The Croatian water polo website, dance.hr, takes its name from the “Dance” cove in Dubrovnik, where VK Jug was established in 1923. Dance.hr’s entertaining columns and sophisticated analyses of modern water polo have helped make the website popular not just in Croatia, but internationally as well.
Dance.hr Top 5 of 2022
“Its a really difficult year to choose the best. There are more big competitions than usual, and the best are those who showed the most in the biggest matches: Champions League, World Cup and European Championship where all the best played. In the end, when we removed Vernoux and Argyropoulos from the list of the best 5, who were very close, and when Hallock narrowly fell out of those 5 magnificent names – he was only away from the top three positions in our selection after the victory in the quarter-finals of the World Championships’s against Greece.”
1. Alvaro Granados (ESP)
Spain National Team Player. Club: Novi Beograd Position: Driver
Last year, Mandić was the best and was immediately bought by Novi Beograd. Now, Granados, and of course Alvaro has started in the same direction. He has grown into the best scorer today, he is the youngest in this company and he just turned 24, so he even has space and time for additional progress. Spain won the WC, after several years in which they played great, but that last step was missing. The gold arrived, and Granados scored 4 goals in the final (out of 9) and two more in the shootout. Also 4 goals (out of 10) in the semi-finals. Looking at the entire tournament, 20 goals + 11 steals, so that someone would not think that he was not great in the defensive segment. Both in the League and in the Champions League, i.e. in the Final8, his team was defeated only once. The match against the eventual champion Pro Recco on the first day was, besides the final, the best match that was open until the last second. And then Granados scored 4 goals. This was his year; he became world champion, won bronze at the European Championships and was a serious challenger for the European Club Championship title.
2. Gergo Zalanki (HUN)
Hungarian National Team Player. Club: Pro Recco. Position: Wing
Hungary failed at their domestic WC, but he was their best player. Later, with a very young team, they surprisingly reached the finals at the EC in Split. He led the team again. However, what we remember Zalanki for the most in the past year was the Champions League. Not only did his team win the gold, but he was also the best player of the final tournament, the MVP. Clearly, the official selection didn't agree with us, as was already the norm (here the officials were by far the worst with the selection of Cannella not even in the top 10). First, in the quarter-finals, he scored to win 11:10 in the last minute, a phenomenal goal off the post after coming out from the wing. In the grand final, against the hosts, in Belgrade, he scored as many as 5 goals, and at the end, he poetically scored the last five in the shootout, for the victory.
3. Marko Bijac (CRO)
Croatian National Team Player. Club: Olympiacos. Position: Goalkeeper
For a better ranking, he needed a better result with Olympiacos, which did not even make it to the Final8. In addition, at the WC in Budapest, he had a game below his level. But then came Split. It is probably the best tournament by a goalkeeper in the history of this sport. Two brilliant weeks! 11 big saves in the semi-finals and final, 21 saves in total. In addition, as the tournament progressed, opponents came in front of him alone and missed. Let's say in the final, Manhercz from the box. He missed Vigvari's counter at 8:8 in the last quarter. Burian also in the first quarter. The way Bijač defended, the way he positioned himself, forced the opponent to make such mistakes even from close range. So that statistic does not reveal how much Bijač was the best in this tournament. And it's a shame that he wasn't named MVP. Goalkeepers are also players.
4. Angelos Vlachopoulos (GRE)
Greek National Team Player. Club: Novi Beograd Position: Driver
Like his colleague before him, the key and strongest figure of Greece. He is also the main organiser of the game, whether he is on the right or left side of the attack, and is also a great scorer. Under his leadership, Greece won bronze at the WC where he had 15 goals and 10 assists and was the second name of the tournament. In addition, he also excelled in the Champions League, his Novi Beograd was defeated after a penalty shoot-out in the final, and alongside the local superstars Jakšić and Mandić, he managed to establish himself as the best player of his team. The performance in the semi-final is memorable: 5 goals with 100% conversion rate - and 3 goals in the last quarter when it was most important. And with that the winning goal 6 seconds before the end. Along with all the other segments of the game....a match to remember.
