You don’t have to look too far into sports statistics to conclude that the Spanish women’s water polo team, known to its players as the ‘water warriors’ or the ‘Miki Oca girls’, is the best team of the last decade. This Friday (11:00 a.m., Spanish time, against the Netherlands) in Fukuoka they will play their ninth ‘big’ final (of the three prestigious tournaments: Games, World and European) in the last eleven years. Who gives more in Spanish sport?
With the Olympic ticket to Paris already under his arm (for being a finalist), the team trained by the Madrid coach since 2010 has a golden opportunity to once again reign in world water polo, a decade after his only coronation, that of 2013 in Barcelona: they will not have the United States ahead. If then in the Picornell he struck down his black beast in the quarterfinals, at the Marine Messe in Fukuoka it was Italy, on Monday in the quarterfinals, who was in charge of doing the dirty work eliminating Adam Krikorian’s men. So Dutch and Spanish have a free hand to dream in gold.
For Spain it will be their fourth World Cup final (2013, 2017, 2019); the sixth for the Netherlands, who are also looking for their second gold (the previous one, in 1991). Hunger for both sides, although the Spanish women are more accustomed in this decade to fighting for metals, almost one per season (nine have been hanged in 12 years, since that Olympic silver medal in London 2012 that presented them to society). And he has achieved it despite the fact that the team has been extensively renewed.
This has been the great merit of Miki Oca: maintaining a tremendously competitive and ambitious block, cohesive in friendship and good vibes, which is understood by looking at it, and structured from its old guard, the backbone formed by Laura Ester , Anni Espar, Maica García and the captain Pili Peña (the four survivors of the London 2012 team), improved with the generation of Bea Ortiz, Judith Forca and Paula Leitón, and ultimately renewed with the pearls of the juniors of world gold of 2021 -the goalkeeper Martina Terré, Elena Ruiz, Paula Camus, Cristina Nogué and Nona Pérez-.
Under the discreet leadership of guru Oca, a spiritual leader and exceptional motivator, the 13 Spanish women have preserved the complicity of the original group and have gradually inherited from their predecessors the distinctive features that collectively make the Spanish water polo team an exceptional team: intensity in the game, the collective effort, the commitment, an overwhelming defense and solidarity in the aids that makes up for the lack of physicality, a versatile attack marked by speed and the variety of resources, and some unbalancing players, who never throw in the towel.
In front, in the Fukuoka final, Spain will have the Netherlands, an old acquaintance with whom it has not been measured in major tournament crosses since the 2014 European Championships (in the final, gold for Spain) and 2016 (in the semifinals, defeat). . Although, the immediate precedent was the first game of this World Cup, with an Oranje victory (7-6) that led Miki Oca’s men to the opposite side of the box and to pay the toll for the round of 16.
The Dutch are almost cousins ??of the Spanish, since up to six play or played in Catalan teams: Van der Sloot plays for CN Sabadell; Sevenich and Van der Kraats at CN Mataró; Ten Broek at CN Terrassa; and in the past Wolves and Sleeking played at Sant Andreu. “They are a team that has been doing things very well in recent years and has always made things difficult for us. It has a very good goalkeeper, powerful buoys, goalkeepers who play very well and are fast,” the Barcelonan analyzed in statements to Efe.
According to Miki Oca, “The Netherlands is a very regular team throughout the championship, they have won every game, they are very powerful in defense, very fast on the counter and with great potential in static attack; We will have to do our best to go for the gold”, pointed out the Madrid coach in statements provided by the RFEN.
