In the second leg of Hungarian League’s final met two of this years European Cup finalists! On Wednesday in Budapest the CWC winner FTC Rail-Cargo Hungaria and CL-finalist Győri Audi ETO KC had to decide the Hungarian Champion. If FTC could win,  the first place would be decided on a third match.

Szucsánszki and company had a big psichological advantage on their side, after winning  Viborg and taking the CWC, plus home-court advantage too, meanwhile the team from Győr was totally down after losing the CL-final in Podgorica.

The match was an exciting one, where two tired teams had a decent fight and they wanted to show a spectacular handball to their enthusiastic fans also.

The result was tie  or very close, almost all the time in the second part of the game, and half minute before the end we already had a winner, score was 27-28 for Győr. But Szucsánszki got a penalty and Serbian Jelena Zivkovic had the chance to put the ball behind Pálinger,  when the playing time has already expired. In case of a tie, 7m penalties would have been decided the winner.

Pálinger saved the ball, which was her last save  in a very succesfull carreer, giving the ninth Hungarian Championship title to her team.

Last Sunday in Podgorica, Buducnost and Győri ETO KC met in the second leg of the CL-final. Hungarians had a small advantage from the first leg played in Veszprém, there they managed to win at 29-27.

The venue, Moraca where final was hold, has been sold out, and 400 Hungarian fans was also expected. Unfortunatelly the fans couldn’t drive close to the arena only 5 minutes before the start of the match because they were stopped and blocked by Montenegrin police, outside the city, to not have the possibility to have a crush with the home fans, named Varvaris (barbars).

After the match Hungarian spectators was not allowed to watch and congratulate for their team, but they were forced to live the arena before the official medal-ceremony has started.

Both teams had big profiles who has won aready CL titles in their carriers, Popovic and Savic at home side, Haraldsen and Löke at Győr’s team.

In the first part ETO took the lead, but Buducnost defended strong, getting a lot of 2 min.suspensions, but Hungarians couldn’t manage to take a considerable advantage despite the montenegrins suspensions.13-12 was the score after thirty minutes of play.

In the second half of the game both teams tried to get a bigger gap, but it was only 1-2 goals difference, and in the final this caused that Budusnost won the CL-title, first time in club’s history because of more goals scored in the first, away-match. Final score: 27-25.

Anita Görbicz scored 9 goals on her 29th birthday but the CL-trophy was lifted again by Bojana Popovic, who won her sixth CL-trophy with Buducnost.

Topscorer of CL is Görbicz with 133 goals.

With 55 days remaining to throw-off in Oman for the 2012 World Championship in beach handball the four groups where drawn.

Two mens groups and two womens group of six teams in each group.

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MEN GROUP A

1. BRASIL

2. RUSSIA

3. UKRAINE

4. OMAN

5. MORROCO

6. AUSTRALIA

MEN GROUP B

1. CROATIA

2. EGYPT

3. SPAIN

4. QATAR

5. URUGUAY

6. KUWAIT

WOMEN GROUP A

1. CROATIA

2. DANMARK

3. ITALY

4. CHINA

5. URUGUAY

6. AUSTRALIA

WOMEN GROUP B

1. NORWAY

2. BRASIL

3. HUNGARY

4. THAILAND

5. POLAND

6. SINGAPORE

Saturday afternoon Viborg HK and FTC from Hungary met in the second leg of the CWC-final in Viborg Stadionhalle. First leg has been won by the Hungarians with a slim advantage, 31-30

In the start of first half the home-team had a small lead but Hungarians managed to equalise the score and build up a three goals lead before the break. This part of the game was a strong fight, where especially Danishs had to deal with a lot of 2 minute suspensions. This fact wasn’t tolareated very well by Martin Albertsen, coach of home-team, and he got also a yellow card, followed by 2 minutes suspension too. FTC had a strong defence, and could use a lot the line-player and the wings. First half: 12-15.

