Photos of the day - greetings to everyone from Rio

Our athletes have arrived in Rio, got accommodated at the Olympic Village and now they send out their greetings through social media.

Nenad Beđik and Miloš Vasić are having fun...

(photos: Facebook/Olimpijski komitet Srbije)

...while Nikola Jakšić is chilling on the balcony.

#rio2016💪

A photo posted by Nikola Jaksic (@njaksic) on Aug 1, 2016 at 1:25pm PDT

CHAMPIONS!!! VK Partizan - Crvena Zvezda 10:9 (play-off, final, 2nd match)

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!

Yes, we!!!
Oh. My. God. OH. MY. GOD. OH! MY! GOD!!!
I still died a few times during the game. No, the stream didn't die this time, just me, but I still brought you some screenshots with my last breath.

Lining up for the introduction of players

Fair-play (mwahaha) handshakes

The boys are getting ready...

...while the team captains discuss with the referees

Then all hands to quarters...

...and a last group hug before swim-off

Here is a video about the roll-call:

Utakmica je počela! Partizan nastupa u sastavu: Rističević (k), Gielen, Tigkas, Manojlović, Subotić, Drašović, Gogov, Jakšić, Vico, Tanasković, Lazić, Asanović, Brakočević, Radojević.
Posted by Vaterpolo klub Partizan Raiffeisen on Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Then Zvezda took the lead just one and a half minutes after the swim-off. 0:1, unbelievable. First (sudden) death.

Meanwhile this happened. How to strangle Partizan-players slowly but surely

We equalized immediately with Asanović’s goal.

There’s the ball in Zvezda’s box

Then Average Fan blinked twice and it was 2:1, goal scorer: Nikola Jakšić.

Then 3:1. Gogov, from power play. Here Zvezda scored one (3:2), they were also in power play.
We got back our 2-goal advantage almost immediately. Gielen sent a distant cannon shot to Zvezda’s goal and destroyed the right lower corner.

Gilen is swaying the ball just to tear the net into pieces in the next moment

Then Gilen scored another, because it’s always better to be safe than sorry. (5:2) Gilen never acts as chance directs.
Two and a half minutes were left, when Zvezda scored again, now from penalty (5:3).
Then came Gogov’s great moment. Radojević sent him a long cross from the other side of the pool. Gogov pushed it into the box with a delicate movement, almost just stroking it into the net. (6:3)

Gogov celebrating his goal

50 seconds were left from the quarter when Zvezda again scored (6:4) meanwhile both teams were fighting hard with each other.
It was something awful. Partizan played their usual "zone" tactics, while Zvezda came up with the classic man-to-man-fight trick. It meant that whenever we attacked, every Partizan-player got their own barnacle, and these pairs mutually tried to drown each other. The water was boiling sometimes, slap came after slap, and during one of these fights Vico was hit so hard that his nose started to bleed.

This was all you could see. Like when you throw a piece of bloody meat among piranhas

Nemanja Vico could pick himself together, he still had to come out of the pool to get medical attendance

The first quarter finished here.

1/4
Sjajna igra oba tima pred prepunim tribinama Banjice! Nakon prve četvrtine vodimo rezultatom 6-4. Po dva gola su postigli Gogov i Luuk Gielen. #NapredPartizan
Posted by Vaterpolo klub Partizan Raiffeisen on Wednesday, May 25, 2016

After the goal-rich first quarter the second one brought struggles and clenched teeth. Both teams missed out many chances.
Rističević made some fantastic saves.

Dimitrije "we are closed today" Rističević. He is there behind the water curtain

Zvezda scored their 5th goal only 2 minutes before the end of the first half, in power play, while we couldn’t take advantage of a double power play at the other side of the pool.
This second quarter was a slow brain death in itself, but the third quarter brought the real struggle.
First we made all possible mistakes. Throwing the ball into the goalkeeper from 1 cm, dropping the ball out of the hand in an all-doors-and-windows-open chance and such. Average Fan rapidly grew a lot of new grey hair. Zvezda equalized (6:6). The game turned into more and more ruthless, with a lot of fight and water wrestling. Then 3 minutes before the end we got a penalty. Vico shot and scored. At long last (7:6)

Vico sways, Zvezda’s goalkeeper raises up, but in vain, because in the next moment we were leading again

The problem was that Zvezda equalized again (7:7). Suspends came after suspends on both sides. We had numerous attempts, but we were unable to score. (Thankfully that was true for the opponent as well.)

Time-out at the end of the quarter

3/4
Napeto je u bazenu, a i van njega! Ukupno 3 gola u mrežama, a 7. gol za Partizan je postigao Gavril Subotić. Rezultat je 7-7, u toku je poslednja četvrtina. #NapredPartizan
Posted by Vaterpolo klub Partizan Raiffeisen on Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Something happened for the 4th quarter. I don’t know what Vladimir Vujasinović told (or didn’t tell) the boys, nevertheless six roaring lions arrived for the final, wearing caps with Partizan-logo. Zvezda-players haven’t even splashed into the water when Subotić took back the lead. Only 20 seconds passed from the quarter.

Yes, over there, that’s our 8th goal

Here an amazing comedy came. It started somewhere with Gogov missing out a penalty.

