Aaron Younger - Szeged Beton (Hungary)

Euro Champions League

In Goup C reigning champions Partizan Belgrade gained a much needed 9-5 victory over Vasas in order to keep their quarter finals hopes alive.

After Szeged's 10-9 win at Eger, Partizan will face Szeged in the last game of the preliminaries in a battle for the first place while Vasas take on Eger.

Szeged Beton (HUN) vs. ZF Eger (HUN) 10-9 (4-3, 1-2, 2-3, 2-2)

Standings: 1. Szeged 5-10, 2. Vasas 5-8 points, 3. Partizan 5-7, 4. Eger 5-3.

Aaron Younger (Szeged): With just two games to go and a very tight group, every point has become very important. Szeged has also not won in Eger for over eight years so we were determined to change that. We got off to a horrible start with Eger scoring in the first seven seconds of the game due to some average defence.

After this we scored off the very next attack. From here on it was goal for goal the whole game with no team being able to establish a proper lead. With about four minutes to go we conceded a goal to put us one behind. With about two and a half minutes to go we managed to bring it back to a draw again.

Then with around 30 second remaining we managed to score another goal to win the game. This was a good result for the team especially seeing the situation we were in. Looking at the game critically though, we weren't as clinical as we should have been.

We had a few situations of sloppy defence and average team play. This can probably come down to not playing an official game together for almost two months. Besides some average moments, the game wasn't too bad and the result is good for us putting taking us to the lead in our group. We still don't have a confirmed position in the top eight yet, as the top three teams are all with in three points of each other so it will come down to the last game against Partizan.

Click here for video footage: www.youtube.com/watch

Hungarian League

Round 13 of the Hungarian league resumed on Saturday, with some movements at the top of the table. Leader Szeged was held to a 6-6 draw at home to Szolnok while Honvéd secured a 11-11 tie against Vasas. The only team benefiting from both ties was defending champion ZF-Eger who gained a clear 17-8 win against FTC. A combined nine goals by the trio of Norbert Hosnyanszky, Zsolt Varga and captain Peter Biros were a big part of the win.

In Szeged, the home team trailed 4-2 at half time but came back in the second half to lead 6-5 with a minute to play, before Szolnok centre-forward, Gabor Kis scored the equaliser.

For Honvéd, the tie was realised in the final minute of play. Gergely Katonas put Vasas 11-10 in front with just over a minute to play but the third goal by Miklos Gor Nagy, with fourty seconds left in the game, brought the home team level.

Eger now leads the league with Szeged two points behind in second place, but the current Champions League group C leaders played one less match than Eger.

Szeged Beton VE - Szolnoki Dózsa-KÖZGéP 6-6 (1-1, 1-3, 2-1, 2-1)

Goals Szeged: Aaron Younger 2, Balázs Somogyi 2, Béla Török, Gábor Hegedüs.

Goals Szolnok: Tiberiu Negrean 2, áron Regös, Mátyás Pásztor, Gábor Kis, Gergö Marnitz.

Aaron Younger (Szeged Beton): The last time we played against Szolnok we drew the game in pretty average form. And yet again we managed to draw with them with another sub par performance. As a team in defence, we were very good putting together a solid team performance. But then when we went into attack it was disjointed with bad shooting options, no movement and just very individual play. The main positive in the game would be that we were losing 1-4 and managed to get the score to 6-5 our way with about 1-2 minutes to go in the game. A pretty bad result from our team but hopefully this will improve us moving forwards.

Click here for video footage: www.vlv.hu/media/item/17219/65-younger-masodik-golja-(szeged-szolnok-bajnoki-20120211)

www.vlv.hu/media/item/17214/24-younger-elso-golja-(szeged-szolnok-bajnoki-20120211)

www.youtube.com/watch

The standings are now as follows:

1. ZF-Eger 13 - 34 pts
2. A-HID Szeged Beton VE 12 - 32
3. Szolnoki Dózsa-KÖZGéP 13 - 29
4. TEVA-Vasas-UNIQA 12 - 26
5. Groupama Honvéd 12 - 25
6. Debrecen: 12 - 19
7. FTC FisherKlíma 13 - 14
8. KALO MéH CS&K SZENTESI VK 13 - 10
9. BVSC - Zugló 13 - 10
10. PSVK-Füszért 12 - 7
11. Kaposvári VK 12 - 7
12. Orvosegyetem SC 13 - 4

Aidan Roach - Vojvodina Novi Sad (Serbia)

European Champions League

Wasserfreunde Spandau 04 (GER) vs Vojvodina Novi Sad (SRB) 9-8 (2-0, 3-1, 2-3, 2-4)

Standings: 1. Jug 5-15 points, 2. Mladost 5-9, 3. Spandau 5-4, 4. Vojvodina 5-1.

