The Serbian men’s water polo team has completed preparations for the 20th Mediterranean Games and will travel to Taranto on Thursday. The Serbian water polo players held their last training session before their trip to Italy in the outdoor pool of the Novi Beograd Sports Center (“April 11”).
After two months of preparations, during which around 40 water polo players passed the selection process, head coach Vladimir Vujasinović decided to take 14 players to the Mediterranean Games:
Milan Glušac, Vladimir Misović, Vasilije Martinović, Vuk Milojevic, Zoran Božović, Viktor Urošević, Bogdan Gavrilović, Luka Pljevančić, Marko Dimitrijevic, Vuk Čonkić, Đorđe Vučinić, Nikola Lukić, Dušan Trtović, Nemanja Stanojevic.
At the Mediterranean Games, Serbia will play in Group A with Greece, Montenegro and Slovenia, while Group B will feature Spain, France, Italy, Turkey and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The two best teams from each group will advance to the semifinals.
Serbian water polo players will face Slovenia in the first round on August 28th at 4:00 PM. Two days later, at 5:30 PM, their opponent will be Montenegro, and on September 1st, at the same time, the Greek national team will play.
Serbia is defending the gold medal won four years ago in Oran.
Vladimir Vujasinović, head coach of the Serbian water polo team:
“The expectations are that we play as well as possible at this point. We had a very long preparation where we got to know all the guys. In the end, I had to decide on 14 players, and a few more of them deserved to be in the national team at the Mediterranean Games. The tournament will be strong enough to be a real test for these guys after this summer of work and to see where we are, to have a clearer picture for the future.”
My wish is that the boys, after a long summer, understand these Mediterranean Games in the right way and play to the best of their ability at this moment. I expect them to only apply what we have been doing in training in the upcoming matches. There will be no problems.
First, we look at the group matches as a whole. Our goal is to reach the semifinals and I hope we will achieve that. Then we will see which team we will play against in the fight for medals. We will prepare match by match. We are now thinking about our first rival, which is Slovenia. They are not really an opponent at our level and this match will serve as a kind of prelude to the derby match with Montenegro in the second round.”
Djordje Vucinic, Serbian water polo player:
“Playing for the Serbian national team and participating in the Mediterranean Games is the greatest possible honor for me. This will be the first time we will be playing with this team, but we will definitely give our best. We are ready, we have been training hard all summer and we are eagerly awaiting the first match. Of course, we are aiming for gold, but every medal will be a success.”
