Crvena Zvezda - VK Partizan 6:12 (play-off, final, 1st match)

First: WE WON!
Second: to hell with those who switched off the only working stream in the middle of the game. From then on only an error message was there "channel is under maintenance, check back later, kthxbai". I missed out the best parts of the match.

Without Fellow Fan, who told me the end result and all the details I would have turned into a raging serial killer, and you’d find maybe a middle finger here, but not a Partizan-blog. Many thanks to him.
You stand up and salute to him.

I could still make some screenshots.

Introducing players

National anthem

Fair-play handshakes

Vladimir Vujasinović before the game

Last discussion before the start

Swim-off

The first quarter brought a lot of missed-out chances on both sides. Once red defenders were strangling Subotić so long, that we ran out of time. Yet we attacked more, our defense line was like concrete.
Only 7 seconds were left, when Lazić scored our first goal (0:1).
A few screenshots from the first part:

Probably this was the moment Subotić was strangled

Someone from us tries to score

Rističević and one of his fantastic saves (he had quite a few during the match)

Time-out

Here is a video about the first quarter:

1/4
Nakon prve četvrtine rezultat je 1-0 za Partizan, uz nekoliko sjajnih odbrana našeg golmana Димитрије Ристичевићa!
Posted by Vaterpolo klub Partizan Raiffeisen on Sunday, May 22, 2016

Draško Gogov’s unbelievable march started in the second quarter. But before that we made Zvezda sure that they can’t score from double power play (when two Partizan-players are suspended at the same time).
Better said, in double power play, from the closest distance (aka just a few centimetres).
Dimitrije Rističević saved this closer-than-the-closest attempt with a cold, almost phlegmatic movement.
What is more, we started a counter-attack and GOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLL!!!! 0:2
Zvezda could pressure out one single goal from power play (1:2).
Then Gogov came, saw and scored. 1:3, that was the end result of the first half.

Ball in the net

2/4
Na poluvremenu vodimo 3-1 sjajnim golovima Draška Gogova! #NapredPartizan
Posted by Vaterpolo klub Partizan Raiffeisen on Sunday, May 22, 2016

To hell with Facebook for making this embed-a-video function so difficult, when you prefer not to use the standard 560x560 pixels. Why can it not work simply like on Youtube?

The stream died here.
Gogov (and Partizan) nevertheless engaged the first gear and ran through Zvezda. We were leading to 3:6, which for the end of the quarter became 5:8.

3/4
Goleada u trećoj četvrtini! Partizan sjajnom igrom u napadu održava vođstvo uz dva nova pogotka Gogova! 8-5 #NapredPartizan
Posted by Vaterpolo klub Partizan Raiffeisen on Sunday, May 22, 2016

In the fourth quarter red team scored one only goal, then there was nothing much left for them - maybe except for a red card their head coach received. Meanwhile Jakšić scored our 9th goal, then Tanasković also scored, the unstoppable steam roller Gogov threw two more.

4/4
Partizan je u 4/4 potpuno dotukao rivala! Gogov je kompletirao savršenu partiju sa još 2 gola, ukupno 7! Na kraju 12-6, za vođstvo od 1-0 u seriji. #NapredPartizan
Posted by Vaterpolo klub Partizan Raiffeisen on Sunday, May 22, 2016

The hero of the day is beyond question Draško Gogov, who scored 7 (!!!) goals and humiliated Zvezda to hell. He is followed by Dimitrije Rističević, who had 8 saves, making our defense line harder than rock. Jakšić and Tanasković both scored 2-2 goals, Lazić threw one.
Next game will be on Wednesday, from 19:00 in the Banjica swimming pool.

Radnički Kragujevac - VK Partizan 3:11 (play-off, semifinal, 2nd match)

I don’t know whose idea this was to put the water polo match right to the same time as the football game. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who would have loved to watch the water polo team tearing Team Kragujevac to tiny pieces and enter the final with flags high (because the game was broadcasted live again on Youtube). Nevertheless my warmest (not) greetings to everyone in charge.

