Steel yourselves

They say football is the beautiful game. I don’t agree. To me it is a hotchpotch of bizarre tactics with, at times, something that works. Handball on the other hand is structured, where concepts and tactics are highly visible, where you see exactly what a team is trying to achieve.

I spoke about being a fan; well to me handball is a dance. Sometimes I watch the individual dancers and marvel at the quality and at other times I watch the dances the dancers dance.

This week the dance is in Skopje.

But we cannot always see handball played at its purist level, which brings me to the derby match last week between Metalurg and Vardar in Skopje. There are not enough words in my lexicon of handball to describe how dour this game was. If the Hamburg Vs Flensburg encounter was an advert for top level handball, this one is best resigned to the “Not for the Fainthearted” folder.

Derby matches by their very nature are not nice to watch anyway. Each team is fired up in a way that is incomprehensible to anyone from outside the city in which they are based. These two teams based a few kilometres from each other have a rivalry that stretches back into the mists of time. Each is trying to outdo the other to gain the “bragging rights” of a city and by extension a nation.

Despite the fact that they are neighbours, these two teams are like chalk and cheese. Metalurg, if you go by personnel are the more “Macedonian” team, coffee with some sugar you might say. Vardar is sugar with some coffee, with a plethora of foreign stars making up their roster. But they are trying to make up for lost time, having watched, as Metalurg flew the flag for Macedonian handball in the CL in the last few years.

I won’t damn either of these teams with faint praise. On my first viewing of this game, I was appalled at the level of defence I saw. 12 x 2 minute suspensions don’t tell the whole story, there could have been red cards shown in this game where strong arm tactics outshone technique. Having watched it numerous times since, I have somewhat mellowed in my opinion.

However I don’t know whether it is because I became immune to the fractious nature of the game, or whether my first impressions weren’t correct. Whichever, including crowd trouble, which stopped the game in the first half, this was not a great advertisement for Macedonian handball.

The referees had their hands full in a game that was littered with niggly fouls and full blown tackles that would have been better placed in a wrestling match. Vugrinec normally a stalwart of the Metalurg team at the age of 38 looked like he daren’t break through for fear of being broken in two by either Rastvortsev or Stoilov.

But I wouldn’t want you to think that Metalurg was a team “more sinned against than sinning”. Georgevski was lucky to remain on the court having baulked the referee, when he didn’t agree to the awarding of a penalty in the 20th minute. He would have been better served to save this for his defence against Dibirov.

Because Dibirov was a shining light! An example of how, among the mayhem, he managed to rise above it all. He showed speed, class, skill and an array of shots that could have garnered him all top 5 goals in goals of the week.

At the other end, the behemoth Milic, in goal, saved everything that was thrown at him. His movement belies his mammoth size and he plays the game with a smile on his face. Where those two amazed, Stanic was completely in the dark and in the battle of the number 18s Karacic completely dominated the more senior Mojsovski.

PSG and FCB have found to their dismay how difficult it is to play in the atmosphere of the Boris Trajkovski arena. When you open the “Pandora’s Box”, that is handball in this city; you are never sure what will emerge. It seems that even Metalurg didn’t expect what hit them last week.

And yet in those games against the “Star-Teams”, we saw a quality of play from both Skopje squads which showed that they can play top-level handball in an exciting way. Both the French and the Catalans knew they had been involved in great matches that brought both crashing down to earth.

They called Lino Cervar “Il Mago di Umago” once upon a time. “The wizard of Umag”! Well he will have to be thaumaturge of the highest order to instil the “metal” back into the name of his team which cowered against the more physically dominant Vardar.

In mythology when Pandora’s Box was opened it unleashed all the evils upon the world, but at the very end “hope” emerged.

It is my hope that as we travel once more to beautiful Macedonia, with its wonderful people, courtesies and hospitality, that we see a handball match of quality that both these teams could serve up should they so wish.

Hope springs eternal!

Whatever happens, it’s a fantastic MOTW as we get to savour the unique atmosphere not only with one local team, but two.

Further information

Follow the Match of the Week in the Round 6 live on ehfTV on Sunday, 24 November at 18:00 hrs local time