After the break Viborg looked much more determined to defend and play a quality handball in attack too. They had a short comeback coming closer to only one goal, 17-18, but Fradi could score again. Playmaker Zita Szucsánszki and line-player Piroska Szamoránszky showed a really good performance. Meanwhile they scored, Tomori worked a lot in defence. Viborg had an outstanding Rikke Skov again, and Christina Pedersen in the goal had a good day also. When was 45 minutes left from the final, FTC had an one goals lead, 20-21. Score became a tie in the 47.min of the match, Gullden took a penalty. Hungarian timeout came 8 minutes before the end, when VHK took the lead at 25-24. Szucsánszki scored for a tie, and the playmaker took the lead also at 25-26. The final of the match was a really thriller with both teams leading and scoring after each other, 59.min 29-29.  Szucsánszki set FTC in lead again, and Albertsen took  his TO. Last goal was scored by Szandra Zácsik, which meant new advantage and defending of CWC title F inal score: 30-31.

Today afternoon the CL finalist Győri Audi ETO and the CWC finalist FTC Rail-Cargo Hungaria met in the first leg of the final of Hungarian League.

It was a match full of technical faults and mistakes from both teams, but especially from Győr’s side which was very surprising. FTC managed to take the lead int he first part of the game and led by an outstanding Zsuzsa Tomori (she scored 10) had an advantage of four goals after 30 minutes on Győr’s home-court, Magvassy, 17-21.

Second part of the match has brought a much more massive defence from Győr’s side and Katrine Lunde Haraldsen replaced Katalin Pálinger in the goal. Due to these changes Győr equalised the situation, first at 25-25. Last quarter was a very close fight, with a tired FTC and a much fresher home team, where Anita Görbicz showed in the last five minutes a little bit of her genius, scoring, steeling balls and giving assists to her team mates. Final result: 37-33.

At the end of the match the club from Győr organised a mini taking -farewell ceremony for three players who played the last home-court match in Magvassy Mihály Arena today.

Slovenian international Ana Gros is leaving the club after 2 years, her next club is Thüringer HC from Germany, meanwhile left winger Orsolya Vérten will play in another club form the next season (probably in FTC), after playing 8 years in Győr, beeing the player with the highest number of played matches for the club.

Finally, goalkeeper Katalin Pálinger decided to retire at the end of season, but will continue to work at the club.

The second European Cup final was played on 6th May, Sunday in Dabas, Hungary where last years CWC winner , FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria and Danish Viborg HK met in a thrilling match.

Among spectators we could observe three Győr players, Orsolya Vérten, Heidi Løke and Katrine Lunde Haraldsen relaxing after CL-final played the day before.
Before the match in the totally out-sold venue was hold a minute of silence in memory of the Norwegian swimmer, Aleksander Dale Oen, tragically died last week.

The Danish team started well and despite the burning athmosphere created by the Hungarian crowd they managed to build up a three goals lead, 2-5 in the 9.minute of the final. After coach Gabor Elek took his time-out, his team seemed to be more focused and tried to come back in the match. Danishs had a 3-8 gap in their favour, but FTC players scored more goals from 9 m, from the line-player and right wing position also by Zacsik, Kovacsicz or Tomori, and after 20 minutes of play, the result was 10-10. Hungarians defence became much stronger, they managed to stop Viborgs attacks well, so after beeing lead by five on home-court FTC had a two goals advantage to the break, 14-12.

Second half of the match brought a very hard fight with Hungarians in lead all the time and Viborg trying to come closer. Topscorer for Viborg was Rikke Skov, who reached a number of 9 goals in this match. FTC had the chance to win this home-match by 4-5 goals, because in the second part they played a smart handball, defenced well, scored without fail from penalties by Serbian Jelena Zivkovic, and they had fast counter attacks also. But they have got extremely tired in the end and Viborg with a larger squad reduced the difference to only one goal in the finish and can prepare for the second leg of the final with a bigger chance and the mentally advantage given by the home-court. Final result: 31-30.

Zita Szucsanszki, captain and playmaker in FTC, analyzed the match:

“We were not focused enough in the start of the game, but when our defence became stronger we managed to come back and take the lead. I am very disappointed because of the last part of the match when we did a lot of mistakes and we lost the 5 goals advantage we have got earlier. Truth is that we don’t have such a numerous squad, that’s why we got tired to the end of the match. Now we have to travel to Denmark with only one small goal, so we have to play as good as in the first match’s last forty minutes to be able to defend the last year’s CWC trophy.”

