After Defeating Spain, Montenegro Faces Team USA
In the World League Super Final at Nis, Serbia, Montenegro is the dominating team that simply will not permit any other water polo team to defeat them. As the defending champions, their goal is simply to pulverize each one of their opponents; an aim that has been successfully managed so far.
As the leader of Group A, which contains the United States, China, and Spain, Montenegro did not spare any country. Their confrontation with Spain, World’s No. 2, was no exception. The unfortunate Spaniards had been, just the previous day, crushed by the Americans 7-3: a surprising outcome. The Spaniards' score was less embarrassing, however, against Montenegro, who won 11-7.
Montenegro had won against China the day before with an impressive score of 16 – 4, reducing their opponent’s confrontation to nothing more than a training match, instead of a competition. It was a difficult blow for the Chinese, which will be facing the Spaniards next.
Unfortunately, Spain's star, Guillermo Molina, was not able to efficiently defend his country against the aggressive Montenegro offensive during the match. Even if he is quite an experienced player, Molina, who started his professional water polo career at the age of seventeen, was simply overcome.
Molina played at first for Spain in order to replace Pedro Garcia, a four-time Olympian and two-time medalist, taking over his right-handed driver position. Molina won the 2001 World Championships in Japan, reaching both the semi-finals and final matches by a 4-2 count.
In 2007, Molina scored eighteen goals at the World Championships in Australia and brought the bronze medal back to his homeland after the Beijing Olympic Games. During the Olympic final, Molina scored five goals during the regulation and shoot-out time against Serbia, which ended the match 18-17. Molina was named the MVP player of the tournament by the media, when he returned to Spain. Lately, the Spaniard has changed positions in order to play at the two-meter defence, developing a very precise shot and a deceptive release.
Spain was not able to be resurrected to its former glory against Montenegro, which simply appear to be invincible this year. It is an excellent team with players that have a history of major events participation. One of these players is Draško Brguljan, who was part of the Montenegro Men’s national team in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, where they reached the semi-finals. Montenegro was then defeated by Serbia only to finish fourth—a step away from the podium.
Montenegro has a chance to reach the semi-finals by defeating a slightly more aggressive team than Spain, the United States. The Americans, which had stunned the Spaniards by their victory, have won with difficulty against the Chinese. They are still in the competition, however, and are in the leading teams of Group A--just below the No. 1 Montenegro. The match will be a confrontation to establish the best team of the first group, and allow this country to participate in the next round.
It will be quite challenging for the Americans, which were unable to reach the podium at last year's competition, bitterly finishing fourth. The defending champion, Montenegro, is ready to gain access to the highest step of the podium, and is quite eager to do so as well. The underdog, Team USA, will have to perform better than they did during their match against China in order to defeat the favourite, Montenegro. The semi-finals will be taking place on Saturday July 17th, and the finals will occur on the following day.
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