Men: Hungary
(HUN)
Coach: Gergely PENSZKI
Key Players: Kristof SIMON (defensive specialist/pivot), Barnabas
MARCZIKA (goalkeeper), Balazs MATUZKA (left wing), Benedek TOTH (pivot)
Path to Buenos Aires 2018: Re-Allocation Place
Having not qualified through to the 2017 IHF Men’s U17 Beach
Handball World Championship in Mauritius last year, the Hungarian boys watched
their girls’ team win gold at the first-ever youth Beach Handball World Championship
and will be fully motivated and inspired to experience the taste of global
beach handball success – especially after they received a re-allocation place
for Buenos Aires.
Most recently, the younger age Hungarian men finished seventh at
the U18 EHF EURO Beach Handball Championships held in July and August in
Montenegro.
They had started the competition in Ulcinj, Montenegro, looking
unbeatable and with full power – winning all three of their preliminary group
games 2:0, against Ukraine, France and Portugal, but stumbled at the first
knock-out step, losing the shoot-out to Poland in the quarter-finals.
A further loss, in their first 5-8 placement round match against
Italy led to a 7/8 place play-off against Portugal, who they beat for the
second time, to confirm their final ranking, but that sudden-death defeat
against Poland, 7:6 in the shoot-out, will still leave a bitter taste and coach
Gergely Penszki will be hoping his young side can use this feeling to go one
stage further in Argentina.
Penszki has been national team coach for the male youth team since
2017, the year in which they won silver at the U17 EHF EURO Beach Handball
Championship after they lost to Spain in the final.
With over 15 years of experience as a handball coach, having
started at club level in 2003, Penszki is realistic of what his team can
achieve, but knows that once teams get to the knock-out stages, anything can
happen – for better, or worse.
“If we qualify for the main round, with a bit of luck and hard
work, we can get into the semi-finals or to the podium,” he told IHF.info ahead
of the tournament. “This would be a fantastic result, since that’s the goal of
all European teams and maybe also for Argentina as the host team, but our first
– and most important – goal is to be among the best three teams in our group.”
The Hungarian side will be led by captain and defensive specialist
Kristof Simon, one of four key players along with goalkeeper Barnabas Marczika,
left wing Balasz Matzuka and Benedek Toth, who finished Hungary’s top-scorer in
Montenegro with 57 points, and who will be looking to repeat his scoring record
on the South American sand as his side faces Chinese Taipei, Venezuela, Spain,
Uruguay and Thailand in preliminary group A.
“Our group will not be easy as we will face the U17 world
champions Spain, who will be the group favourites,” continued Penszki. “It is
very hard to analyse the quality of Venezuela, Chinese Taipei and Uruguay as last
year, we did not take part in the U17 World Championship and won’t meet any
non-European opponents until we get to Argentina, where we play Venezuela first
and then Chinese Taipei – we don’t know what to expect against these teams.
“I’m sure that the game against Spain will be the hardest but we
have already prepared by video-analysis although we mainly focus on ourselves.”
In preparation for Buenos Aires Penszki’s side – along with the
Hungary women’s team – will hold two phases of training camp in Budaors,
Hungary, in September and October which include preparation games against group
rivals Croatia, before they travel to Argentina where they will continue their
training and preparation.
You can follow the Hungary team on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Group at Buenos Aires 2018
Group A: Spain (ESP), Venezuela
(VEN), Chinese Taipei (TPE), Thailand (THA), Uruguay (URU), Hungary (HUN)
Preliminary Group A: Match Schedule
All times local
Monday 8 October
12:30 VEN vs HUN
17:00 HUN vs TPE
Tuesday
9 October
10:00 ESP vs HUN
14:30 HUN vs THA
Wednesday
10 October
12:30 URU vs HUN
Photo: Hungarian Handball Federation