On Saturday May 5th, Arena Veszprem became white and green to give home for about five thousand people, fans and spectators, and more than one hundred and fifty media representatives watching the final of the Champions League.

Both on court and at the spectators area there was a really big fight where the two best teams of this years Champions League met for the first time in the last three years.

It is also wellknown that the fans of Győr and Buducnost are able to create the most feared homecourt atmosphere in Europe. Five hundred montenegrins arrived to Veszprém and beside the athmosphere they create they had a clash with the Hungarian police also, during the first part of the match.

Hungarians started the match on fire, scoring three times in the first nine minutes and Katrine Lunde Haraldsens net remained untouched by the guests in this period. The Norwegian goalkeeper saved three penalties in the first thirty minutes of the Champions League final, showing that she really wants to win her third Champions League title. On the other side German international goalkeper, Clara Woltering, had a weaker day specially in the first part of the game, but she managed to help her team in last ten minutes.

The same we could say about Bojana Popovic, who caused a lot of headache to Győrs defence and despite marking her almost the hole match she scored fourteen goals in the first leg of the Champions League final. If her team wins the trophy next weekend in Podgorica that could be Popovics sixth Champions League trophy.

But that will not be so easy because Anita Görbicz and her team-mates are also very willing to get this title which could be the first European trophy ever in the clubs history, after so many lost finals. Görbicz was outstanding scoring twelve goals behind Woltering, without any fail from the 7-m line, and after this game she is leading the topscorer list of the Champions League with 124 goals followed by Bojana Popovic who has 103 goals so far.

The defence was a key element of the game here in the first leg of the Champions League final and we could definetly say that defence will decide the winner of this close duel where titans will meet again on court and on tribunes also.

Heidi Löke, line player in Győr was not totally satisfied after the match:

- They had a very hard defence, I have got also a lot of attention from montenegrins on the line. We won only by two mostly because of the huge amount of silly mistakes we did in the last part of the game. We had five goals advantage but we ended up with only two, which is a slight advantage. Our biggest problem was that we had too big gaps in our defence, we should move faster sideway and we could not stop Popovic to score. But I still remember last years final, than we won in Larvik with a slight difference and we managed to keep our coldness and calm and get the trophy on the away match.

Finally it’s decided where this years world championship in beach handball will be held. In December we were told that the championship will be held in Croatia after Brasil had lost the possibillity to arrange the championship.

Now it’s official, and Oman will be host for the fifth world championship in beach handball. From the 8th of July to the 13th of July Oman, with their wonderful beaches and guaranteed good weather, will be the scene for the worlds best national team in beach handball.

The last world championship were held in Antalya, Turkey, summer of 2010.

Brasil are defending champions for the men, and Norway are defending champion for the women.

The left handed Amanda Kurtovic did not sign a new contract with Larvik HK and will not play for them next season.

Amanda Kurtovic arrived to the club from the 2010/2011 season, but played the first half season for Byåsen, and went back to Larvik January 2011.

A new club for Amanda Kurtovic is not announced yet.

Amanda Kurtovic was in the Norwegian squad that just became World Champions in Brazil.

Gro Hammerseng has agreed to stay in Larvik extending her contract to 2013/2014 season. Anja Edin, Gro’s girlfriend, have also signed a two year contract for Larvik HK.
will become a mother next year.

Larvik HK is pleased to have secured the two signatures which means that Gro Hammerseng and Anja Edin plays in Larvik HK the next two seasons.

- We are very pleased that Gro want to play two more years for Larvik HK. That Anja also choose Larvik is also gratifying, says head coach Ole Gustav Gjekstad in a press release from Larvik HK.

Hammerseng and Edin is pleased to have made ​​their choice

- We have chosen Larvik HK because we just ended up that that was what we wanted to. It feels like the right choice. The sports offer is very exciting, says Gro Hammerseng.

Gro Hammerseng

167 national team matches
Olympic gold (2008)
3 x European Championship Gold (2004, 2006 og 2010)
Champions League champions (Larvik 2010/11)
Cup Winner Cup champions (FC Midtjylland 2004)
League champions in Norway (Larvik 2010/11)
Play off champions in Norway (Larvik 2010/11)
Norwegian champions (Larvik 2010/11)

Anja Edin

32 national team matches
World Championship Bronze (2009)