Other than this, it was a smooth thing. After the sparkling 9:2 of the previous game it shouldn’t have been any kind of difficulty.
Well, it didn’t. In the first quarter we pushed down the home team deep through the pipes of the Kragujevac city pool. Gogov started the row, followed by Subotić and Jakšić (0:3). Here came a Radnički-goal (1:3), but Subotić and Drašović didn’t allow space for any possible hopes for the hosts (1:5).
Kragujevac started the second quarter with heavy attacks. They scored one more goal (2:5), but then Rističević decided to stop being nice and he saved all the attempts of the home team for the rest of the first half. Meanwhile at the other side Gogov and Tanasković had a parade, bringing Partizan to a 5-goal-advantage for the half-time (2:7).
The second half was easy. Radnički scored their last goal in the third quarter, but practically we controlled the game, and we didn’t even have to push ourselves at all. The end result speaks for itself, in the final we’ll clash with Crvena Zvezda, unti two victories. The first match will be on 22nd May.
This match has three heroes, Subotić, Jakšić and Gogov, they all scored 2-2 goals. The rest of the goals (5) are shared among five players: Gilen, Tigkas, Drašović, Tanasković and Radojević.

Here is Gogov, as he is swinging the ball, and a goal is coming in 3, 2, 1...

(photo: waterpolopartizan.rs)

VK Partizan - Jug Dubrovnik 6:10 (Champions League, Round 6)

I have to confess it to you all, I was watching this game on a Croatian stream. The Serbian broadcaster RTS 2 was blocked at everywhere.

I swear those guys at the state-owned TV make some kind of sport of it that whenever they broadcast an important game, all stream sites show up only error messages.

There was one advantage of this situation though. Croatians broadcasted on ArenaSport 1 in HD-quality, so I could make some really good screenshots during the match.

Introducing the teams

Vladimir Vujasinović

Last discussion and captain Rističević’s encouraging words before kick-off

But the sad reality was that Croatians scored their first goal after 25 seconds (0:1). We missed out two attempts, at one we literally hit the head of a Croatian defender instead of the goal.

Partizan-attack some time in the first quarter

Croatians quickly scored their second goal from penalty (0:2). Our attempts were either saved by the goalkeeper or blocked by defenders. We tried, we attacked, but God knows what Croatians chewed before the game, chips soaked into plutonium or something, they ground us.

Lukas Gilen

Jug soon scored their 3rd goal. The end of the quarter was approaching when we could make our first score by Dimitris Tigkas.

And that was the end of the first quarter (1:3).
In the second quarter (though it was visible even at the end of the first one) our defense line got a bit stronger. We defended more aggressively, we bravely got into one-to-one fights with Croatians, while Rističević made fantastic saves.
Just the problem was that Jug scored their fourth goal, from power play.
We didn’t have to wait long for Partizan’s answer. Tanasković came, saw and threw. 2:4

Croatians immediately, instantly scored another (2:5). It was awful. They were strong, they had great rutin, while Partizan consisted of a lot of very young players.

Meanwhile it was rather depressing to listen to the Croatian commentator’s whoops of joy.

We missed out our chances, all our attempts were blocked. Vladimir Vujasinović asked for time-out...

...but even that didn’t help much. There were only 10 seconds left from the first half, when Croatians scored another goal. 2:6, it was high time for a longer pause.

It wasn’t a cool game, nor was it an exciting game. Nothing special happened, only grinding, struggling, and heavy battles without any spectacular movement.

Mateja Asanović and Dimitris Tigkas in the half-time

Jug started the second half, hitting the goalpost heavily with a shot. After that Stojanović scored our 3rd goal (3:6)

The ball is resting in the corner of the net...

...Stojanović calmly acknowledges it

Here came a short period when nothing happened, then Croatians scored one more goal. The standing was 3:7, it started to get more and more bitter. Partizan-players were fighting hard, but Croatians were just too strong.

