Water Polo 2022 - 2024 Discussion Thread

[Totallympics 84]

Edited January 1, 2025 by Sindo

[Makedonas 2,262]

Marios Kapotsis announced his retirement from the Greek national team. So since our silver medal in Tokyo, we lost three players (Kolomvos and Mourikis also retired from the national team). Honestly, this is quite disappointing. In Tokyo we had such a young team compared to the other two medalists, Serbia and Hungary. I was really hoping we'd be able to build on this for 2024.

 

We still have great young players so I'm not too concerned, and Kolomvos and Mourikis are both already 33 so it's not a huge surprise, but Kapotsis would only be 32 in Paris. I really think he's a bit too young to leave the national team, especially since he only really started playing for the senior national team in 2017.

 

Of course Fountoulis, Vlachopoulos and Genidounias are still playing until 2024 (at least for now), and some of our young stars like Papanastasiou and Argyropoulos will have bigger roles by then, but it's quite frustrating that our guys keep retiring from the national team at young ages compared to other countries' players, especially since we finally started to achieve good results at the senior level after many years of underachieving.

[Makedonas 2,262]

@phelps Carolina Ioannou got selected to the Greek team for the upcoming European Championship qualifiers. This will be her first time representing our national team.

 

Although we are sending basically our second team, only five of the girls have previously played for the national team and they are all teenagers. Still, it is a good chance for Ioannou to gain experience with the national team and try to impress the coach.

 

For the tournament we will use our main players, but since qualifying will have easy games they are not needed and our coach is using this opportunity to test out some of the young players.

[phelps 8,693]

Just now, Makedonas said:

@phelps Carolina Ioannou got selected to the Greek team for the upcoming European Championship qualifiers. This will be her first time representing our national team.

 

Although we are sending basically our second team, only five of the girls have previously played for the national team and they are all teenagers basically. Still, it is a good chance for Ioannou to gain experience with the national team and try to impress the coach.

 

For the tournament we will use our main players, but since qualifying will have easy games they are not needed and our coach is using this opportunity to test out some of the young players.

so, finally she could fulfill her dream...

I'm happy for her...hope she can have a lot of success with the Greek NT (always behind Italy, of course  )...

[Makedonas 2,262]

8 minutes ago, phelps said:

so, finally she could fulfill her dream...

I'm happy for her...hope she can have a lot of success with the Greek NT (always behind Italy, of course  )...

Of the 14 players selected, she is the oldest (1996). One player was born in 1999. The rest are all 2001-2004. So it's a good sign for her that the federation/coach are considering her as one of the possible future players for the national team. Other girls her age didn't get selected (not including those 10 or so main players who are 'too good' for these qualifiers), so I think it's more that the coach wants to give her an opportunity and I'm sure Carolina appreciates this chance.

 

Probably the real test for her will be how she does in practices, as Greece will likely win all matches easily so it is hard to judge players in these types of games.

[Makedonas 2,262]

18 yo Nikolaos Gkillas has scored in two of Olympiacos' last three LEN Champions League games. Good to see yet another young talent coming out of Greece, especially since so many of our national team players retire at such young ages compared to players from other countries.

[intoronto 6,891]

 (women) has qualified for the World Championships for the first time.

[George_D 1,638]

   Ethnikos Piraeus

 

 

[Makedonas 2,262]

32 minutes ago, George_D said:

   Ethnikos Piraeus

 

 

So Ioanna and Stefania are both back in Greece (the country where they were born and raised until age 17) and playing for Greek club teams again, but Stefania plays for the US national team (okay, she always wins gold medals so I can understand). Why not Ioanna though? She's never been called up to the US national team, she was a member of Greece's women's senior team from when she was a teenager and won gold at the World Youth Championships. There is no reason for her to not be playing for our national team anymore

[Makedonas 2,262]

LEN Euro League Women - Final Four:

 

 Olympiacos 18 - 11  UVSE

 

Olympiacos into the final for the third year in a row! Hopefully they win their second title in a row.

 

Between the three Plevritou sisters, Eleftheriadou, Xenaki, and Myriokefalitaki, things are looking good for the Greek national team, especially now that they are a little older and more experienced