Introductory polo: Russian women entered the elite division of the World Cup
The Russian women's water polo team won the World Cup Second Division final, beating China with a score of 18:17. Our team scored the winning goal four seconds before the siren, securing victory in the tournament and promotion to the first division of the competition. This victory was the first at the official level in team sports since 2021, when the Russian national beach soccer team became the world champion.
The path to the superfinal
If the men competed in a neutral status at their World Cup a couple of weeks ago, the girls came to Malta with a flag and an anthem. Moreover, we do not have any other adult teams in game sports, even in a neutral status: water polo players are unique. And the chance for the title appeared at the very first tournament after the amnesty.
The title, of course, is not much — there is a qualifying tournament within the framework of the Water Polo World Cup, and Russia is logically making its way out of the second division, which has three times fewer tickets to the final than in the first. But the flag is raised, they are honored as winners — fishless and such an achievement is definitely fish.
After scolding all the competitors on the way to the finals, Sergey Markoch's wards have already secured a ticket to the decisive part in Australia. In the final with China, victory in the overall tournament was played out — and a place in the first division for the next year. The results and the level of the suspended national team speak for themselves.:
Russia – Argentina — 33:11;
Russia – Germany — 26:4;
Russia – South Africa — 27:5;
Russia – Brazil — 22:5;
Russia – Canada — 24:6.
With such results in the Maltese basin, our people could already smell gold, not just bleach.
A difficult ending
But China is a completely different story. This team has participated in all the recent Olympic Games, was the vice-world champion in 2011, and European specialists work there — the head coach from Spain, Miguel Oca.
Therefore, here the struggle immediately began in full force. The Chinese women threw a beautiful canopy from seven meters in the third minute. In response, Vladislav Nechaeva worked at the "pillar" position — she scored the second goal without looking, surrounded by five Chinese women climbing on her. There were a lot of beautiful heads, which is only worth the "parachute" performed by Bella Marcoc. It was a truly international match that the Russian fans missed.
The first quarter ended with a score of 4:3 — a few seconds before the siren, the Russians earned a penalty and made the most of Maria Makarova's efforts. However, the advantage remained minimal: the opponents defended well and did not allow creating a large number of dangerous moments. At the same time, by the end of the eight-minute period, both teams were operating at high speeds and actively pressuring each other.
A miracle from Savchenko
Fortunately, the Chinese women let us counterattack too often, and we didn't have to carry them around the perimeter. But then Qin Yang joined the game, and she pushed through our powerful defenders several times. The Russians "swam." China quickly caught up, and then during the second half there was a shootout — none of the teams gained an advantage of more than a goal. Our men were dragged by veteran Ekaterina Prokofieva. According to Sergey Markoch, Chinese women are judges. He even got a yellow card for arguing with them.
The match turned into a classic endgame, where each team had an attack at the end. The Chinese took a time-out and did not realize their own. The Russians had a slim chance — they had exactly 4 seconds left to play. But our time-out just helped: the opponents were dragged deep, and Daria Savchenko just swam three meters from the center line and fired. Scoring one of the most beautiful and definitely the most important goal of the tournament.
Russia is back! And yet how. Now we're going to greedily catch up on all the things we've missed out on over the years.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
