The Croatian water polo team is headed to the gold medal match!
After conceding three unanswered goals to Montenegro midway through the first quarter to level out the match at 3-3, the Barracudas took control of the match and never looked back with four goals from leading scorer Andro Buslje from five shots. Goalie Marko Bijac was solid in goal for Croatia making three exceptional saves for his side in tight circumstances.
Croatia will play for gold Saturday afternoon in Rio against Serbia, who defeated Italy in the other semifinal. The game starts at 4:50PM (ET)/1:50PM (PT). It will be broadcast live on NBC in the United States.
PREVIEW
Alright.
So as far as team sports go, this week has been a let down for the Croatians. On Wednesday night, both the Croatian handball and basketball teams were ousted from the Rio Olympics in the quarterfinal round. So that leaves Croatia’s water polo team as sole torch carriers for the nation (I’m not counting rowing, sailing, shooting in this conversation.)
The Barracudas face Montenegro at 12:20PM (Rio time) Thursday afternoon in the first water polo semifinal. That’s 11:20AM Eastern and 8:20AM Pacific. Croatia already defeated their southern neighbors in group stage by a slim 8-7 margin; needing a 3-2 fourth quarter run to take the win.
Croatia are slight favorites on paper to make the gold medal game but it won’t be easy. And if they get there, they would face the winner of the Serbia/Italy semifinal.
(This post will be updated throughout the game)
and yeah true Denis, i have TV on here and the reportage and language used about the Boomers (Aus basketball team) is utter capitulation..
It’s almost like they’re mental midgets tbh
actually here’s a theory, Aus lost cos they have Bogut, who is Croat, and his mental midgetry from being Croat infected the Aussie team?
LOL 😀
it could be danny but most countries dont take it with even a modicum of seriousness.. i mean brazil are this time cos they’re at home and they’re trying ot make up for losing 7-1 to germany but generally the better footballing countries dont care
No chance in hell Serbia beats the US…. I can’t believe how bad Australia looked.
Interesting how Spain and Serbia both started off slow, then picked up the silver and bronze. Croatia topped the group in handball and basketball and lost in quarters. Croatia definitely went all out against Spain in the opening basketball game.
Serbia the favorite tomorrow in water polo. However, the game isn’t played on paper.
cool thanks… makes sense
thought would be a good way to get some kids some more national experience though
The olympic soccer is not something good teams tend to do well at.. it’s like this:
u can have 3 overage players but the rest need to be under 23
but here’s the thing: any country with actually good under 23 players (like us), there is no way on earth their club is ever releasing them for the olympic tourney.. that’s why the olympic soccer is so shoddy..
basically you actually want to be not the most talented country, just have some mediocre ppl that play well as a team .. that’s why u get some weird winners, ie, nigeria, cameroon, mexico.. its actually more common than not it’s a smaller less talented country, and i think europeans are way less likely to do well cos they wont be released from clubs
there’s no way on earth clubs like real and barca let kids goto the olympics, but as for corinthians or whatever, idk.. different culture.. so dont expect croatia to ever be in the olympic soccer tourney anytime soon – i’d be surprised if it ever happens tbh, unless there is some rule change or something
but seriously how the heck do we not ever qualify for soccer? what is qualifying process?
lol iggy
its probably just ziva… don’t have a hernia;)
and if not give credit where credit is due… they played well
so have we… our basketball team is coming up and will be even better in 4 years… we are having a kick ass games this time round. we are the little nation that could and does time and time again
nogomet is nogomet… we own that and at the end of the day that is the sport that matters;)
August 4th 1995 was a good one too!
Go back to the hills Cetnik. Sailing, rowing, water polo, we own the water!
fuck off ya serbian cuntrash
go back to serbiansports.com, or is it such a pit of despair and misery since you guys are so cuntingly shit at everything you had to latch onto our site? Everybody knows soccer is the thing that counts and you guys are worse than useless at that.. 22 march 2013 – still the most fun day in sports in recent years, remember that one, cunty??
I will admit Croatia has a decent basketball team and had they not lost to Serbia Croatia would have beaten Australia too. Problem is that in about 90 % of the time you face us in any sport you lose.
Ajde srbin odjebi….
If the Croatian water polo keeper Marko Bijac keeps playing the way he has been, he will make the difference.
I am predicting the Serbs to upset USA in the gold medal basketball game.
