INTERVIEW WITH UROS STEVANOVIĆ: We have the atmosphere and the game for Olympic gold!

For something in more than a week, the Olympic Games begin in Paris, where the Serbian water polo team will defend the gold won in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2021. The national selection has undergone major changes since that gold in Japan. The Big Seven said goodbye to the national team, no medals were won in five major competitions, and the national team was taken over by Uroš Stevanović at a very inconvenient moment, in October 2022.

The Paris Games were the occasion for a conversation with the Serbian coach. , who in an interview with Waterpolo News pointed out in an optimistic tone that he believes that his team now has both the atmosphere and the game that can bring new Olympic gold.

– We have one the goal before us, which is to win the gold. Not to defend, because this is a new national team, which in the past period faced everything and everyone. We also have flaws of course, doubts, things that make us think. But, I think that we have overcome all childhood illnesses and that we finally have an atmosphere and a game that can encourage us to be able to win the Olympic gold.

The first match Serbia plays against Japan on July 28. Two days later the rival will be Australia, and then every two days they will play Spain, Francisco and finally Hungary. When asked if this schedule, with two relatively weaker opponents at the start, suits his selection, Stevanović says:

- We will know after the quarter-finals whether the schedule we have will work for us. I would not say that Australia is in a subordinate position compared to the national teams that we will play with later. Perhaps in Šabac, she had the most consistent and best games in the tournament. At the Olympic Games, the quarterfinals are the most important, we don't even know where we will finish in the group, and we still don't know in the second group. We must improve our form and be mentally ready for the quarter-finals.

At a similar time a year ago, the World Championship was played in Fukuoka, and then in January and February, two more major competitions were played, first the European Championship in Zagreb, and then just a few weeks later the World Championship in Doha.

– Three championships in six months probably never happened. Two more took place, when the World Championship or the European Championship is in winter. A long and extremely difficult club season should be added to all this. Especially for players who have reached the Final Four of the Champions League, so I think it's impossible for them to be in top form four times in a season. A very difficult situation for us – says Stevanović and continues:

– When the club season ended, the first thing was that they get a good rest to recover, and the question is how much they can recovery. But the motive is different when the Olympic Games are on, I can see that from the players during these preparations. They have a greater desire, everything is on a higher level. The boys worked exceptionally well in Kragujevac, Kranj and Šabac. I see that everyone is maximally concentrated, that they give their best at all times, which makes it easier and harder for me to choose for the Olympic Games, which 13 I will choose - emphasizes the coach of Serbia, who will announce the final list of players in the coming days. Paris.

In addition to four major representative competitions in just twelve months, all players also play a large number of matches during the club season, on the domestic and European stage. In such circumstances, Stevanović did not have much time to prepare with the players before the European and World Championships.

– In January and February, we only had three weeks of preparation for one and the other competition, the players came from the club season and there is no time at all to time the form, only theirs can be maintained, the one in which they came from the clubs. And let's try to play with each other as much as possible. We were only complete in January, when Nikola Jakšić recovered and began to train with full intensity, after a year. He was recovering from injury for Zagreb, healthy and ready for Doha, and after a year we were finally complete. Every moment meant that we were preparing, everything that we did during those months was extremely important for this now, and it can only be seen in these preparations. Certain things that we did in January and February are now coming to the fore - points out Stevanović and continues in the same breath:

- All the players in the clubs had different requirements, the club picks were different. They were not for December and January, so that they would be in top form. Every club has its own ambitions, it tries to fulfill them, and the players have to adapt to the roles that the coach gives them. Some less, some more. Unfortunately, it is not in accordance with the ideas I have about the national team. But what is there is. I think it was like that before. I hope that this will change in the future, that in the clubs they will have the roles they have in the Serbian national team.

On the first in a big competition with Stevanović at the helm, Serbia took fourth place. It was at the World Championship in Fukuoka a year ago, when in the quarter-finals a rejuvenated team without Dusan Mandić eliminated the Italians, and then in the fight for a medal they were defeated by Greece and Spain. In January and February, Serbia lost in the quarter-finals in tight ends.

- When I look at the quarter-finals we lost, they are analytically different. As a result, a step back was made compared to Fukuoka, but in terms of the game and the atmosphere, it was a step forward. After spending a lot of time together, we only got the outlines of the national team in Doha, because both Dušan Mandić and Nikola Jakšić were ready and showed what they are. We base the game on the two of them, it's no secret.

