An unusual month for water polo, an even more unusual place - in the wealth of Doha, in the heart of the desert, the World Championship begins today.
For the ninth time, Montenegro will also be a part of the biggest planetary water polo story - this time, dreams of medals will be on the back burner, now everyone is thinking only about Paris and the Olympic rounds.
Our country's water polo players open the World Cup at 15.30:32 p.m. against the United States of America, and already after the first XNUMX minutes, it will be clearer whether the "sharks" will "swim" through calmer waters for the Olympics or whether they will have a more difficult journey.
"We know what the World Cup brings us - the goal is to qualify for the Olympic Games and we will give everything to win it," said Vlado Popadić, defender of Montenegro, from Qatar.
In addition to the Americans, Serbia and Japan are also in group C with the "sharks", and why today's match is so important is best explained by the company from group D, with which it will meet in the knockout phase - Italy, Hungary, Romania and Kazakhstan.
The first-placed selections from each group go directly to the quarterfinals, while the second and third in the standings will end up in the playoffs, so a possible failure in today's duel with the USA could push Vladimir Gojković's men to the third position, thus also a duel with Italy or Hungary. in the playoffs.
In that case, the quarterfinals, which practically means going to Paris, would be much more complicated.
"With a win, it would be much easier for us to go to the continuation of the tournament and to the matches against Serbia and Japan. However, we are going match by match - now we only think about the Americans. We know that the stakes are high and what each duel brings, and we are going for a triumph so that we can later have an easier crossing in to the knockout phase," Popadić explained.
It won't be easy even today, the United States of America has long been a serious water polo team, with trophy-winning coach Dejan Udovicic and players who are important assets of their clubs in the Champions League.
"They are covered in all positions," emphasized coach Vladimir Gojković. "There are players who play in good clubs. They have dominant points around which they base their game, but I believe we have the quality to play with them. We have analyzed them, prepared and hope for a good outcome".
The World Cup in Doha arrives only twenty days after the European Championship in Croatia.
"I think we made the most of the period we had - we did the recovery and raised our form. It has to be like that, because the group is strong and the first game is very important. I believe we did everything as well as possible and I hope we can transfer that to the pool already at the start of the competition," concluded Gojković.
Four tickets to Paris are waiting in Doha - apart from Montenegro, Croatia, Serbia and Italy are also chasing them from the stronger world teams.
GROUP C, schedule
Today
Japan - Serbia (14.00:XNUMX p.m.)
Montenegro - USA (15.30:XNUMX p.m.)
Wednesday
USA - Japam (10.00am)
Montenegro - Serbia (11.30:XNUMX a.m.)
Friday
Montenegro - Japan (7.00:XNUMX a.m.)
Serbia - USA (15.30:XNUMX p.m.)
GROUP A, 1st round
South Africa - Spain 5:21
Croatia - Australia (11.30:XNUMX a.m.)
GROUP B, 1st round
China - Greece 6:24
Brazil - France (ongoing)
GROUP D, 1st round
Italy - Kazakhstan (17.00:XNUMX)
Romania - Hungary (18.30:XNUMX p.m.)
Bonus video:
