As planned, Spain, the new European champions, overcame South Africa, one of the weakest teams in the world championship, which they defeated 5-21.
David Martín's team had a placid debut, as planned. The European champions took action in the pool, distributed playing minutes and were barely able to test game systems against one of the smaller rivals in the world concert.
Spanish coach David Martín told EFE that this type of match "always goes well to enter the competition." "I used the match so that the players had their minutes, we took measurements of the pool, regulated the swimming... but we already knew that South Africa was not going to be a rival," admitted the Barcelona coach.
His idea is to refine from now on. "Croatia is the group game and Australia won't be easy at all. It was a game to get into the competition, but we don't have to obsess over the Croatia game either. It doesn't matter what happens, the important thing is the second week," he said. "It is also good to enter competition without this stress of risking everything, it is good for us to go little by little. Gain confidence," the coach insisted.
It took 52 seconds for Álvaro Granados, Zagreb's hero, to score his first goal and Spain had a 0-5 run, ended with a penalty scored by Swanepoel. At the end of the first quarter, everything was already decided (1-6).
Without Alberto Munárriz and Roger Tahull, who were the discards today; the bet from then on was a defensive exercise. Edu Lorrio's goal was reduced to zero in the second quarter. The Sabadell goalkeeper had stopped seven of the eight shots taken by the South Africans, only conceding a penalty; South African Lwazi Madi conceded all thirteen shots received.
Meanwhile, in attack, as soon as Spain began to swim in transitions, the goals began to fall. At halftime the effectiveness of David Martín's team reached 87% percent (13/15), after a 7-0 run in eight minutes for a 13-1 lead at halftime.
Unai Aguirre was the Spanish goalkeeper in the second half. Spain continued with tests, without forcing the situation, and looking for unusual actions in games at another level.
The third quarter score was 4-0, with goals from Unai Biel, Fran Valera, Alejandro Bustos and Blai Mallarach to make it 17-1. In the end, Spain took their foot off the accelerator and won 21-5 after a 4-4 partial in the last quarter.
Their next match (Wednesday, 17:00 CET) will be something else, a repeat of the last European final against Croatia.
5 - Sudáfrica: Madi (May); Mayman (-), Wheeler (-), Laurenson (-), Howard (-), Stone (-), Van Zyl (3), Tucker (-), Faber (-), Swanepoel (2, 1p), Neill (-) y Rademeyer (-).
21 - Spain: Lorrio (Unai Aguirre); Granados (4), Sanahuja (1), De Toro (3), Larumbe (1p), Famera (-), Cabanas (1), Perrone (2), Mallarach (2), Bustos (2), Biel (4) and Valera (1).
Referees: Salnichenko (KAZ) and Cheng (SGP). No eliminated.
Partials: 1-6, 0-7, 0-4, 3-3.
Incidents: First match of the men's water polo tournament played at the Aspire Dome. Group A.