This is awsome feeling for Serbs and Serbia. We may not have as many medals as Croatia but we have an awsome weekend to look forward too. Finals Basketball, Finals Waterpolo and i am confident we will sink Croatia in waterpolo. We have finals in Womans Volleyball knocking out a powerhouse USA team and third place game for womans Basketball . Its been a slow start but its picking up very nicely. ŽIVELA SRBIJA!!!!!
yeah usa only won by 6 and the serbs do look possessed.. it’s unthinkable that usa could ever lose in bball but u never know the way these cunts are playing
I think Serbia could take the gold…gypsy scum looking like a machine.
the fact australia have been horrendous today makes it all the more disappointing we lost to serbcunts..
for sure if aus played like this we wouldve beaten them and made it to gold medal match, aus just unable to shoot .. 14 points to half time, lol.. just hopeless today.. the aussie commentator just said it was an annihilation, which i guess is a good way of putting it
Yeah hopefully he does it soon.
Fucking serbs on a mission in basketball! Just killing Australia. FUCK!
I have heard nothing concrete on his pro career…but I think it will certainly happen. Pro boxing is a different beast! I think this kid could do damage.
Poglavnik, he has trained with Wladimir Klitschko. He is the reason David Haye pulled out of the fight with furry. Filip cut him during sparring. Hayes people say it was an accident due to Hrgovic elbowing him. I heard the kid held his own and then some.
@Lika Joey
Any word on whether Hrgovic will ever turn pro?
serbcunts smashing aussies, bit of a surprise.. aussies cant shoot for piss today
I don’t like the mental midget argument, but didn’t our guys lose in group phase to avoid playing the cetniks. That to me makes me think we are afraid of them.
Maminjo thanks! I really want this win.
Aussies and Serbs were tight until the final 4 minutes when they played last week. So I expect the game to be close.
We’re the defending Olympic champs. They’re the defending World Aquatics Champs.
Winning waterpolo gold at the Olympics is the higher prestige (as it only happens every 4 years) so our title is better, but these World Aquatic Championships that Serbia won was more recent (2015) and they beat us in the final by a large margin.
There are too many waterpolo tournaments with 5 occurring every 4 years, so it’s hard to value taking a gold medal at the Euros and Worlds if you know you’re just going to have to play again the following year (and it is always the same four teams that have been winning these in Serbia, Hungary, Croatia and Italy). Olympics are good because you got that title for four years. Also, everybody seems to step up when it comes to the Olympics.
Saturday’s game is a coin toss.
Iggy I’m soooo upset about Hrgovic. He lost a split decision could of won if he did more in the first round. I think it should of went Filips way he did enough in the 2nd.
oh damn lost in the boxing, too bad
and yeah i dont see serbs beating aussies tbh .. aussies looked very good this tourney
Hrgovic will ba a star in the pro fighting. Does anyone know why Bogut never played for us?. Who is better on paper us or the serbs in waterpolo? They are favorite to win Gold from what I have heard. I don’t know shit about waterpolo.
I just want to see Bogut do some damage today.
Filip Hrgović lost, so add a bronze to the count
Coric v Cilic
Australia will win.
Australia has been the most dominant team in this tournament. I’m sure that the US would prefer they lose. I can’t see them wanting to play them again.
Iggy, your Aussie mates better beat the Serbs tonight. I can’t imagine how upset you would be if the Serbs beat Croatia and Australia back to back.
Hajduk lost their first-leg Europa league match to Maccabi Tel Aviv 1-2, but did get an important away goal. Second leg in Split next Thursday, August 25th.
Water Polo final is on Saturday, 4:45PM (EST)
@Maminjo – excellent point ! I’d forgotten about that but god that would be sweet as pie
Well, there is always the joy of having them stand for the Croatian national anthem on the podium like they had to do in 2012 😉
Mile, yes that is sound logic, and playing the serbs is kinda doubling down, but the payoff if we win is awesome ! Nothing better than serb-smashing ! 😀
Iggy, I said I wanted the Serbs to lose to Italy so they could lose the bronze medal game and get 4th place. Why would I want Serbia to win a semifinal of any kind and guarantee them a medal?
Would you rather Croatia play Italy for gold and Serbs get 4th or have a chance that the Serbs get a gold medal, beating Croatia in the process? And after the basketball crap from yesterday? Anyways, the Serbs won, so you got your wish. Hopefully Croatia can avenge the basketball loss.
Hrgovic vs Yoka tomorrow…I hope it’s a repeat of 2010.
And don’t forget Damir Martin was robbed of a gold. It was amazing watching all those huge Frankenstein looking girls grunting and wailing, and here comes cute , petitte little Sara, from this tiny little country!!! Lmao , this was the best most enjoyable medal. I love it.
the amazing thing is the conversion rate.. we havent won heaps of medals but 5 gold and 2 silver.. great conversion rate for gold
Another gold for the mental midgets!!! Unreal I’m so damn excited and pumped up, I couldn’t even watch the last couple of throws. We are an athletic superpower and that’s it!!!!! Ajmooooo! I said yesterday , enough of the mental midget bullshit , it’s fucking ridiculous how great we are .
