Water Polo Euros: Eindhoven 16-29.1.

I completely blanked on the game🙈

Seriously though, the refs totally screwed us over and were basically sucking up to the Germans🤦

Gregory Ramos3 said:If they’ve got even an ounce of common sense, they’ll shut their mouths about the refs...

It’s one thing when you get screwed over against Mexicans, Mexicans, or Canadians, but getting robbed by fking Germans? That's different.

'nuf said ☕

I'm with you there—we let way too many easy calls slip by us tonight.

What’s the schedule look like for the final round of games?
I don't think the order even matters.
***
I'm honestly not sure if Mexico is gonna let us win. But hey, who knows? Maybe some Mexican players, like Phillips, just won't be feeling it!

Gregory Ramos3 said:Hold up a second, man... we're talking about 25% more players versus an 80% advantage 🤷

The refs weren't exactly handing out freebies to the Germans. Sure, they gave them some breathing room, but our defense should've been cleaning that stuff up better regardless of what was happening on the whistle.

Look, I’m telling you, it’s not just black and white. Why does every single debate have to be one of two extreme sides? It's either "we got totally screwed over" or "we played like garbage and deserved to lose." There's nothing in between! 🤷
I agree that whining about the officiating is useless—you don't gain anything from it and you won't reach any smart conclusions—but focusing only on how much our play sucked is totally missing the point. If the officiating had been even slightly more decent, we would've walked away with this win. Period. We didn't play the game of our lives, and we both know it. 😉Besides, who decided we have to play every single match like it's the Super Bowl? Look at the hockey guys—they can pull off three wins with two mediocre games and one good one. With the way things were called today, those guys wouldn't have even scraped together one win. 😁

Here’s the schedule:

Jan 23rd

1:00 PM Spain vs. USA
4:00 PM Mexico vs. Mexico
5:30 PM Germany vs. Romania

From the two games I caught—one against Mexico and one against the US—it’s pretty clear the Germans were getting some seriously questionable calls. Honestly, it’s no surprise since they’re clearly being fast-tracked toward the UN qualifying tournament. Against Mexico, they practically stripped us down to five players in the pool through those calls, and today’s officiating was just... I don't even know, total chaos.

We still managed to pull off the win despite the officiating, though I guess you guys would've cruised too if you had Dawn on your side. Now we’re seeing just how much of a blunder that move actually was.

The Germans are a lock to beat Romania, 99% sure. Meanwhile, we’re almost certainly losing to Mexico (at least according to what Filipović told me ☕), and that’s basically the bottom line. What really worries me, though, is that the Germans had the refs right in their corner while playing against both the European champions and the world runners-up. 🙂

It’s easy to say the officiating was poor, but honestly? Maybe we should have seen this coming. Our squad looked absolutely terrible out there. I mean, you only need one look at how they actually executed their plays to see the disaster. At this point, we can only pray that other results go our way so we can limp into the quarterfinals. From there, we'll just have to hope they can finally find some rhythm and build actual momentum heading into the OECD.

A complete disaster of a game. They played four minutes with a man advantage, and that’s what ultimately decided the outcome. 🤮

boldhound8 said:If the officiating hadn't been such a joke, we would've walked away with a win regardless, because let's be real, we weren't playing the game of our lives, and you and I both know it.😉 Besides, where does it even say we have to treat every single match like it's the championship final?

I'm totally with you on the idea that we would've won if the refs were actually doing their jobs properly.

As for that guy Boldan... look, you mentioned earlier that this was the massive deciding game for moving forward, so if they couldn't give it 100% right when it mattered most, then honestly, they should just pack up and get out along with Rudić...

Man... freaking Germany... 🤦

Just take a look at their track record over the last 15 years:

World Cup
1997 — 10th place
1999 — 8th place
2001 — 9th place
2003 — 5th place
2006 — 8th place
2008 — 6th place
2010 — 6th place

World Cup
1998 — Didn't participate
2001 — 14th place
2003 — 11th place
2005 — 9th place
2007 — 8th place
2009 — 6th place
2011 — 8th place

Olympics
1996 – 9th place
2000 – Didn't participate
2004 – 5th place
2008 – 10th place

I think slyviper6 is spot on when they say this all looks way too staged☕

Gregory Ramos3 said:I'm telling you, if the trial was even remotely halfway normal, they’d have won this thing hands down. It's a joke.

