venerdì 9 gennaio 2015

Hungary men’s competition winter review

Summer 2014 was packed with international water polo with 3 major tournaments inside 4 months time.
Compared to 2013, where the Hungarians took the gold in Barcelona at the World Championships, it cannot be denied that 2014 was a slight disappointment. At the European Championships in Budapest, the home team was top favourite and also seemed to head straight for gold with back to back victories all the way to the final.
However, just as in the Dubai 2013 World League Super Final, Serbia put a stop to the Hungarian march and scooped up the gold in front of almost 7,000 Hungarian fans. One month later in Kazan, at the World Cup, the 2 giants once again met in the final but once again Serbia peaked at the right moment.
Head coach Tibor Benedek admitted that his team fell short to the mentally superior Serbians, but still highlighted the great achievement of reaching 3 major finals with rivals such as Croatia, Italy, Montenegro, and Spain biting the dust.
 


After only 3 weeks of holiday the superstars head back to their domestic clubs to join the rest of their team in the domestic competition preparation. Over the summer there had been many changes in personnel involving almost all teams in the league. The most spectacular moves happened at Eger, Szolnok, and OSC.

After the departure of György Gerendás from Eger and the takeover by Norbert Dabrowski, many players of the 2013/2014 squad did not agree with the new mentality and direction in which the club wanted to go. This led to a major migration of no less than 6 players, including Barcelona gold medal winners Miklós Gór-Nagy, Bence Bátori, and Canadian national team captain Kevin Graham, from Eger to OSC where A-Híd were investing heavily to bring glory back to Budapest. Despite the domestic success that Gerendás had achieved with Eger, the club management and Dabrowski wanted to focus more on Europe and target mostly established stars to build their new super squad. Hungarian sweetheart Márton Szivós came from Szeged and Norbert Hosnyánszky from Szolnok. European champion with Serbia, Milos Cuk, joined the team and Balázs Erdélyi returned to his city of birth after a record breaking run in USA. 

“Our goals before this season were to reach the finals of the Hungarian championship and qualify for the Champions League Final 6 in Barcelona. Halfway through the season we still believe in these goals. Domestically it will probably come down to us and OSC in the semifinal. Szolnok is the strongest team, but we are working hard to beat them when it is really needed. Internationally we had an extraordinary loss against Pro Recco but we still have a chance to qualify. We need to win all our home games and then take some points away from Brescia, Olympiakos, and Kragujevac. The Champions League is the hardest club water polo competition in the world and we are training even in the holidays to be prepared for those games.” (Balázs Erdélyi) 
With these new additions, among several others, Eger was hoping to combine domestic and European glory this season.



Credit: Egrivizilabda.hu.

Although the raid of OSC at Eger definitely caught the eye, the transfers that really turned heads happened in Szolnok. With newly found investors the team in south-east Hungary had been building a championship challenging squad for several years already and came very close in 2013/2014 losing the play-off final to Eger.
This season Szolnok was hoping to add the final pieces of the puzzle and was aiming as high as possible.
No other than 2008 Olympic champions Dániel and Dénes Varga (2013 World Player) touched down in Szolnok after completing 4 years in Croatia at Primorje Rijeka. 
“The first few games were strange for us. There is a lot of new talent and some older stars have retired. It has been 4 years since we moved to Croatia and the Adriatic league, and the Hungarian style is very different. In Croatia tactics are more based on defense and Hungarian teams use more improvisation and have a more attacking mentality. This season the Hungarian league is the strongest in the world. Other leagues have maximum 3 strong teams and then a big hole. In Hungary there is a group of 5 to 7 almost equal teams in the mid-table who are able to put up a good fight against the top teams. With Szolnok we want to be the number one but we know that the season is long and then the play offs will be the climax. We want to continue to improve and then reach our peak. The timing is vital. We will work hard because this team has a lot of potential, but our opponents also know this.” (Dániel Varga) 


As if this wasn’t enough, Pro Recco fan favorite Norbert Madaras was returning home and also signed for Szolnok. Add to this Hungary national team goalie Viktor Nagy, who was released by Szeged, and mix it with Stefan Mitrovic, Zivko Gocic, and Milan Aleksic, and you have one of the strongest, and most talented squads in the world of water polo.

Credit: Facebook \ Szolnok.

