The Spanish Waterpolo Men's team has made history in recent days after conquering its fourth world title. It is the second of the current generation, and world champion in 2022. One of its great stars is Unai Aguirrereference in the goal and who on Monday visited MD to break down the keys to the universal title.
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World champion, for the second time. How has this title been different from 2022?
It has been lived differently. This time everything has been much more relaxed. The first time we didn't believe it. This time, we ended, we entered the bus and each one went to their ball. I had to scream for everyone to scream!
Was there less pressure to have already won another World Cup?
It is different. The other time also won by penalties and euphoria was greater. But, at the team level, this tournament has not been the best we have played. Both the Budapest World Cup and Zagreb European, removing the final, the level of play was much better.
Has this tournament earned from the defense or from the attack?
On a personal level, I think it has been the best tournament in my life, being decisive in each match since the group stage. The first game against Japan was another issue, but then we have put a few goals with these rules, as if we get two. We have been the least thrashed eqiupo with forty -five goals.
The Japan does won from the attack, but the rest do not. Like the semifinals of the World League we won them from the attack. Hungary has won since the attack, but at the defensive level it has not been his best World Cup.
What gets Spain from this World Cup, beyond gold?
The key to the victory has been that each one has accepted the role it has within the team. If you as a team get that, you have a lot of cattle. Apart from that we were the best since the beginning of the tournament. I think he was between Croatia, Serbia and us. We have everything. Strong buoys, the best pitchers in the world, defenders. We have done what we had to do, play our water polo. It is something we could not do that day at the Olympic Games.
Did the issue of roles cost in Paris?
We have always been very clear. But in Paris, when you are playing something as important as a quarterfinals, everyone wants to demonstrate. That many times passes. It happened to us in the quarterfinals. Already the France party of the group stage we won because we were superior, but people wanted to do something else. When you do something that does not touch, you lose the focus.
From the catastrophe of Paris, the team entered a very good dynamic. We cure each other and very quickly. We do not point to anyone. We made a meeting in Mallorca and we said things. The captains spoke and we concluded that we had to respect what we were, our game, what the coach said. The roles of the team.
“From the catastrophe of Paris, the team entered a very good dynamic. We cure among all and very quickly. We do not point to anyone”
We did so since the first competition in Romania. Spain has dominated this year. He has won the World Cup and the World Cup because each one has focused on what needs to be done as a team.
One by one of the world champions, by Unai Aguirre
Alberto Munárriz – “Of my best friends. Magnificent”
Álvaro Granados – “A very special person with a lot of talent”
Bernat Sanahuja – “A quiet uncle with a lethal weapon”
Miguel de Toro – “A happy uncle and a good partner”
Marc Larumbe – “From my best friends and my defense partner”
Sergi Cabanas – “An uncle that must always be in the team. It gives us many laughs”
Roger Tahull – “A quiet uncle and a great buoy”
Felipe Perrone – “A legend and a great person”
Unai Biel – “My friend since childhood. My roommate, has a lot to give”
Javi Bustos – “A gladiator”
Álex Bustos – “The other gladiator”
Edu Lorrio – “A great partner and a great goalkeeper”
Biel Gomila – “A great talent and a great person”
Fran Valera – “A player who has a lot to give”
David Martín – “The person who has trusted me the most and the best coach in the world”
Milos Scepanovic – “The person who has helped me the most this year”
Unai Aguirre – “A special person with a very competitive character”
That theory is very good. But, in a moment of nerves, how is that managed?
That works. The first thing is to have very well learned tactics. The second is to clean the ego. We had been winning long before the games. We had won a World Cup and a European. When you want a lot, you think you can win a little more. Why do you have to do something different from what you do in the club? Because in the selection there is another that makes it better. In an important party, the pressure makes you want to make an extra decision.
But it's about making the least possible important decisions. When let's play simpler, better. You realize that when you live it. When you play simple, everything flows. That happens because people wanted to win again, take off the taste of the mouth of Paris. We saw that individualism did not work. You have to do what has worked. It is the price you have to pay for equipment and we have done it perfectly. I put an 8 to the team. Everyone has been very plugged in, doing everything they had to do.
Unai Aguirre, Waterpolo World Champion
Does you ever relax that nothing happens if things are going wrong because you will continue to go equal to the selection?
I think you can think about the case of 'megatop' players. But not at that point, because you do not think about playing to go to the selection as such, but to play to be the best. The pressure of whether you leave you leave the selection is not so much. I believe that no world champion partner has that pressure. I think the fifteen we have gone to the World Cup we have gone to win.
Let's go to the key moments of the World Cup. Is Munárriz's goal in the semifinals something that is prepared?