AJ Roach (Vojvodina): This was meant to be a close game the whole way through, but unfortunately we started off very slowly losing the first half 5 1. After this, we got our act together and started to get our counter attack going executing a couple of quick goals. However, they always managed to stay just ahead and when we pulled within one in the last quarter they immediately got a kickout and converted their opportunity. This put the game beyond reach and was disappointing as it was our best opportunity to take a win in the euroleague.

Serbian League

The first round of the Serbian league was supposed to be played last weekend with the derby game between LEN Euro Cup quaterfinalists Red Star and Champions League participant Vojvodina, being cancelled because of electricity cut backs by the local government due to severe weather conditions. The game will be played on 22 February, as was announced today.

Rob Maitland - Mediterrani (Spain)

Spanish League - Week 11

The restart of the Spanish League was all about the final spot for the Spanish Cup. The top seven of the league plus hosts Sant Andreu will battle for the Cup, so there were four teams still in the race for that final position. With both Navarra and Mediterrani losing their respective matches, C.N. Montjuic benefited by remaining at seventh place although the newly promoted side had to swallow a big 23-7 loss at Real Canoe. The eleventh round saw title-holders Barceloneta easily win their derby 13-2 against C.N. Barcelona, who played with just six senior players due to difficulties with their Chinese internationals returning from the Asian Olympic Qualifying Games. Second placed C.N. Sabadell secured a comfortable 17-7 win at Catalunya, while third seeded Mataro Quadis notched a 19-7 victory over last placed WP Turia on Sunday.

C.E. Mediterrani - C.N. Sant Andreu 8-12 (1-3, 4-4, 1-3, 2-2)

Rob Maitland (Mediteranni): Sant Andreu is not a very good team at all but we played shockingly allowing them 4 centre forward goals and three identical extraman goals. They have three good outside shooters which we were told to pay attention to, but we ended up paying all our attention to them and forgot about the centre forwards and playing any zone. We did create a number of chances in attack but the final shot or extraman was not good enough the majority of the time. We got back into the game after being a number of goals down at the start but at crucial moments we missed and they went to the other end and scored.

Week 12

Terrassa gained a big 10-9 win over Mataro Quadis in the Spanish League on Saturday. With the victory, Terrassa now moves to fourth place on the table, equal in points with Mataro who has the fifth spot. Navarra notched up a good win as well, beating Catalunya 8-7 and are now tied with C.N. Barcelona on the rankings. The top-three teams made no mistakes. League leading side Atlètic-Barceloneta gained a easy 13-3 triumph over Sant Andreu, while current number two Sabadell got the 11-8 victory at Mediterrani. League number three, Real Canoe, did a good job for the goal difference against last placed WP Turia winning 22-2.

C.E. Mediterrani - C.N. Sabadell 8-11 (0-4, 4-2, 1-2, 3-3)

Rob Maitland (Mediterrani): Although Sabadell are a much better team than Sant Andreu we still started poorly not taking our chances in attack and allowing a number of very soft goals in defence mainly from bad blocking or just general unawareness. We got back into the game again but then at crucial moments particularly in extraman we were unable to convert.

Click here for video footage: www.youtube.com/watch

The standings are now as follows:

1. C.N. Atlètic-Barceloneta 12 - 32 pts
2. C.N. Sabadell 12 - 30
3. Real Canoe N.C. - Isostar 12 - 24
4. C.N. Terrassa 12 - 22
5. C.N. Mataro Quadis 12 - 22
6. C.N. Montjuic 12 - 16
7. C.N. Barcelona 12 - 15
8. C.D. Waterpolo Navarra 12 - 15
9. C.E. Mediterrani 12 - 11
10. C.N. Catalunya 12 - 11
11. C.N. Sant Andreu 12 - 10
12. C.D. WP Turia 12 - 0

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