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Road to Swiss Cup Final 4
The next Chapter of our Road to Swiss Final Four is with Lugano Sharks coach Jonathan Del Galdo. We talked to him ahead of the semifinal against Kreuzlingen about his success in water polo with one of the best teams ever and how to be successful in water polo.
wball.ch: good morning Jonathan. Your Wikipedia page seems to be up to date. But tell us a bit more about how you started water polo and why?
Jonathan Del Galdo: I grew up almost on the beach where we used to play water polo in summer as little kids. I was a swimmer and was already 14 years old when friends and coaches motivated me to transition to the water polo section of Rari Nantes Bogliasco, where I played most of my career.
wball.ch: in season 2011-2012 you have been called by Pro Recco to be the assistant of Pino Porzio and coach the “Adriatic Team” of Pro Recco. That year Pro Recco played in the Adriatic League with mostly foreign players and ended up winning it. You coached some big champions, can you name 1-2 players that were the greatest of the greatest? You just need to pick from players like Tempesti, Buric, Madaras, Giorgetti, Kasas, Felugo, Filipovic, Perrone, Pijetlovic, Zlokovic, Ivovic, Molina, Prlainovic or Sukno.
Jonathan Del Galdo: it’s extremely difficult as we had the best two players of the best national teams. Some were extremely strong in their mental approach to the game, others in their physique. We had the best centers, lefthanders, goalkeepers, scorers and legends like Tamas Kasas or Tibor Benedek. So it’s impossible to pick one.
Talk to everybody in the same way and show everyone the same mistakes. If you have the strength to do that, it will be fine. Otherwise the “fairy tale” might end.
wball.ch: What advice would give to a coach that has to train big champions? Can you still teach them anything?
Jonathan Del Galdo: the quality of a coach in this situation is to keep the team in a positive mood and motivate the players to work. The main thing that I learned from the coaches I worked with is to be fair, which means to talk to everybody in the same way and show everyone the same mistakes. If you have the strength to do that, it will be fine. Otherwise the “fairy tale” might end. If you are correct to your players, you already have done 80% of the job. They are professionals and hate to lose or to be second. From a tactical perspective, you just need to make sure they all do the same thing. They are so good they can win with whatever you want them to play, as long as they all do the same.
wball.ch: so it’s better to play the wrong tactic with the entire team, than the best tactic but with a non-convinced team.
Jonathan Del Galdo: Absolutely. But a good coach will also pick the right tactic. Pino Porzio did not miss one shot. We played pressing with players like Buric or Kasas because it was the best for the team based on their abilities. This is the key to success.
You could ask those guys to go to train to the moon and they would have done that.
wball.ch: You worked with some great coaches like Pino Porzio or Ratko Rudic. Tell us one thing that you learned from each of them.
Jonathan Del Galdo: Pino Porzio had this great strength to treat everyone equally and to be essential. He was a big champion and had the authority to be followed by such an all-star team. I would also like to mention Amedeo Pomilio who has great intuitions.
Ratko Rudic is a particular person. He is probably the most successful coach in water polo history. He is more rigid coming from Eastern Europe, but in his way still treats all equally. He created a very good momentum in Recco.
wball.ch: You did extremely well with teams like Bogliasco or Quinto. How can you prepare a team that is inferior on paper to perform well against teams that should be better?
Jonathan Del Galdo: I’m very proud of those achievements. Especially with Bogliasco. We managed to end in the 4th place in championship with a group of kids coming from our youth sector. This team knew each other for years, played the same system, had a great will, and embraced the sport culture of a club like Bogliasco. You could ask those guys to go to train to the moon and they would have done that.
Quinto is a bit of a different story, but we did very well with Nicolò Figari who showed the way and the rest of the team followed the cause. It was Quinto’s best placement ever.
We need to change our sport mentality and with this I mean the habit to suffer during practice and train with regularity
wball.ch: Let’s talk about Lugano and the Swiss League. The team is built around Federico “Chicco” Pagani and Tommaso Busilacchi. Tell us more about the other players.
Jonathan Del Galdo: we are still growing as a team. It’s great that we qualified for the cup semifinal as we need such games to improve our mentality, our game overall, our intensity, and our ability to play decisive matches.
We know we are the challenger as we have a very young team without much experience. I need to confess that they are reacting very well and in some moments they showed very good things. We are not at our best form on the weekend, if we train too hard during the week. But this is the only way to grow as a team.
We need to change our sport mentality and with this I mean the habit to suffer during practice and train with regularity.
Only with an immense passion players are willing to do the sacrifices needed to achieve great results in sports
wball.ch: What is your impression of the league so far?
Jonathan Del Galdo: I’m positively impressed. We played in some very nice aquatic centers. It’s a good championship and we could compare it to the second Italian league of today. There are also some very good foreign players like Blary from Carouge, who could play in the first Italian league if he would like to.
wball.ch: What should we do in Switzerland to improve the level of our water polo especially when we are talking about the national teams?
Jonathan Del Galdo: you need to change the mentality and restructure the championship. You need to give the chance to the young players to fall in love with water polo. My best friends come from water polo and if we don’t like each other, it will not work. You need to bring a young team together and show them a linear path. Switzerland has a wide pool of youth players, but they get lost when they grow for different reasons like studies or work careers. We would need to create a system and build it with passion. Only with an immense passion players are willing to do the sacrifices needed to achieve great results in sports.
wball.ch: thank you very much for your time and good luck against Kreuzlingen