Stevanović took over the national selection in October 2022, and then in an interview he revealed that the main goal is qualifying for the Olympic Games, and immediately also held a conversation with the players who were not part of the national team for a long time.

– When I took over the national team, the main goal was set before me, and that was qualifying for the Olympic Games. Of course, ambitions are always bigger than that, but that was the basic and main thing. We tried to rejuvenate the national team, you can check how many players went through the wider lists of the national team... A lot of players got a chance, they even got a chance at two World Cups and one European Championship. They played in two major competitions for the first time in their careers. An analysis of the cycle was made and we saw that the return of Nikola Dedović and Miloš Ćuk would mean a lot to us, before that also Nemanja Ubović, whom I immediately attached.

Shortly after taking over the national team, Stevanović returned to the team Nemanja Ubović, an experienced center who has not been in the national selection since 2017, while he started "negotiations" with Miloš Ćuk, with whom he cooperated well in Radničko.

– After Doha, I contacted Ćuk and Dedović , who immediately accepted it with great satisfaction, and Miloš wanted to see with himself if he could meet the demands of the national team. Can he be at his best and help Serbia? Since I was appointed as a coach, we have been in contact. From everything seen so far, he has shown that he can. I didn't doubt it for a moment, and it turned out that he complements us in the right way with his appearance. In the pool, but also outside it.

Compared to the World Cup in Fukuoka, the Serbian coach now has three very experienced players in the team, which will mean a lot, especially on the tricky side.

– The difference is when the team is younger and more experienced, at the Olympic Games we should have the strongest team. There is no room for someone without experience to grow and develop as a player in Paris. This was possible during the preparations or in Fukuoka, Zagreb and Doha. Now we have to perform in the strongest composition. Age should not be seen. Nikola Dedović and Miloš Ćuk fully deserved the invitation with their performances and proved why they are again in the national team.

At the beginning of June, a preparatory competition was held in Šabac tournament, where Serbia, with four wins and one loss, took the first place after five rounds.

– As in every preparatory tournament, the coaches try what they have doubts about. Is it about the composition, the game system... Old and new things were practiced, and they were tried to implement them in the game. We came from the basic preparations, the players were tired and heavy, they were not in top form, which would not be right now. But I am very satisfied with how all this looked in Šabac. Everything I wanted, I tried and saw. We know what we need to work on in the final period of preparation, in which we will have six training matches with Montenegro and that will be the icing on the cake. Then we will have a clearer picture of where we are at this moment.

The new face in the coaching staff of the Serbian national team is the once celebrated volleyball player, and today a sports psychologist, Andrija Gerić.

– My idea was for Andrija Gerić to join the coaching staff, just like everyone who works in the senior national team. He has already worked privately with some players, with athletes in general and has many years of experience in that field. He was a top athlete, we go to the Olympics, the biggest competition, and he knows what they entail and won medals. In Sydney in 2000, gold. I think he likes the team as well, from what I've seen so far, and the atmosphere is much better with his engagement and the return of Miloš Ćuk compared to the previous period.

It is known that the format at the Olympic Games is very difficult, because every match is the most important, which is quite different from the group stage at the European and World Championships, where the formats have changed little in previous years.

– I think it is illusory to talk more about those changes in the format of the competition. From the European Championship, through the World Championship, to the Olympic Games. The system is different in each country and we are simply guided by the fact that it is the same for us as it is for others. Whoever adapts better has a greater chance of success. And, now that we are wasting energy and time dealing with such things, I think there are people who deal with it. They changed once, we'll see what it will bring, whether there will be changes or not in the future for water polo.

In addition to new competition formats, water polo, like other sports, also received some new rules, VAR has also been introduced.

– Maybe VAR is not transparent for viewers. And for those who are in the stands, but also those near the small screens. But it is a good idea to introduce it in the beginning, as in other sports. Here he only focused on 'violent action' and I think it is good to eradicate it from water polo, but not to be selective, but to have equal criteria for everyone. And if it starts to be used in other situations, to be used for other purposes, to allow coaches a challenge, one or two, that is for a deeper analysis. A step forward was made and it is used more and more often, rough play is punished. Exclusion without the right to substitute gives the opposing team five minutes and four more players, which is a huge advantage in the game - says Stevanović:

- Water polo is being cleansed of violent behavior, and it has a reputation for was like a bully sport. To what extent VAR will be developed remains to be seen, but I would say that it is stagnating in this regard. It should be possible for coaches to ask for a challenge for some situations they have seen, to be like in other sports - said an experienced strategist at the end of the interview for Water Polo News.