Actually imagine if we win those golds and Blanka wins the high jump and we finish with 8 gold ahead of Aus – haha.. that’d be so great – not likely but nice to dream
anyways what a terrific olympics for us overall.. never had more than 3 golds before..
i think we all thought Sara could maybe get a medal with luck but not the gold.. terrific stuff.. 5 gold and possible 2 more with water polo and boxing.. imagine if we finish with 7 golds !
5 Gold medals!! WOW!
woooo GOLD for Sara !!!! YESHHHHHHHHHHH !!!
does anyone know why they step over the line to foul when it’s short? is it something to do with a countback system ?
Kolak* Lol, confusing meself..
shitty commentator said Kolar from the Czech Republic.. wanker
Interesting bit of trivia about my parentage..
back in Cro my grandmother’s maiden name was Kolak, but then she married a Kolar – lol.. so we’re Kolars now but were Kolaks before. So i hope she wins since we sorta had the same name before ! Looking good atm ! 😀
Sara!!!!!!! Please God!
Sara Kolak in the gold medal position fellas, fingers crossed !!
Hrgovic, if he wins the superheavyweight gold would be HUGE!! defending our gold…could be our moment in global sports.
Croatia’s got 6 medals (4 of them gold) and are guaranteed two more in waterpolo and super heavyweight boxing. So we will finish with at least 8 medals, probably good for a top-20 nation in the rankings (since Gold is all that matters in the rank).
Croatia also have a chance to add more medals in high jump (Blanka) and javelin (Kolak) who are both in the final rounds. Kolak did well to finish third in qualifying, so we’ve got a chance to medal there. We also have a guy (Zunic) who finished 8th in men’s shotput which got him to the finals, so there’s an outside chance to medal in that event.
Scoring two more golds would be amazing, however I don’t really care about anything anymore other than that waterpolo final.
I really want us to defend that Olympic waterpolo title and create a dynasty for ourselves in the sport (the way Hungary did when they won three Olympic golds in a row from 2000 to 2008). Serbia and Italy (similar to Croatia) have been excellent these past four years in waterpolo (since Hungary took a step down), but neither of them have tasted Olympic Gold like we have. I want to keep it that way.
oh sorry everyone was “equal 1st” in high jump qualy so ignore that
anyway i noticed serbcunts got gold in wrestling, with cro a chance to get gold in boxing which would be great
just what you’d expect, serbs get gold in the unabridged gay grope fest that is wrestling whereas cro gets gold in an actual combat sport.. sums it up nicely 😀
I just saw in qualifying for high jump Vlasic was in fact first so i guess she is a real chance after all.. there was some discussion about her chances in a previous thread – she’s a bit of an unknown quantity due to injuries but hopefully she can medal too
Great stuff!! Glad today was so much better than yesterday, phew !
4 golds now.. chance for 5 or maybe even more !! If we get more that’d be unreal
and we play those cunting cuntserbs in the water polo ! even better!!
I dunno why the guy above wanted italy to beat serbia? I wanna smash those cunting serbs nice and hard in this one to get revenge for bball !
Awesome on the sailing!!!!
Sailing gold medal for Croatia, one more shot of rakija then cafe krevet!
Iggy will be happy.
The semifinals are exactly as they were in 2012. And Croatia did as 2012 again, beating Montenegro. Italy hopefully will beat the Serbs again.
Thank God! I hope we get serbia in the final!
12-8win, keeper was on fire!
12-8 now.
Crnogorci are cooked.
7-5half time
Bijac is on fire, un lucky to be missing Buric because of brutality.
Not sure I like this seasons speedos!
Majstre Buslje we’re up.
Fuken Bullshits, didn’t take advantage of the exclusion and Biatch copped another one, 3-3
Up 3-0 first quarter
That’s why the German 7-1 thrashing two years ago right in Brazil’s home stadium was so beautiful to watch. If only that idiot Ozul hadn’t missed the breakaway at the end, it would have been 8-0. That scoreline would have been even more beautiful.
BRAZIL IS A CRAP COUNTRY WITH CRAP PEOPLE.
the fans in Brazil have been terrible at one point they were booing the french silver finisher during medal ceremonies after their country man got gold
classless… and we can’t even say zds
Please for fucks sake can we at least win this one after today’s colossal cuntery