David Martín: "Mixed feelings, we have done things well but there is a lot to improve"

After an exhausting 2024 in which our men's national team added two new international medals (gold at the European Championship in Croatia and bronze at the World Championship in Doha), the team led by David Martín has kicked off 2025. They did it with the first match of the World Cup group stage being held in Romania. New regulations, a batch of young players. We talked to the coach after the narrow loss to Hungary (11-12).

"First match of the championship. Mixed feelings, I think we have done things well. It's true that there were many debutants in international competitions with the national team and that showed. But the team responded. This new water polo is more physical, tougher in one-on-one situations and I believe the Hungarians were better. I have seen interesting things, I think we can improve a lot. So, despite the result, I think we can be satisfied and we can improve a lot. We will analyze with the video and think about the next match," Martín analyzes.

"Technically, Mancherz, the Hungarian top scorer, caused us a lot of trouble. These are situations we need to control better. And then in attack, water polo is much more physical and there are moments of fatigue where decision-making is wrong. This is also where the youth of the players comes in. We will grow game by game," the coach analyzes.

RFEN Communication. Photo: (c) David Martín / (c) Deepbluemedia-RFEN