World and defending Olympic champion Hungary goes into the Athens Games as the logical choice to win an eighth water polo gold medal.
Towering driver Tamas Kasas, rated among the greatest players of the era, leads a roster containing nine returning Olympians who're favorites to win back-to-back titles.
Serbia-Montenegro coach Nenad Manojlovic disagrees, saying his lineup should be joint favorites in Athens.
"Along side Hungary, my team is the favorite for the gold medal," said Manojlovic. "During our pre-Olympic preparation we faced a lot of problems with injuries. The good thing is, right now all my players are healthy and capable of taking the responsibility on their shoulders."
He'll get an early chance to test his hypothesis when the heavyweights meet in a first-round Group A match Sunday.
The Hungarians ended a two-decade period without an Olympic gold medal by beating Russia 13-6 in the Sydney final in 2000. Yugoslavia, now known as Serbia-Montenegro, took bronze in a third-place playoff win over 1996 champion Spain.
Hungary won the 2003 world championship and beat Serbia-Montenegro in last month's World League Super Final.
Kasas scored four goals in the 12-8 World League win and said the biggest challenge Hungary faces at the Olympics is fatigue.
Hungary coach Denes Kemeny agrees, saying the tournament in Long Beach, California was important preparation, but "what really counts is the Olympics."
Getting through the preliminaries in the 12-nation tournament won't be easy, with two-thirds of the competing teams holding realistic chances of making the semifinals.
As well as Hungary and Serbia-Montenegro, Group A contains Russia, Croatia, the US and Kazakhstan. Group B opens with Italy against Spain, Australia vs. Egypt and Germany vs. Greece.
"At least eight teams will fight hard for the medals," said Italian coach Paolo de Crescanzo, "right now, nobody can say which of them will be the lucky one."
The Italians were runners-up in the world championships and de Crescanzo said recent poor results shouldn't count against them.
"All those bad results in friendly games doesn't say anything to me -- I never pay too much attention to them," he said. "Our preparation was really hard, so the players felt a little tired.
"I am confident about my team. We have players with plenty of talent and passion. That is our main weapon."
European teams have won every world or Olympic title in men's water polo, except the 1904 Olympics when only American teams competed in St. Louis. But Europeans haven't completely monopolized the women's division.
Australia captured gold in Sydney with a last-ditch win over the US when women's water polo made its Olympic debut.
After pulling to 3-3 on Brenda Villa's goal with 26 seconds to go, US coach Guy Baker was formulating plans for extra-time -- until Australia's Yvette Higgins fired in the winner from close range with 1.7 seconds remaining in regulation.
Baker appealed against Higgins' quick snapshot until the referee signaled that the goal stood.
Baker said the Sydney final was a starting point for his Athens Olympic squad.
"That game was great for our sport. Great to be part of. I'd like to have the last couple of seconds back, I have to be honest on that," he said. "But there's no guarantee that game would have gone into overtime.
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