A small earthquake in Croatian handball after decision of national team coach Željko Babić to “cut” two important names – Igor Vori and Ivan Čupić for the upcoming Croatia Cup in November during the EHF week. Successor of Slavko Goluža on the hot Croatian bench decided to make some changes in order to give a new impulse and doze of seriosity to his players:
– Reason is simple. We aren’t satisfied with the level of our performance, so we think that all the players have to think about their roles and their place in the national team. We invited 20 players to make a bigger roster, to get more “fight” for the position in the team. Message is simple. Commitment of the players have to be bigger. We weren’t satisfied with the performance and engagement of Vori and Cupic. We want to see passion, patriotic tension, willigness to play for the national team. In some segments this didn’t exist, so we want to prevent that with this kind of decisions – explained Ex-Meshkov Brest coach his decision.
CROATIAN ROSTER:
- Mirko Alilovic (MVM Veszprem)
2. Ivan Pešić (Meškov Brest)
3. Filip Ivić (PPD Zagreb)
4. Manuel Štrlek (Vive Tauron Kielce)
5. Antonijo Kovačević (PPD Zagreb)
6. Jerko Matulić (Chambery)
7. Zlatko Horvat (PPD Zagreb)
8. Marino Marić (Melsungen)
9. Ilija Brozović (HSV Hamburg)
10. Leon Šušnja (PPD Zagreb)
11. Marko Kopljar (Barcelona)
12. Luka Stepančić (PPD Zagreb)
13. Luka Šebetić (PPD Zagreb)
14. Igor Karačić (Vardar)
15. Domagoj Pavlović (PPD Zagreb)
16. Luka Cindrić (Vardar)
17. Domagoj Duvnjak (Kiel)
18. Marko Mamić (Dunkerque)
19. Ivan Slišković (Veszprem)
20. Jakov Gojun (Füchse Berlin)
