CROATIA - WORLD HANDBALL CHAMPIONS - PORTUGAL 2003 (S/S)

The Croatian Post has also issued the commemorative First Day Cover (FDC) and the Souvenir Card. The Croatian handball team returned from the World Championship in Portugal decorated with gold medals. Thanks to the handball players, Croatia can again be proud of its success in team sports, in which process Červar’s chosen players arrived at the top of the pyramid owing to an impressive number of victories, with no argument about it or any blemish. What makes it even more interesting is that the team has been put together from players mostly coming from from the Croatian league. On the last day of the championship in Portugal the following handball players stood on the pedestal: Vlado Šola, Valter Matošević, Mario Kelentrić (goalkeepers); Nikša Kaleb, Vedran Zrnić, Mirza Džomba (wings); Božidar Jović, Renato Sulić, Igor Vori (attackers); Tonči Valčić, Blaženko Lacković, Davor Dominiković, Ivano Balić, Slavko Goluža, Denis Špoljarić and Petar Metličić (field players). The golden boys were headed by the selector Lino Červar, supported by his irreplaceable first assistant Irfan Smajlagić and the goalkeepers’ coach Mirko Bašić. Among the people in this representative team we must not forget the physician Josip Feldbauer, physiotherapists Ante Arić and Milorad Sakardžija, and definitely not the former handball players from Zagreb, Ivica Udovičić and Ratko Balenović, who have given all possible logistic support both to the players and the team’s operational headquarters. When evaluating the success, suffice it to say that Červar’s chosen players were better than their rather unpleasant opponents, the Hungarians, further the current Olympic champions (the Russians), the world champions (the French), the fourth team from the last but one World Championship in France the Egyptians), the third from the last European Championship in Sweden (the Danes), and our opponent in the semi-finals, the Spaniards were in a similar rank, as well as our opponents in the finals, the Germans, silver medal winners from the European Championship. It has been a long time since anyone had to go through such a rocky path to reach the finals, with so many hard and exciting games, as was the case of the Croatian team at the most prestigious world handball event in Portugal. And yet, it had all started almost with a collapse, with an unforeseeable, and for many still unexplainable defeat in the game against Argentina (29:30), and a very hard time in the first half in the game against Saudi Arabia (10:12, final result 25:18)... “We don’t know how to play against such teams, give us the Russians and French any time, then you’ll all see” - joked Božidar Jović at the end of the championship, but then, at the very beginning, no one had an easy time. As a matter of fact, there was the pressure of the failures from the past six competitions - whether European or World Championships, and the pressure was there in Portugal hovering over the players. The gold medal from the ’96 Olympics in Atlanta, the silver medal from the ’95 World Championship in Island, all these have started fading from memory, because after that there was a series of failures (to list them: Croatia was 14th at the 1997 WC in Japan, 8th at the EC in Italy in 1998, 12th at the WC in Egypt in 1999, 6th at the EC in Croatia in 2000, 9th at the WC in France in 2001, 16th at the EC in Sweden in 2002). There was no imperative put before the Croatian players, there was just shy talk, between the lines, of a certain placement that would ensure the participation at the Olympics in Athens in 2004 (at least to be 7th at the WC). Three players from the golden Olympic generation from Atlanta were invited to the team: Matošević, Jović and Goluža, while all the other players belong to the category of young and inexperienced players for such a great competition. Even if they had participated in greater handball events, they would have usually had support parts, so, collected in this way as a whole, no one could see them as competitors for medals. “Our first task is to speed up the game, advance toward the European modern handball, and if we were to achieve a result, it would be excellent” - the selector Lino Červar was very modest in his expression on the eve of the championship. This was also the case at the start for our team in Group C, i.e. there was a rocky start with Argentina, followed by a wave of victories. Expected scores were recorded in the game against Saudi Arabia, then the self-confidence rose after the games against Russia (28:26) and France (23:22), and then the value of our team was confirmed in the last game of the group against the Hungarians (30:29). Croatia as the first ranked in Group C started the further course of competition, playing against Egypt (29:23) and Denmark (33:27). In both cases the Croatian opponents had no chance. The Croatians played a swift, modern game and they surpassed both teams without greater problems. The best game of the championship, a real beauty of a game, was the one against Spain (39:37). It was, on the other hand, a scenario difficult to describe, with sixty minutes regular time and two extra time periods, accompanied by a range of reversals and a veritable drama in the last seconds. This was, as a matter of fact, also the case with the final game, when Červar’s players also won in an exciting finale, winning the game against the Germans with 34:31. This was the sign for overall joy, the players and the supporting coaching team falling into each other’s embrace, ardent supporters singing cheering songs from the grandstands of the Lisbon sports hall Atlantico. This was a moment to remember, a part that is going to be written in bold in the Croatian sports history. The enthusiastic welcome of the golden handball players was an obvious proof of the above. Only Janica Kostelić and Goran Ivanišević were welcomed in a similar mood, and guys like Šola, Valčić, Lacković and the others have become heroes of the day, month and year. They have brought handball back to Croatia... Željko Petan