“We can really beat them. We are going there for them...”, Anni Espar promised herself, on behalf of the aquatic warriors, to conspire against her most recurrent black beast: the intractable United States team, current world and Olympic champion. That promise from Espar was after the hurtful 11-6 in the final of the 2019 World Cup in Gwangju. That "there" to seek the best revenge was Tokyo, at the Olympic Games last year. But neither: Spain succumbed to another painful 14-5. There has been no way... Perhaps today, at the World Cup in Budapest, in a quarterfinal with a taste of the final.
In the pool of Margarita Island, in the middle of the Danube, the warriors have another opportunity today (4:00 p.m.) to take revenge that is already frozen, for so long that the Miki Oca players have it pending: nine years already, Since that magical night of the quarterfinals of the 2013 Barcelona World Cup at the Picornell, Spain has not beaten the USA. That 9-6 was the passport to gold, the only one.
Since then, nine years of defeats, almost one per season, in Games, the World Cup and the World League, with stinging goals (14-5 in the Tokyo final and 18-9 in the '21 World League, the two latest), which turn the pupils of Adam Krikorian into a nightmare.
Quite simply, this US team is unbeatable. Or practically: he has linked the last three Olympic golds (2012-21), the last three World Cups (2015-19) and the last seven World Leagues (2014-20)... But, curiously, he has had Miki's Spain in front of him Oca in 4 of the 6 world and Olympic finals.
So if any team can beat the US, it's Spain. “Complicated... but the team is fine”, comments to La Vanguardia Nani Guiu, technical director of water polo for the Catalan Federation and Catalan coach, who put the USA on the ropes (12-13) a year ago in Manresa. Granted, it was a friendly, preparatory for Tokyo, but the last quarter, a 7-2 for the Catalans (with 9 of the 13 for Oca), was the most embarrassing partial defeat suffered by Krikorian.
"If it had been in an official match it wouldn't have happened... but we stood up to them", Guiu rejects the comparison. "That was not a sign of anything", although in the US they played 8 of the current 13 and never lower the piston.
To try to beat this USA that swept the Netherlands in the group stage (11-7), Spain will have to play a perfect match. “They don't have any weak points, they have physically very powerful players, who demand a lot. We will have to trust, but when you have lost so many times... ”, Guiu analyzes.
For Oca, the recipe goes through “starting well and maintaining a very good level of play during the 32 minutes; They are a very powerful rival, who maintain a very high and constant pace throughout the match. So we will have to endure with a high tone and the head in maximum concentration”.
And cross your fingers so that the black panther under sticks, Ashleigh Johnson, does not have the day.