One of them is trying to suffocate Nemanja Vico into the pool

Another time-out

Dimitrije Rističević some time during the third quarter

Draško Gogov is trying with a shot at the end of the quarter, but the goalkeeper saved it - so did he with all our other attempts

That’s all about the third quarter.
In the last one first Asanović shot, the goalkeeper saved. We got the ball back, first we shot it right into the goalkeeper from 10 centimetres, maybe. The ball dropped out, we got a corner shot, and this time we made it. Gilen scored, 4:7
The struggling and fighting continued. Subotić got two Croatians on himself as an extra weight, he still shot, the goalkeeper saved. Well, this one he could save. Because the next one left him helpless, Subotić shot and scored, our drawback was only 2 goals (5:7)
Dubrovnik attacks. Great upheaval in our goalmouth, referees whistle, they are convinced that Jakšić made a foul. Croatians get a penalty shot again.

Jakšić can’t believe his ears

Whistle, the Croatian player shoots... and Rističević saves! We swim up, we attack, but the Croatians steal the ball, counter-attack... and they score. 5:8, damn it.
At this point the stream collapsed and stayed in the state of apparent death for a while. When it was willing to work again, only a few seconds were left from the game and Croatians were leading to 5:10. But Subotić scored one last goal only 2 minutes before the end. That was the end result, a very brave, never backing down Partizan against a (compared to us) too strong Dubrovnik.

League table will be brought later.

Radnički - VK Partizan 7:7 (Triglav Liga, Round 12)

The two teams had a tough, fierce battle in the Kragujevac pool, at least based on the statistics. It says all that the ratio of fouls is 10:9, what is more, a Radnički-player, Manić was fouled out some time before the end of the 3rd quarter (I checked the live scores first around the end of the 3rd part, at that point there was already a big red "3" near Manić’s name).
The first quarter could have looked smooth. We were leading to 2:4, we all looked flawless and fabulous, probably everyone thought it would be a routine victory against the home team who are stuck on the 9th place of the league table. Then nobody knows what Radnički-players drank, smoked or chewed in the pause before the second quarter, because they returned to the pool being totally sped up (or we made too many mistakes - or both...). They scored 3 goals, we had only one. They equalized, making up the half-time result to 5:5.
For the second half there was only wrestling left. Both teams could score only 1-1 goal in both the third and the fourth quarter, increasing only the number of fouls.
The hero of the day is Mateja Asanović with two goals. The others scored only 1-1 goal, namely Gilen, Tigkas, Gogov, Tanasković and Stojanović.

League table comes later.

VK Partizan - Crvena Zvezda 14:3 (Serbian Cup semifinal)

WE WON!!!
We didn't just win, we ran through them, demolished them, quartered them, tore them to pieces and dug their grave. Then we buried them to 3 metres deep.

Again there was no working stream at all, RTS seemed to block all available broadcasts beyond the Serbian frontiers. There wasn't anything else left again than waiting for Fellow Fan's message with the result.

It was only the first quarter when Zvezda could be a more or less equal opponent for Partizan. Subotić scored a goal at the very beginning, at this point Zvezda equalized. No problem, Subotić quickly scored another goal, we took back the lead.
What is more,
3:1, Tanasković.
Second quarter.
4:1.
5:1.

At this point a message came from Fellow Fan about RTS interrupting the sports broadcast, because a fathead politician just had to announce something right then. And of course RTS 2 just HAD TO broadcast it live instead of Partizan. I’d like to remind all those in charge that there are 3 other goddamned civil service TV channels available beside RTS 2. But no, just no, the public (and Grave Diggers) must know the importance list and what "double standards" mean.