The goal was because the Greek was wrong. It was about throwing the ball into the other corner. I could not have passed the ball to 'Muna', because I would have had a rival in the aid. When we saw it … you have to put it, but they didn't do it well. We knew that 'Muna' was and the last one was his. When he is or Bernat, it is what he plays. Álvaro does the same. Everyone knows and puts it the same.
Then the semifinal penalty shootout arrives. What does a goalkeeper think about her?
I had played the game very well and I was very confident. The first two releases are two pitchers and decide to go down, but go up. One sucks me peladilla. But the third is skouumpakis, marker of Boya, but with zero of ten in the game. I thought that trust was not the best and that I was going to assure. Therefore, instead of covering a hole, I choose to wait and go for the ball. It is a bad launch and stop it.
Then he puts goal Marcumbe and touches the buoy. By how the ball takes, I deduce that I could not throw well with a wrist. I thought we were in the final. I couldn't move his shoulder for how he had taken the ball. Good pitchers know how to give direction with that grip, but a buoy is very complicated. I came out and did not give me time to stretch my arms, so I moved my head to give it.
Is it different to live a batch of penalties to a party?
Depends. He had played well, so he was very quiet. I knew some was going to stop. Before the matches you prepare mentally for how to face the final moments. You visualize the scenarios of the party.
Did the semifinals be held a lot?
No. I didn't even celebrate it. If you get very euphoric, it costs to clean your head. When you go to the final it is true that you think you make a great tournament. For us some 'semis' is not so great tournament. But you have to remove that feeling. You before a final there are two things that you cannot think. The first is 'I have already made a great tournament, that's it'. The second is 'I can win'. The first makes you relax, the second presses and gives you anxiety. You have to raise a final as a normal tournament.
“People wanted to win again, take off the taste of the mouth of Paris. We saw that individualism predominant did not work. You have to do what has worked”
The final arrives and there are a goal below for eight minutes …
We were very calm, because we were playing well. The last goals that mark in the first part are one that diverts Bernat, one that drains, one that from a bad chut comes out of a pass to the other side … a year ago I would have come down with that goal. This time, no. We were better than them, it was a matter of doing three or four defenses. In the 'semis', I didn't have that feeling, there was no margin of error. In the final, yes.
Curiosity, did you talk to Vince Vigvári or Gergely Burian before the final?
Yes, Vince belongs to my best friends. I congratulated him for his second World Cup before playing the final, to chop him (laughs). With Gergely too. There is always messing. Before the final they put us all in the same room with water and bananas. We were relaxing. I chopped with his helmets, but they were the two best of Hungary. We were messing.
What has Felipe Perrone's last World Cup?
Felipe has been very quiet. Before the final he gathered us to ask us to have no tribute. That only imported the final. I left seeing it because I was superconcentrated before the final. Felipe is my friend. I'm going on vacation with him. As Captain … he is a huge person. There are few athletes who can score as much as he inside a team. That is how it is. That is why people have so much respect.
Includes everyone in the team. He has raised with a charming mother and father, they have educated him to give. He doesn't want to receive. That is why everyone has won the respect, beyond that it has been better or worse player. For me he has been incredible as a player, but there may have been someone better who has not reached so much. People look at him, hugs him, everyone wants him in the pools. Felipe is Felipe. There will never be anyone like him.
Unai Aguirre, Waterpolo World Champion
Is an era ending?
Yes, Felipe will not be anymore. For how leader he is. But the block remains. Felipe has already adopted another role in this World Cup, to play for the team. The team has responded very well. Felipe at important moments has always been and we will notice that. He is the player who defends Kakaris in Greece, because he has immense gallons. You can play everything. A different person leaves, someone with a lot of aura. But we are not dry.
“Yes, an era is over because Felipe is no longer going to be, but our group does not work by roles. It works because we are all friends”
Does the role of veteran players like you, Alberto Munárriz, Álvaro Granados, Bernat Sanahuja, Roger Tahull, Marc Larumbe …?
Not because our group does not work by roles. It works because we are all friends. I don't think you notice. We are a healthy, fun group. You don't know what we laugh with Miguel de Toro, for example. I have not seen any uncle who is watching a Japan match and reciting Japan's lineups before a final (laughs). Each one is special, but we love each other very much. That is the key to having surpassed the Paris and having won again.
What gives them this for the new Olympic cycle?
The confidence that, if we reach a final, we play it to win. That was achieved in Budapest. Having won three Finals in a row, five counting World Cup and World League … knowing how to win endings to know what we want to win. We will allow us to lay the foundations to see how you can win.
What challenges this team now considers?
Games are what makes us most illusion, having everything with the selection. But we are going to tour the tournament, match by match. It is the key to success.