The players moving from Eger to OSC had a major impact. But 6 do not make a team yet. OSC had to look at other players and options as well to create a genuine championship contender. To great regret of the Vasas fan base, Montenegrin veteran Drasko Brguljan left the 2012 champions to join the OSC project. Ádám Decker came over from Szeged together with Gábor Hegedűs and to finish up New-Zealand’s powerful center forward Joseph Kayes came back to Hungary after one year absence.
Among the ex-Eger players is goalkeeper Dávid Bisztritsányi. “Bisztro” was a standout goalie for Eger since his rise to the top that pushed veteran Zoltán Szécsi out of the team and has been a key figure for OSC this season so far as well. Although Tibor Benedek still seems to favorite Szolnok’s Viktor Nagy and Attila Decker, Bisztritsányi has slowly been closing the gap with the 2 national team goalies and could possibly be ready for his final push in 2015. 
“The teams at the top are very close. Szolnok is the strongest on paper, but Eger is almost as good as well. The team that finishes top of the table has a big advantage in the semifinal so we try to win all our games. It was hard for us to be knocked out of the Champions League. I believe we are a better team than Zvezda, Mladost, or Kragujevac, but we were unlucky with the draw. We played well against Szolnok and then again in the Hungarian Cup final. Our first 3 quarters were very good but that is not enough against them. We can still improve on a lot of things and then with a little more luck everything is possible.” (Dávid Bisztritsányi)

 


Credit: Facebook / OSC.

Altogether, the top of Hungarian domestic water polo was getting very crowded again!
With 3 clear top favorites for the play offs in 2015, several teams were hoping to squeeze in 4th place to join Eger, Szolnok, and OSC at the top of the table. Best papers looked to be in Budapest with Honvéd (last year’s number 4), FTC, and BVSC.  Of these 3, Honvéd was the least active on the transfer market during preseason. Some players left, and some new players joined, but nothing huge. Most eye-catching was without a doubt the departure of 2 time Olympic champion and captain István Gergely who ended his active career and continued behind the scenes at Honvéd. 


“I had imagined the change to the Honvéd coaching staff to be more difficult. It is good that I had some experience already at the national team. The teams are different and the level as well but it takes a lot of work to move things forward in water polo, regardless of the stage or role. This means I still work with the same energy as team manager, as I did as a goalie. The days are so busy that I do not even have time to think back about my active career. It is important for us to build a team in the coming years with young talent that is prepared to stay at Honvéd and we will try to do this without losing our identity as a club. This season the competition is very strong with OSC, Szolnok, and Eger standing out. However, the outcome of a game is not just about the names on the sheet. Honvéd relies on the collective of the team and characters that are willing to fight for each other. Still, we will need some luck to be able to put these teams under pressure.” (István Gergely)


To replace Gergely future star goalie Márton Lévai was signed from Szolnok. 3-time Olympic gold medalist, and current captain, Gergely Kiss is still going strong though. The 37-year old is working on another productive season with 18 goals under his name already and states that he definitely has 1 or 2 more good seasons left in him. “Our goal this season is the same as last year, to develop young talent and be in the top 4. We have only lost against Szolnok, Eger, and OSC. They have stronger back up behind the scenes and a better team on paper but I believe we can be right behind them on 4th place.” (Gergely Kiss) 

BVSC and FTC were a lot livelier. Both teams were aiming to close the gap with Honvéd and possibly even surpass their neighbor rival already. Further down the rankings Szeged, Vasas, Kaposvár, PVSK, and DVSE were expected to fight to complete the top 8. At the bottom of the table there were KSI, Szentes, and UVSE. UVSE had replaced YBL as 14th team in the league and were certainly aiming for a better run than their successors who had not been able to win a single game in the regular competition last season.
  

With all teams ready to go the competition kicked off on October 7 with round 1 and 13 weeks later the first “half” of the season was completed with round 11 on December 20.

It is everybody’s game!
After a couple weeks it was already clear this was going to be a competition with many faces. At the top were Szolnok, OSC, and Eger. Although Eger did run into unexpected loss of points in round 2 due to a draw away against UVSE, they recovered in later games and eventually finished the first the year strong. Right below the top 3 are FTC and Honvéd. Not surprisingly, the 2 teams from Budapest have been the “best of the rest” and are also likely to battle for 4th place in 2015. The 2 also met in the quarterfinals of the Hungarian Cup where each team picked up a large victory with Honvéd eventually on the winning end with a better goal difference. They are yet to meet in the competition and much will depend on this game in round 13.
One team that was predicted to also mix in this fight, BVSC, has not been living up to the hype so far. Despite the additions over the summer, the team is struggling and has constantly been on the losing end of close games. Currently in shared 6th place with Kaposvár, DVSE, Vasas, and Szeged - they are 12 points behind number 5 Honvéd and are not likely to return in the top 4 picture unless some serious changes happen. Evident to the equality of the mid-table competition is the fact that 5 teams share the number 6 spot with 12 points each from 11 games. The differences between these teams are minimal. Anyone can beat anyone and the games often finish with only 1 or 2 goals difference. This has anyway been a trend. From 77 games that have been played in the first 11 rounds of the competition, 31 finished with only 2 or less goals between winning and losing. Especially FTC appears to have become close game specialists with 7 of their 11 games leaving their opponent only 1 or 2 goals short.


