Before Tuesday’s match against Hungary, Norway are big favourites. Despite the nation’s great interest in handball and tradition for the sport, Hungary has only won three championship medals in the last 20 years. At the same time, the Hungarian juniors have excelled for over a decade. The U19 national team has been in the semi-finals of every handball European Championship since 2011. But why is the handball nation failing at senior level? HANDBALL NATION: Hungarian supporters are loyal despite poor results at senior level. Photo: Beate Oma Dahle / NTB Big generational change Nora Mørk played for Hungarian Győr between 2016 and 2019, and won three Meisterliga gold with the club. – They have done very well at junior level in recent years, but struggle to flourish further. I remember well from my time in Győr that there are an incredible number of talented players, but obviously there is one last piece that didn’t quite fall into place, Mørk believes. DARK VS. LUKÁCS: Nora Mørk and Viktória Győri-Lukács in the championship match between Vipers and Győr. Photo: ATTILA KISBENEDEK / AFP Stine Bredal Oftedal, who usually plays for the big club Győr, points to the overlap of players and experience as an important factor for the national team to rise to senior level. – What has been very good for us in Norway when we have had major generational changes is that we have kept those with experience and some of those who have pulled the load over many years. We get a mix in the generational change. I think that has been the most difficult thing for Hungary. Very often they end up with a large young squad that has to pull the load immediately. GYÖR PLAYER: Oftedal says that there is a very special handball feeling in Hungary. Photo: Csaba Krizsan / AP Pressure on young talent The Hungarian full-back Noémi Háfra told Danish TV 2 Sport last month that an early breakthrough led to high expectations that were difficult and unfulfilled, and which have taken a toll on her mentally. PRESS: Noémi Háfra played her first championship match as a 15-year-old and was singled out as one of the world’s greatest handball talents. Photo: Tamas Kovacs / AP – Great expectations can be hard to bear. It is a potential challenge if you become good early, then you should expect that you will always be good, but life is not like that, it goes up and down, says Norwegian national team coach Thorir Hergeirsson to news. The Hungarian winger, Gréta Márton, won WC gold with the junior team in 2018 and thinks the senior team needs time to achieve the same result: – When I played on the junior team, we played very well together and spent a lot of time together. We attended training camps with good results. In the senior team, we don’t meet that often, so we need more time to become a properly good team. Lack of physical training – They have very impressive statistics on the junior side. It sounds strange that they don’t take it on to senior with such great success on the junior side, but there are probably reasons for that, says news expert Marit Malm Frafjord. Malm Frafjord suspects that a lack of physical training may be one of the reasons for the lack of results on the senior side: – One reason may be that, traditionally, Hungarian players do not place particular emphasis on physical training, and there is a physical difference between junior and senior championships. EXPERT: Malm Frafjord points to a lack of physical training as an important factor for the Hungarian senior’s failure. Photo: Beate Oma Dahle / NTB Márton confirms the expert’s suspicions: – Of course we try to have more physical training, but we don’t have that many gyms to train at in Hungary, so it’s mostly handball. JUNIOR GOLD WINNERS: Gréta Márton says that the junior team meets more often and trains more together. Photo: Beate Oma Dahle / NTB Hungarian national team coach Vladimir Golovin tells news that Hungary also focuses on the physical part of the game during the championship. – Modern handball is fast and only getting faster. It doesn’t work without physical training, so we try to focus on this as well. We clearly have to improve our physique, says the coach. On Tuesday, Norway and Hungary meet in the handball EC. You can follow the match on news Sport from 20:15.
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makes great success at junior level. The seniors struggle. – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcasting schedule
