Foreshadow: Hungarian Cup Final four

 

The Final4 of the 2018 Hungarian Cup will be held in the Főnix Arena in Debrecen on 14-15 April. Besides Telekom Veszprém, the other participants are Balatonfüredi KSE, Csurgói KK and MOL-Pick Szeged. The first semi-final will be Szeged – Csurgó at 1:00 p.m. while the second semi-final, Veszprém – Balatonfüred, will be at 3:15 p.m. Every game of the Cup will be broadcasted live by M4 Sport.

 

 

In this article we are going to introduce every team that will step on court in Debrecen, as detailed as possible.

 

Let’s start with our semi-final opponent, Balatonfüredi KSE. This will be the clash of the neighbors, as it has been for the 3 times we have met in the championship. The first encounter was a friendly game, behind closed doors, in the Veszprém Aréna. We could be happy at the end, as we have won 37:31. Manaskov, Gajic, Nilsson and Ugalde scored 5 goals each. Bóka was the top scorer of the opponent with 5 goals. After this, we met them on 7 November, when we travelled to Balatonfüred and won 25:39 this time in the championship. Our top scorer was Dejan Manaskov who scored 9 goals. From the opponent, Hornyák and Máthé scored 5 goals each. The 3rd match was played not so long ago in Veszprém, 14 March. The result of that was a 40:26 win for us. As it happened in the last two games, it was Dejan manaskov again, who scored the most goals, he finished with 8 goals. Balatonfüred is currently at 4th place in the league, trailing Tatabánya by 5 points. They played 22 game so far and won 17 times while losing 5 times. Their top scorer in the championship is Stanislav Kasparek with 85 goals.

Balatonfüred played in the EHF Cup and it is without doubt that they started the series very well. They hosted Icelandic Valur FC twice at home in the second qualifying round. They won the first game 27:22, Kasparek scoring 6 goals. The second leg was played the next day and Füred did not stop. They won by an even bigger margin, 19:28 and advanced to the next round. Zoltán Szita, currently spending his loan there from our club, scored 7 goals. The final result in aggregate was 55:41 for Balatonfüred. In the third qualifying round they met the Granollers and got knocked out with two defeats. With a 28:21 and a 27:25 loss the EHF Cup run was over for them.

 

 

The second team to be presented is Csurgói KK. They are currently on the 6th spot in the championship and they will meet Szeged in the first semi-final of the Hungarian Cup. They played 23 games so far in the domestic league and won 10 times, while losing 11 times. They also finished 2 games in a draw. Their top scorer in the league is Marko Vasic with 148 goals. We played against them twice and won both games. Right up in the first round we could celebrate a 31:15 win at home. Dejan Manaskov played well in his first home game in Veszprém jersey and scored 8 goals. The second game was back in 17 December, when we won with an even bigger difference, the result being 19:33. Our top scorer was Dragan Gajic, who scored 9 times, with only 1 scored from a penalty. Just as Balatonfüred, Csurgó participated in the EHF Cup, however their journey was a bittersweet one. They started out well, by winning against Croatian side Dubrava at home by 9 goals, 33:24. Their journey was over here, because they somehow managed to lose by 10 goals in away and has been eliminated from the Cup. After the game, their head coach, László Sótonyi resigned. The new head coach József Bencze took over the team for the rest of the season.

 

 

The third team under our magnifying glass is MOL-Pick Szeged, with whom we have been fighting fierce battles for ages now, but only for the championship titles, but for the Cup as well. The last 10 finals were decided between Veszprém and Szeged. The last time Szeged could win the trophy was 4 April 2004, and ever since, the Cup always comes to Veszprém. The “Blues” had a rough period in the championship but disregarding that they are still on 2nd spot. They played 23 games and won 19 times with 2 draws and 2 losses. Gyöngyös and Budakalász managed to clinch a point from the Hungarian runner-up, while losing against Tatabánya and Veszprém. Their best shooter in the league is Stefan Sigurmannsson, who scored 111 goals in 22 games. We have met them twice this season and on the first one, we managed to win 21:30, making our opponent fall into a bit of a downhill. In the second leg we hosted them in Veszprém and lost 32:31 after a very close game. Máté Lékai scored 6 times, while from our opponent Richárd Bodó was the best shooter with 10 goals.

Szeged participated in the Champions League this year as well. They finished 5th in Group A and marched on for the best 16. They played 14 games in the group phase and won 6 times, next to 7 defeats and 1 draw. They were equal opponents to Vardar Skopje, Rhein-Neckar Löwen and Barcelona. In the eights final they met THW Kiel. After the 7 goals loss in away, they managed to win at home by 1 goal but it did not matter as they have been eliminated from the series. Their top scorer in the CL was Zsolt Balogh with 57 goals.

 

 

Last but not least, comes Telekom Veszprém. The “Építők” made only one mistake in the championship, the already mentioned loss against Szeged. Otherwise, they won all games so far and clinched the regular season title. 24 games, 23 victories and 1 loss. Our top scorer in the league is the Slovenian right wing Dragan Gajic with 91 goals.

Veszprém said goodbye to the Champions League way too early, as they have been eliminated in the best 16. The team started in group ‘B’ and finished it on 2nd position, with 8 wins, 2 draws and 4 losses in 14 games. We lost twice against PSG, and we lost against Aalborg and Kiel. The two draws happened in away against Flensburg and Kielce. The second position in the group meant that we have met the Danish runner-up Skjern, who managed to knock us out of the series. After the 7 goals loss in Denmark, we could only win by 5 goals at home, which meant that we got eliminated from the best European cup series. The road can only lead upwards now, which will start with the Hungarian Cup. We have been winning the Cup for 9 straight years, and we do not want this streak to break.

 

 

Veszprém arrives to a very important destination this weekend, after the elimination from the CL we can only grab 2 titles. The first is the Hungarian Cup, which will be held in Debrecen in front of 800 Veszprém fans, and the one that the team can win for the 27th time. The boys are training hard, and are preparing for the task ahead of themselves.

 

Let’s go Veszprém!

 

Photos: Dávid Vörös