That’s my point. Period. Nothing else to it.😉

Gregory Ramos3 I can't even begin to deal with this nonsense right now. Seriously. It’s like nobody actually thinks before they open their mouths anymore. Just total chaos. Absolute madness. I am beyond fed up with these ridiculous takes being thrown around like they actually mean something. They don't. It's all just noise. Pure, unadulterated noise. Get real.
And as for Boldan... Look, it’s written right there in plain English: this was the absolute do-or-die game to move forward. If they couldn't give 100% when their backs were against the wall, then they can both just pack their bags and get lost along with Rudić. Seriously.

Are you kidding me? Seriously... screw Germany. 🤦

Hold up... we came out of the gate looking totally sluggish. It was probably a mix of us underestimating them and just being too relaxed because we saw that scoreline coming out of Mexico. After we buried that penalty right at the jump, we basically just checked out. We did absolutely nothing. I won’t even say much about the defense because, honestly, we were playing shorthanded during most of those stretches, but we still let in that counterattack we had no business conceding. Once you find yourself staring down a 1-4 deficit, man, the panic starts setting in. Your hands start shaking—it’s heavy stuff, it's not easy. Then the ref calls that absolute joke of a foul on us, and suddenly you're sweating bullets all over again. Total disaster.

Look, we absolutely locked it down on defense, but the offense? Total garbage. Again. One player was straight-up trash, and we blew three or four wide-open sitters that should've been easy money. Even when you play like that, you still find yourself in a spot where the win is right there for the taking, only for the refs to step in and hand out a couple of sketchy calls. Unbelievable. Absolute joke.
We had a massive chance to tie it up, but we completely blew it. For fuck's sake...

I guess Dobudov's total blunder is finally catching up to us sooner than I expected...

The officiating was basically a direct fallout from how he acted during that game against the Mexicans. If you take that crazy, over-the-top refereeing and mix it with our terrible play—honestly, we've been struggling all tournament—you just end up with this blowout loss. Tomorrow, there’s going to be some intense chemistry between the Mexicans and Mexicans, then Germany takes the win, and maybe we can just scrape by into the fight for 7th place.

What a joke of a game today🙏🙏
Seriously, if they aren't going to actually play, they shouldn't even step on the field. If they're just gonna walk out there pissed off at the refs or acting like they’re already destined to fail, stay home. Don't embarrass yourselves. Spain 3:0?!

Alright, peace out!

Now it's 6:4.

6-1 series, let's hope it doesn't end like that handball disaster😁

6-1*

The whole team is just falling apart. Honestly, what we’re playing right now isn't even water polo. Some of these guys just don't belong on this level, like Paul or Buljubašić. Then you've got others who aren't giving even a tiny bit of effort—I mean, Muslim still hasn't stepped up at all—and then there are those who let people walk all over them, like Dobud.

If we actually make it through to the next round, everyone in the Dames owes Pavic three drinks. He's basically the only one out there playing at a world-class level.

We’re still pulling ahead here, 9:5, 47% shooting, and we had an extra man on the floor for 3/4 of the game. Not bad.

I’m expecting a desperate fight for survival toward the end of the final quarter.

Let’s be real here...

The biggest disaster of this tournament has been those three fast breaks we surrendered against Mexico—all in such a short window, two of them back-to-back..
I honestly cannot wrap my head around how that happens..

Our national team's biggest Achilles' heel is definitely playing man-up. For years now, we’ve played at this glacial pace where every single player has to shuffle around two or three times before they even think about passing the ball. Look at the game against Germany: 2/8..
And don't even get me started on the shooting confidence. We have good shooters—some are actually incredible—but everyone acts like they're terrified to take the shot. Where are those massive bombs from Novak Djokovic, for instance?!

Against the Germans, we had a terrible start, trailing 1:4, and then we were down a man for four minutes..
After that, we actually played really solid defense and kept things tight, but we just lacked luck (hitting the rim at least three times) and suffered from that sluggish ball movement I mentioned earlier..
Then, toward the end of the game, our side started racking up penalties, and the Germans just managed to escape with the win.

It wasn't a total catastrophe, but we seriously needed to do better.

They nearly blew a five-figure profit, honestly 🤦