Never mind. We were still leading. Our advantage was 7:1 at the half-time.
In the third quarter we continued the joyous training match. Zvezda scored a goal though, but so did we, just we did 5. We were leading to 12:2 before heading to the final part.
In the last quarter we scored only two goals (hey, we have to spare energies for the Cup final, right?), red team also scored one.
The hero of the day was of course Gavril Subotić with 4 goals. He is followed by a row of players who all scored 2-2 goals (Marko Manojlović, Radomir Drašović, Draško Gogov and Đorđe Tanasković). Đorđe Vučinić and Filip Radojević added 1-1 goal to this smashing victory.

(photo: hotsport.rs)

Cup final will start tomorrow at 20:30.

VK Partizan - Jug Dubrovnik 6:8 (Triglav Liga, Round 7)

Partizan's water polo team welcomed Croatian team Jug Dubrovnik in the 7th round of Triglav Liga.

There was no broadcast, so again I have to put the events together based on the very few infos. For some reason the Mladost - Mornar game was more important for ArenaSport.

In the first quarter we were leading to 3:1, our goals were scored by Subotić, Radojević and Jakšić. For the half time Croatians equalized (3:3), throwing their two goals only 8 seconds before the end in power play.
For the third quarter the guests took control in their hands. Their defense rolled down the shutters, we couldn’t score any goals, yet they threw two, taking the lead (3:5). In the last part we scored three. It was Drašović, who broke the silence and reduced the difference (6:4). The Dubrovnik-based team also scored one (4:7), at this point Nikola Jakšić brought a goal (5:7). Croatians could throw one goal even in the last minute (5:8), but Tanasković also threw one just before the final buzz, reducing the difference to two goals.

League table will be brought later.

Update: you can find the highlights at this link, click on it, the page doesn't have embed function.

Victorious farewell to Champions League

Partizan’s water polo team won over Galatasaray to 11:14 in Engin Bora Pool, Istanbul, at the last group match of Champions League. The match had no significant importance, as Partizan could not qualify to the Final Six, while Galatasaray was positioned last of Group B.

Probably that was the reason no goddamn TV channel broadcasted it.

After 4 minutes we were on the lead to 0:3. Gilen scored two, Asanoviá one. Galatasaray reduced the difference with Slobodan Nikić’s goal

the fun part of the match was that 8 out of Galatasaray’s 13 players were from the states of the former Yugoslavia

our answer was Manojlović (1:4).
In the second part Turks reduced to 3:4, meanwhile the Italian and the Spanish referee continuously whistled fouls on Partizan. The half time result was 5:7, despite all we were still leading. In the third quarter Galatasaray got even closer to us, first to 6:7, then to 7:8, 8:9, finally to 9:10, with a nerve-racking approach. Then in the final period they even equalized (11:11), five minutes before the end.
That was the moment head coach Vujasinović sent the young titans into the battle. Tanasković, Stojanović and Asanović all shot the ball into the Turkish net.

Information to all of you: Wednesday is eternal derby day for the Serbian league final.

VK Partizan - Budvanska Rivijera 8:8 (Triglav League)

We are not really overwhelmed with infos about yesterday’s water polo match. As a start, no TV channels broadcasted it

it would have hurt someone, right?...

and even news sites write about it as just some interesting news for the "Mix" section, if they mention it at all.
Fact is, we were leading to 6:4 in the half time, then the Montenegrin team equalized in the 3rd quarter. Radulović, Tanasković and Radojević all scored 2-2 goals. There’s no info about the others.

Current standing of our group:
1. Primorje 40 points
2. Radnički Kragujevac 32 points
3. Mladost 28 points
4. Partizan 22 points
5. POŠK 16 points
6. Budvanska Rivijera 15 points
7. Jadran ST 10 points
8. Branik Maribor 0 pont


The first 4 teams will qualify to the next round.

