polo. If I had to point out the key difference between the USA and Europe, it would be shooting ability. The quickness, positioning, accuracy, and vertical of the top shooters (two or three on each team) is unmatched even by the best U.S. high school players. A close second is man-up/man-down (6x5 & 5x6) play. It’s clear that every pass is deliberate, the players are following structured plays, and they’ve drilled them hundreds of times.
As AmateurDad mentioned, we’ll likely see some of these European players in the NCAA soon. Without a doubt, the more our players compete with Europeans starting at a young age, not just in college or occasionally through the national team pipeline, the better it will be for U.S. development.
As a last note, USA has still have a representative in the medal match 3/4, Bern Kent (SFWPC) in a gap year playing with UVSC. Good luck tomorrow.
This is defiantly the last note, there were American players in their gap year, improving their skills and adventuring in Europe across several teams: UVSC (Bern Kent), Seville (Noah Castillo, CT Premier), BWIPA, etc. I don’t know how they got connected to the various teams and hope they had a good experience. If you are reading this note, I think many HS players with aspirations beyond HS and even potentially beyond college would very much like to learn more from your experience. WPEX is a great place to share your lessons with others and help the community.