Credit: Fradi.hu.

Further down the ladder we indeed find UVSE, KSI, PVSK, and Szentes in 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th place respectively. The debut /return of UVSE on the grand stage has been very successful so far. With victories against Kaposvár, PVSK, BVSC, and a draw in round 2 against top favorites Eger - the 26 time Hungarian champion (last time in 1995) has collected 10 points and is pushing the top 8. Despite the absence of several years, they are still one of the top fan favorites and will definitely aim to cause more upset in 2015.
Last year YBL finished the regular season without a single victory and Szentes was in danger of going into that same direction this season. On the last game day of the year they finally managed a win against PVSK, who have been slightly disappointed especially considering the return of Károly Czigány. It has given the number last of the league a little more perspective going into 2015 where they will be hoping to grab a few more wins and climb 1 or 2 places.
In between, the Hungarian Cup provided opportunity for the top teams to get their hands on the first trophy of the 2014/2015 season. 2011, 2012, and 2013 cup winner Szeged was eliminated early by Szolnok and Honvéd, OSC, Eger, and Szolnok then powered through to the finals on the weekend of December 6 and 7. Szolnok and OSC finally met in the super final after disposing of their opponents. Only 2 weeks earlier both teams had already met in the Champions League qualification round 3 as well where Szolnok secured qualification at home in Leg 2 after Leg 1 in Budapest had finished in a draw (11-11). OSC was determined to take revenge and grab their first trophy in 36 years. However, Szolnok has been at a different level so far this season and the same was evident in the cup final. Winning the cup certainly was one of the goals, but the real targets lay in 2015 with the domestic competition and Champions League according to head coach Sándor Cseh.


Credit: www.vizilabda-szolnok.hu.

Eger carried protected status for Champions League qualification and was patiently awaiting the teams to join them in the group stages. After Szolnok had qualified the teams were mixed with 10 other contenders from the other European competitions. Either team will look back at the first 2 rounds of the Champions League with different feelings. Szolnok looked superior in their match against Rijeka, despite only winning by one goal, and then destroyed Hannover in Germany with 7-17. For Eger it was an entirely different story. The club had such high expectations for this competition after the poor results in previous seasons, that anything other than clear victories would be received as a disappointment. Carrying this pressure into the games against Barcelonetta and Pro Recco looked to have a negative impact on the team of Dabrowski. A point was collected in Barcelona, which on its own could still be seen as a decent result, but the game against the Italian record champion was a disaster.
Round 3 against current Italian league leaders Brescia is scheduled for January 14 and Eger will then look to bounce back and give their Champions League run some much needed perspective. A defeat in this game makes it very difficult for the defending Hungarian champion to still qualify for the top 6 in Barcelona later in 2015.
Can Szolnok continue their victory run? Will Honvéd overtake FTC for 4th place? Can Eger save their Champions League campaign? Can BVSC turn their luck around and rise above mid-table? From January 10 the competition will continue with round 12 and Waterpoloworld will be there to give answers to all of these questions!

Current league standings


Team
Games
Win
Draw
Loss
Points
GD
Szolnok
11
11
0
0
33
88
OSC
11
10
0
1
30
52
Eger
11
9
1
1
28
70
FTC
11
9
0
2
27
3
Honvéd
11
8
0
3
24
17
Kaposvár
11
4
0
6
12
-6
BVSC
11
4
0
6
12
-10
Szeged
11
4
0
6
12
-16
Vasas
11
4
0
6
12
-17
DVSE
11
4
0
6
12
-43
UVSE
11
3
1
7
10
-26
KSI
11
2
1
8
7
-24
PVSK
11
2
1
8
7
-28
Szentes
11
1
0
10
3
-60

Top scorers

Name Player
Club
Games Played
Goals
Támás Gyárfás
Vasas
11
29
Dénes Varga
Szolnok
11
26
Mátyás Pásztor
BVSC
11
26
Márton Szivós
Eger
11
25
Bence Bátori
OSC
11
23

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