• Crónica López Pinedo leads Spain to its first semifinals in water polo since Sydney 2000

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"It was to see us, it was to see us," they say and laugh, accomplices. On Wednesday,

Spain

was preparing in the locker room to face the

United States

, there were just a few minutes to go to the fourth quarter of the Tokyo Games, when two of the players, two veterans,

Felipe Perrone

and

Fran Fernández

, looked at each other and understood each other. "We were more nervous than the kids. They were there calm, much looser, and it took us a lot to free ourselves," says Fernández on

Zoom

and possibly that scene explains the current success of the men's team.

In the semifinals (12:50 pm) against

Serbia they

will seek to secure their first medal since the 1996 Atlanta Games, but having reached this stage is already a success. Not long ago, Spain was an evicted team from which players fled and which had a hard time even qualifying for the big tournaments. Now he can chain his fourth consecutive final after the last two Europeans and the 2019 World Cup. What has changed?

"Many things, but above all a generation of players with a lot of quality and with impressive self-confidence has arrived. We remind them of everything we have lost, what we have suffered to get here, but they are launched", analyzes Perrone and speaks of

Alvaro Granados

, of

Alberto Munarriz

, of

Marc Larue

, of

Miguel de Toro

and even

Unai Aguirre

, the goalkeeper of 19 years has been the revelation of these Games.

To the rhythm of Barceloneta

The turning point was the 2018 Barcelona European Championship. The previous year,

David Martín

had reached

the position of coach and had begun a daring renewal that went through forgetting names such as

Guillermo Molina

or

Gonzalo Echenique

, who ended up playing for Italy, and incorporating many young people. In that European it worked: a silver. "And there the veterans saw that we could compete, that the kids did not have the inferiority complex that we had, that they fought for other objectives. That European was very important and, since then, we have only had successes", says Fernández who plays in Barceloneta, of course, like almost all the team's players.

Because that is another key: the team advances to the rhythm of Barceloneta, the club to which 10 of the 13 members of the squad belong, and as the team is doing better than ever ... Beyond the national league, where it sweeps , in Europe he has managed to qualify for the semifinals of the Champions League in the last three editions and sooner or later he will take the title. That the club's automatisms remain in the national team is fortunate.

"And it could also be a trap. It had happened before: the club is not doing well and you pay for it in the national team. Now we have a lot of union, we get along very well and for us it is an advantage. The only problem is that I see more of Fran than my wife, "says Perrone, a joker, with a story that shows the change in this team.

Born in Brazil, for the Rio Games he decided to leave Spain and go to play with his country's team, but as soon as he spoke with

David Martín

, he returned.

"We must put a lot of rhythm"

Now he aspires to gold or, at least, to a final that will be very expensive.

Serbia

is the current Olympic champion and surely the favorite for Spain and the semifinals will be very complicated, although Spain has already beaten it both in the last World Cup and in the last European Championship. "If you want to explain it like this, with Serbia it is easy to see if we are dominating or not. If you see a lot of movement, that a lot of water rises, that things are happening, it is that we are doing well. If you see everything a little stopped it is that we are doing badly. They are very big, very physical, and we have to put a lot of rhythm into them ", analyzes Perrone who, before the semifinals, will look at his fatigued partner

Fran Fernández

and both will understand each other.

Despite the fact that they are both 35 years old and have already experienced it all in the pool, they will be nervous at the option of securing a medal at the Games.

Around him, quite possibly, young people will be "there calm, much looser."

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Know more

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