No 5: Metalurg No third luck for Metalurg
Број 5: Металург
After two appearances on SEHA
GSS League's Final Four tournament, Macedonian representative Metalurg has this
season failed to enter among TOP 4 teams in the regional competition. This
season's 28 points were only enough for the fifth place which has surely not
fulfilled their pre-season ambitions although they were all the time saying
that their main goal was EHF's Champions League.
Metalurg will miss a chance to finally beat their city rival Vardar on regional competition's final tournament after losing to them twice, last year in semi-final and the year before in final in Zagreb Arena.
Key to their fifth place this season were five defeats from seven matches in the second part of the regular season. They were better than Vojvodina and Borac at home but losses to NEXE and bottom placed Partizan have along with Meshkov's triumph in Skopje against Vardar crashed all of their hopes. In the last match they played against Tatran thay have given a chance to their younger players because it was not important for the final placement anymore.
Coach Lino Cervar always said that he thinks of SEHA GSS League as of a good chance to prepare for hard matches in the Champions league but also to give chance to Metalurg's youngsters. This idea was, however, not always followed in Metalurg's lines. In December, while they were still in race for Novi Sad, they were playing CO Zagreb twice and Vardar once, each time with their strongest roster. It has proved to be effective as they have managed to win seven from nine points from those three matches.
Problems for Metalurg started after Naumce Mojsovski' injury in December in a last match against Vardar and he will have to miss the rest of the season due to ligament injury. Without him, team lost their recognizable style of playing and a joker in many games, player who plays the best when it is needed. Without him Metalurg is not the same team.
Chances of winning also depend much on their goalkeeper darko Stanic' shape. This season he is far from his last years impressive numbers and CL's TOP 7. His percentage in the CL is only 35% which is far from expected contribution. In SEHA GSS League he was much better. He has the best percentage in the league but defense, which was last year Metalurg's strongest 'weapon', is not working so good this season.
By all that, injuries are following the team constantly with Mirkulovski, Atman and Vugrinec being injured in some of the most important moments of the season. Metalurg was, because of that, forced to look for reinforcements. Answers on the current situation were middle back Luka Cindric and left back Vuko Borozan. Peter Topic and goalkeeper Petar Angelov were on the other side released.
Positive thing is that 'wounds' can still be healed. They still have to battle for the national championship title with their main rival Vardar and on the other side they will have a tough job playing Kolding in the Champions League. Successes would probably make Macedonian team's poor season in SEHA GSS League much brighter.
http://www.seha-liga.com/stats