VK Partizan - Radnički Kragujevac 4:5 (Serbian Cup, final)

May everyone at RTS, who made yesterday’s broadcast chaos happen, get a brutal constipation. That kind, that leaves after one whole week with screaming, crying and sweating. You promised us to broadcast the water polo Serbian Cup final, but instead you broadcasted the Skupština, the Serbian National Assembly live, a bunch of corrupted, dirty bastards yelling and swearing with each other live instead of brave sportsmen. Meanwhile you silently threw the water polo broadcast to RTS Satelit, without saying a word, making fans sweat blood while finding it, and when we found it, the entire first half was already gone. Thanks, assholes. And all this from tax payers’ money. Bravo.

It could be a brutal match (it indeed was...) with barely any goal. The first quarter was won by Kragujevac to 0:1, with Petković’s goal, but out of this very case Rističević didn’t let the ball in.
The problem was that Radić on the other side has also "locked the shutters".
In the second quarter we equalized with Mandić’s penalty shot, but Radnički scored two more goals. The half time result was 1:3.
After the break Tanasković immediately greeted goalkeeper Radić (2:3), so did Trajković with Rističević (2:4), even though we wouldn’t mind him avoiding this level of chivalrousness... Gogov threw a goal (3:4), but then Popović scored from power play (3:5).
The last quarter was rather a water wrestling with a lot of exclusions. Jakšić threw a goal 2 and a half minutes before the end. Our sons were fighting very hard to equalize, but it was physically impossible to score for Radnički’s goalkeeper, as if all the devils of the burning hell would have been sitting on his crossbar.
Boys, you are our heroes. You are and will always be.

If there’s any photo or video, I’ll post them.

VK Partizan - Vojvodina 15:7 (Serbian Cup, semifinal)

Partizan’s water polo team won easily over Vojvodina in the semifinal of Serbian Cup. We won the first quarter to 3:2. Both Subotić and Mandić scored, Vojvodina’s answer was Matković (2:1). Gogov also shot a goal, Vojvodina’s Vasić set the result of the first period.
Then the Parni Valjak started to roll, we made it to 6:2 with the goals of Jakšić and Manojlović. Repanović and Matković tried to keep the pace, but it didn’t last for long. The half time result was 7:3.
In the third quarter Gvozdenović tried to reduce the difference (7:4) but we again kept on pushing. Vico, Gogov and Radojević all scored, the result was 10:4. The end of the quarter was 10:6 after Šiman and Ćatović added their goals to Vojvodina’s side.
In the final period Jakšić was followed by Vasić (11:7), then Mandić scored two (13:7), Tanasković one, the final result was set by Repanović (15:7).
Partizan qualified to the final of the water polo Serbian Cup. Their opponent will be Radnički. The final will be on Monday from 20:00, RTS 2 broadcasts it live.

Mladost - VK Partizan 16:8 (Triglav League)

The Croatian team kept the entire match under control, they didn’t let things slip out of their hands even for a moment. Partizan played in black, Mladost grabbed the ball after the starting sprint. At first Partizan's goalkeeper made a great save, but later on he still had to reach out into the net for the ball (1:0). Mandić equalized with a distant shot, but after a foul the opponent got a penalty and scored (2:1). After 3:1 Mandić reduced the difference, even Subotić scored (4:3). We even equalized by Gogov (4:4), but the end result of the quarter was 5:4, Mladost scoring just 7 seconds before the end.
The second quarter brought improving advantage for the home team. 6:4, then 7:4, then Subotić made it 7:5 (with the classic trick, he was swinging the ball until the goalkeeper slowly started to sink), but the reply was immediate (8:5). About 1 minute before half time Mladost’s player threw the ball into our net from a few centimetres. 9:5
The third part brought two quick goals for both sides (10:6, Stojanović made it for us), then the rest approx. 7 minutes were eventless. Missed chances, underwater wrestling. In the final quarter Croatian players scored from all possible chances. 11:6, here Tanasković threw a goal for us (11:7), then 12:7, 13:7... and so on, until the very end, when Manojlović threw the team’s 8th goal with a great backhand movement.
As they say, this was that match that must be forgotten quickly and we must focus only on the upcoming one.