Ortigia makes a disappointing debut in Water Polo Serie A1

Bitter defeat for an unrecognizable Ortigia, which made many mistakes, giving free rein to Roma Vis Nova in the first round of the top water polo championship. The Romans won at home 11-7, against a contracted, slow, inaccurate team, which paid mentally and athletically for the tough Euro Cup match on Thursday evening against the Greeks of Vouliagmeni.

Piccardo’s men immediately fell behind, never managing to threaten Roma Vis Nova, without giving the impression of being able to come back: 6-3 the score of the first two halves, and the gap at the end is even larger. The white and green players were not convinced enough, despite the calls and adjustments of coach Stefano Piccardo.

The unexpected defeat is very painful. “We were tired – admits the coach – fatigue played a bigger role than I thought. If we look at our match on Thursday evening and today’s, it seems like two completely different teams. We played badly and made a lot of mistakes. If you’re not at your best, you lose against this Vis Nova team. With Vouliagmeni, we pulled off a miracle, we need to work a lot. Plus, we are without our top player (goalkeeper Tempesti, still injured). Now we have to start over and prepare for the cup match against BVSC.”

After the match, captain Christian Napolitano also speaks bluntly: “Aside from the fatigue, a team like ours cannot afford these blackouts. We did everything ourselves, making mistakes and allowing Vis Nova to win by playing a normal game. We take this blow and move on, for me it was one of the strongest blows I’ve taken in my career. I apologize to our fans. Now it’s time to put our heads down and work. We will analyze everything during the week, fortunately we will play in the Cup already on Thursday.”


Pallanuoto, serie A1: esordio amaro per una Ortigia irriconoscibile

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