Athanasios Kechagias (centre) finally led the Spandau water friends back to the title as the new coach.
Photo: imago/Tilo Wiedensoler
In the long run only the able are lucky, as the vocabulary of folk wisdom says. The fact that this knowledge is often used in sports was confirmed these days in water polo, when Wasserfreunde Spandau 04 beat Waspo Hannover in the best-of-five championship final with three victories on Wednesday in Lower Saxony and on Saturday and Sunday in the swimming pool in Berlin- Schöneberg retained the upper hand. Long-term rival and defending champion Hannover had had the upper hand four times in five final series since 2018 and also dominated the cup. In 2019, the Berliners were allowed to sit on the national water polo throne for the last time. This long drought was unusual for the decades-long Croesus from the capital, who had become champion 37 times since 1979. After the pre-season, club president Hagen Stamm decided with Grimm and Herbert Grönemeyer: “Time for things to turn around”. In the squads of the two cultivated sporting and verbal “enemies”, various personnel changes had actually taken place: Spandau changed the coach and signed several strong foreign professionals.
That renovation was increasingly fruitful, the water friends remained undefeated in the Bundesliga main round, celebrated several double-digit victories and easily marched through the playoffs to the final. Hannover, on the other hand, had to settle for 3rd place in the main round behind ASC Duisburg. But in the cup final and then in the playoffs, the Lower Saxony were suddenly back in full force, surprising many. They won the “pot” 11:9 against Spandau, also won their semifinals in the Bundesliga with two victories against Duisburg and were not only equal to the water friends, who had previously been favorites, in the first two finals.
Nevertheless, Hanover lost both games because Waspo, after some clear leads, failed to close the famous sack until the final phases (10:8 in the first match, even 11:6 in the second match). Spandau, on the other hand, won thanks to an outstanding goalkeeper, Laszlo Baksa. Along with Mateo Cuk, Maurice Jüngling, Dennis Strelezkij and Marin Restovic, he was one of the few “survivors” from the 2019 champion team – the title series at the time started with 10: 9, 18:17 after 5 m throws and 12: 8 Spandau. This time, Baksa twice became a hero after the 10:10 and 11:11 draws in the subsequent five-meter throws for the 14:13 and 15:13 final scores.
Ergo, the decision could already be made on Sunday. And indeed: 3:1 lead at the beginning, 7:4 at half-time, four goals ahead in the second half – everything always looked like the championship was certain. But every time Waspo came back. This gave rise to fears that things could get very tight again this time. But Spandau got out of trouble again and was allowed to celebrate in the pool a minute before the end of the game.
With the decisive 12:9 on Sunday, which was still on the brink with a one-goal deficit in the final quarter, the 38th Spandau championship was perfect and the celebration with new coach Athanasios Kechagias was accordingly boisterous afterwards. With the obligatory jumps of the entire team including the coaching staff into the pool, it was committed, with enough spirits, with the parade to celebrate in the club domicile “Alfreds” (named after the legendary coach Alfred Balen) on the Olympic Stadium grounds.
“Overall, that was deserved over the course of the season,” said manager Peter Röhle, who, as an integral part of the Berlin inventory since the beginning of the Spandau era in 1979, has witnessed every success and some failures as a goalkeeper, coach and manager. “The title now is certainly one of the most beautiful, because it was so longed for,” he said afterwards. And the championship was also celebrated so exuberantly because it was at the top of the goal agenda.
In the conclusion of the season, the change of coach and the reorganization of the team were confirmed. However, not all dreams came true. The final defeat in the cup hurt, in the Champions League they missed the final round of the top eight again after mixed performances. So the complete change has not yet taken place: Experienced players still form the backbone of the team, but with Yannek Chiru or Zoran Bozic, who have meanwhile matured to national players, young players (both born in 2002) are already ready for the future.
