Water Polo Primer: LEN Champions League Final Six

James Smith of Total Water Polo previews the 2017 LEN Water Polo Champions League Final Six, which is live streaming on Floswimming. He also talks about how to watch live in North America.

May 23, 2017 by James Smith Smith

Water Polo Primer: LEN Champions League Final Six

LEN Water Polo Champions League Final Six

May 25-27, 2017
Budapest, Hungary
Duna Arená

The Schedule

Thursday, May 25 (playoffs for the semifinals)
Olympiakos vs. Jug Dubrovnik -- 19:00 (Noon CDT)
ZF-Eger vs. AN Brescia -- 20:30 (1:30 PM CDT)

Friday, May 26 -- Semifinals
Fifth-place playoff -- 17:30 (10:30 AM CDT)
Olympiakos/Jug Dubrovnik vs. Pro Recco -- 19:00 (Noon CDT)
ZF-Eger/AN Brescia vs. Szolnoki Dózsa-Közgép -- 20:30 (1:30 PM CDT)

Saturday, May 27
Bronze medal match -- 15:15 (8:15 AM CDT)
Final -- 16:45 (9:45 AM CDT)

The LEN Water Polo Champions League Final Six begins this week with a full slate of live-streaming coverage ramping up on Thursday. The annual event takes place this year in waterpolo-nuts Budapest, but it's held in some fan-frenzied European city just about every year. Two Hungarian teams have made it to the Final Six ensuring huge, boisterous, and very knowledgeable crowds. The entire mini-tournament is available in North America on FloSwimming.

As the tournament has grown over the past decade, LEN (European Swimming League) has been consciously standardizing and improving the quality of its broadcasts. And viewership has been good, with one particular surprise according to the organization's leadership: big live-streaming numbers from the United States. Of course, most European fans can catch the F6 on one of their national TV channels. But as a share of the overall streaming viewership, American fans have produced higher numbers than expected. And LEN has noticed.

Viewers who may struggle to read Hungarian shouldn't have to worry about it much during FloSwimming's stream. The chyron will likely be in English even if the commentary is not. But better a knowledgeable Hungarian announcer, or none at all, than an unfortunate Canadian assigned by the IOC to call a sport he saw for the first time nine days ago. No, newcomers to this sport or tournament are going to see the game at its absolute best: noisy and educated crowds, high-class TV production, and the highest quality water polo on the planet played by its best athletes (widely considered better than the Olympics).

Some might think that nationalist passions would be subdued by the professional nature of the clubs, which welcome athletes from around the world. But take a glance at these rosters. Of course there are exceptions, but in general Serbians play for Serbian clubs, Italians for Italian ones, and so on. The teams are national by proxy if not by designation, and emotions run high accordingly.

Witness the 2013 final below, in which Red Star of Serbia defeated rivals Jug Dubrovnik of Croatia by one goal in the final, played in Belgrade. Thousands of mainly Serbian fans were there to inspire their team in an atmosphere unthinkable in U.S. water polo circles.

Host city Budapest may well be the figurative epicenter of the sport. Hungary has won nine men's Olympic gold medals, the most by any country. But it was 2004 when one of its clubs, Domino BHSE, last won the Champions League. This year, the country proudly has two clubs in the Final Six. Szolnoki VSK, a one-hour train ride from Budapest, can be counted among the tournament favorites. Its defense is anchored by legendary goalie Viktor Nagy, one of several Olympians including Gábor Kis, Denes Varga, and Serbian Andrija Prlainovic.

ZF Eger, two hours from Hungary's capital, is not considered to be as big threat to win the championship. Locals are hoping for an opening-round upset of Brescia, which would lead to an Eger versus Szolnoki semifinal -- and would guarantee a Hungarian team in the final. Eger isn't as high powered as its rivals from the south, but is home to one of this year's only American connections. Balazs Erdelyi stars for the club and is one of the best players in varsity water polo history. Winner of the 2013 Cutino Award for the country's best collegiate player, he nearly led the University of Pacific to a shocking NCAA Championship in 2013 over USC.

That year, USC staged one of the great comebacks in NCAA history to win the title in double overtime, partially thanks to a young Greek named Kostas Genidounias, who scored twice in the match. One year later, he too won a Cutino Award and was named to the Pac-12 All-Century team in 2015. He has returned to Greece to offer his skills both to his country's Olympic team and to Olympiacos of Pireaus, located near Athens. A year ago, the club nearly upset Croatia's Jug in the Champions League final and featured U.S. Olympian Jesse Smith (watch for No. 8 in the blue caps).

Jug Dubrovnik returns as defending champion. But not since 2008 has a team repeated, and Jug faces improved opposition this year. The Croatians finished third in their preliminary group behind improved Eger and Pro Recco. The 2013 version of the Croatian side featured the recently retired American Tony Azevedo, widely acknowledged to be the best water polo player in U.S. history (cap No. 6 in the video). Formed in 1973, AN Brescia is a relative youngster among European clubs and boasts one of the coolest badges, too. It's also a high-quality squad. This is the team's second placement in the F6 in the last three years, and it defeated Serie A1-leading Pro Recco earlier this month, the first league loss for Recco in nearly 30 months. Brescia sits opposite its rivals in the Final Six bracket, setting up the tantalizing prospect of an all-Italian title match.

Known as la squadra più titolata al mondo (the most titled team in the world), Recco owns eight Champions League trophies among its gaudy collection of awards: eight Euroleagues, six European Supercups, one Adriatic Cup, 31 Italian Leagues, and 12 Italian Cups. Its roster seems always to include the crème de la crème of the globe's superstars, and it's no different in 2017. Goalie Stefano Tempesti will end his career as one of the top goalies of all time. The team is littered with other Italian standouts: Pietro Figlioli has one of the more interesting stories. Brazilian-born and a former Australian international, Figlioli shifted allegiance to Italy in 2009, causing controversy Down Under. He became one of the highest-paid players in the world at the time and still possesses one of the most fearsome shots in the world, over 60 mph on the radar. The non-Italians are stellar too. Filip Filipovic of Serbia is the best player in the world, and 26-year-old Croatian Sandro Sukno is poised to reach that level.

If you're new to the sport, you could do a lot worse than sampling it at its most elevated. This is the tournament to watch. It begins on Thursday with a rematch of last year's final, Olympiacos versus Jug, followed by local faves Eger versus Brescia. The finals take place on Saturday beginning at 3:15 PM CEST -- 6:15 AM in Los Angeles, 9:15 AM ET in New York.