Average Fan’s last wish was a defibrillator.

Then a guy wearing red shirt started to yell with the referee in an atrocious manner. The ref didn’t bother too much, he just showed the seemingly frustrated dude the red card.

I got to know later that he was not else than Viktor Jelenić, Crvena Zvezda water polo club’s president

Red card

Jelenić can’t stop, while security guards gather around him to carry him out of the pool

I don’t know who he was (if you know, then please, write it to me in the comment box), but he also had to leave

Meanwhile the water wrestling continued. Zvezda equalized again (8:8), but one of their players also got a red card. (The coach had to push him to the bench, because the player just couldn’t shut up. I’m really wondering about the referee’s report and what it will include about these incidents.)

Just a few minutes earlier I wanted to die, but at this point I swept my tears off that ran out from laugh. It’s unbelievable, this circus...

5 minutes were left, when we took back the lead with Vico’s fantastic goal (9:8). Tigkas got fouled out, but he took out Zvezda’s team captain with himself. (I’m not sure if the XXXXL-sized captain was also fouled out or he got a red card.)
Only one and a half minutes were left, when Jakšić scored such a HUGE goal that the echo came from Jajinci (10:8). Zvezda could handle the tension harder and harder. Their second coach also got a red card

because the head coach was suspended from this game, as he got a red card on the previous match

so Zvezda had to play for the rest of the game without coach. They could still score one more goal about a minute before the end, but then they had no more chance. And then came the end buzz

AND PARTIZAN WAS THE CHAMPION!!!

It was time to celebrate. We deserved it.

4/4
VK Partizan je ŠAMPION Srbije za sezonu 2015/2016. !!! Fantastična igra u 4/4 za pobedu rezultatom 10-9. BRAVO MOMCI !!!
Posted by Vaterpolo klub Partizan Raiffeisen on Wednesday, May 25, 2016

The Preciousssss

Celebrating with the fans

Receiving the medals

Nikola Jakšić among children

Team captain Dimitrije Rističević receives the championship cup from the president of the Serbian Water Polo Association

(photo: hotsport.rs)

(photo: sportske.net)

Family photo with the cup, the team, and... MIŠA TUMBAS

(photo: hotsport.rs)

Here’s a video about how they celebrated:

Šampioni!
Vaterpolo klub Partizan Raiffeisen - ŠAMPIONI SRBIJE 2015/2016.
Posted by Vaterpolo klub Partizan Raiffeisen on Wednesday, May 25, 2016

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 - Radnički Kragujevac 9:2 (play-off, semifinal, 1st match)

"Routine victory", "the odds were with us", as they say.
Well, yes, something like that.
I brought some screenshots. The game was streamed on Youtube, because none of the sports channels broadcasted it. As usual.

The boys line up at the pool side

Last discussion among team captains and referees

Both teams are in the pool, we are about to start

Swim-off

It was something like you blinked twice and we were leading to 1:0 with Asanović’s goal.
Then you blinked once more and it was 2:0 (goal scorer: Tigkas).
Meanwhile Rističević saved everything. He was like as if all the devils of the hell would be sitting with him on the crossbar.

I’m sure after this game Rističević will appear in the nightmares of Radnički-players. He gives them a broad grin, doesn’t even look up and saves even their impossible attempts - and at this point Radnički-players wake up crying and they all swear they would continue their life on Mt. Athos.

The game was smooth. No heavy clashes, no brutal fights, Partizan was playing from routine. We could allow ourselves the luxury of missing out a penalty at the end of the quarter.

Time-out in the first quarter

In the second quarter Radnički tried to pick themselves together. They attacked, but Rističević saved their attempts with the cool manner of an English lord.
Then Gogov scored a cannon shoot goal in the middle of the quarter. He picked the ball in the middle of the pool, made a sway and threw it.
Then he tore the net to pieces. 3:0
Only 47 seconds were left, when Radojević joined the others on the goal-scorers’ list (4:0).
There were only 5 seconds left, when Rističević thought it might bring a negative light on him, if he didn’t get any goal during the match. Also, it is not nice to stretch the power of the host, not allowing the guests to play. So, Radnički could score a goal here (4:1).

In the third quarter Kragujevac scored another goal (4:2). On the other side of the pool their goalkeeper saved our attempts, well, for a while. In the 5th minute Manojlović scored a FANTASTIC goal with a backhand shot. It was that kind of goal that should be taught everywhere.
Meanwhile Rističević saved everything with a phlegmatic face.
After Radnički’s second goal he rolled down the shutters once and for all. Enough of this playground, kids, you got two goals, deal with it. Radnički-players couldn’t score to him even 2 cm from the goal line. Rističević didn’t even look up just raised his hand and caught the ball.

Next time he should take some crossword puzzle with himself to the box, or macrame, or something like that. Or else he’ll fall asleep in the water from boredom.

Then 14 seconds before the end Subotić scored another goal for Partizan. 6:2, we were ready for the last quarter.

The last quarter was a fiesta.
In the second minute Tigkas scored his second goal (7:2).
In the 4th Jakšić showed himself (8:2).
Rističević saved everything.
Finally in the 6th minute Gogov threw the ball from distance and scored a GIANT goal. (9:2)

Next round will be on Saturday at Kragujevac.