The Hungarian women's water polo team won its first victory at the Paris Olympics after winning 12-7 against Canada in the second round of the group stage on Monday. Also on Monday, the men's handball team improved by defeating the Argentines.
The Hungarian girls were just mentally preparing for the swimming pool when the first surprise bomb exploded: France, which in the best case scenario slipped into the eight at the world championships - with Orsolya Hertzka, who also scored a goal - defeated Italy 9-8. Also in the other division, the clash between the two finalists of the previous Olympics was won by Spain, the silver medalist at the time, 13-11 against the United States of America.
In other words, it quickly emerged that our team would be better off if they avoided the third place in the group, if they did not want to face the USA in the quarter-finals. Of course, the minimum goal must be met first, to overtake at least one in the five-team group in order to advance.
1st quarter: good start
Since there are groups of five, Canada jumped into the pool for the first time at the Paris Olympics. To make you feel the care, after a minute and a half, Rita Keszthelyi put Rebecca Parkes in an unmissable position, who, sliding inside, made no mistake from a meter and a half (1-0). Our center, born in New Zealand, doubled our advantage with an eye-catching goal: he put the ball into the goal with his back to the goal, over the head of himself and his defender (2-0). The Emma Wrights shot bravely and diligently, goalkeeper Alda Magyari did not have any problems with these attempts, and blocks also helped. Rita Keszthelyi flashed her class with a spectacular drop, her ball bounced off the crossbar (3-0).
After nearly 6 minutes, the Canadians were happy for the first time, Hayley McKelvey (3-1) shot diagonally into the left corner from the right, from the back. Keszthelyi also conceded a penalty at the end of the quarter (4-1).
Against the Netherlands, we started with 0-3, now with a three-goal advantage - the difference between heaven and earth!
2nd quarter: nice goals
The half started with a Canadian goal. Kindred Paul put the ball into Magyari's goal from one meter after a precise cross - even though we weren't even a man down (4-2).
After a couple of fouls, Gréta Kurucz-Gurisatti from the middle placed an uncontested shot into the upper right corner of Jessica Gaudreault's goal (5-2), then when the two went to Keszthelyi, Gréta came from the left wing and lifted the goalkeeper from a sharp angle (6-2).
Emma Wright's shot found its way into the bottom right corner, but by the time the score was 6-3, Vanda Vályi shot from the right into the far corner, restoring the four-goal difference (7-3). One second before the whistle, however, we got an annoying goal, as they scored a center action goal with the same number of players at the beginning (7-4).
3rd quarter: struggle
The teams swam up and down in the midst of terrible water wrestling, and there was no strength left for serious shots. Twice the bar was not with us. Both the Greek and Spanish referees made sure that what happened in the water did not look like water polo. Seven minutes passed when the net crashed, it was ours: Axelle Crevier (7-5) brought hers closer from a penalty.
Before the match became more exciting, Rita Keszthelyi, who commented for the third time, blocked Krisztina Garda's rise (8-5). It was a world-class goal!
4th quarter: no excitement
Garda scored a goal after the assist, and Vanda Vályi's cross was also blocked. We left the rival standing in less than a minute (10-5). Kindred was not idle either (10-6), but then what can we say about Grétá Kurucz-Gurisatti, who scored her third goal as well, flicking a close-range shot into the goal of the Canadians, who were crammed with a man disadvantage (11-6).
The girls got free, even with the same number of players, it was no problem for Dorottya from Szilágy to find the gap from the right as a right-hander (12-6).
Emma Wright did a bit of make-up, the Keszthelys started the last minute after Attila Mihók's time-out amid standing ovation. We didn't score another goal, it was the post for the stupid Garda's attempt. After a team meeting, the opponent had 17 seconds left, but the referees blew a counterattack.
The final result: Hungary - Canada 12-7
The Hungarian team has improved after the defeat against the Dutch, and will next play against China on Friday (20.05), the opponent will be Australia in the last group match on Sunday.
The men's handball team improved by defeating the Argentines
The Hungarian national team won 35-25 against Argentina in the men's handball tournament of the Paris Olympics, in the second round of the group stage, with a great game.
The Hungarians lost to Egypt 35-32 on Saturday. After their success in the second round, they will play against Norway on Wednesday, world champion Denmark on Friday, and the host, defending champion and European champion France on Sunday. The first four from the two groups of six advance to the quarterfinals.
MTI
Mandiner.hu
Cover photo: Rita Keszthelyi (l) and Canada's Hayley McKelvey (front) at the women's water polo tournament of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, during the Group A match between Hungary and Canada at the Water Center in Saint-Denis near Paris on July 29, 2024 .
Source: MTI/Tamás Kovács
