Croatia set goals for Qatar 2015: To win the place in Olympic qualifications and attack medal podium | Handball Planet
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Croatia set goals for Qatar 2015: To win the place in Olympic qualifications and attack medal podium

Croatia have duty to stay among the TOP handball nations in 2015 World Championship in Qatar. That is the main conclusion of the PRESS conference held in Zagreb on Tuesday at the begining of the final preparation for the tournament which start on 15 January in Doha. Croatian head-coach Slavko Goluža announced the squad list of 20 players for the first phase of preparation in famous summer resort, Umag, with the absence of the biggest star Domagoj Duvnjak, who will join the team in the next phase.

Croatian Handball Federation vice-president Zoran Gobac spoke about ambitions of the team in Qatar and their aims until the end of the Olympic cycle in Rio 2016:

– We begin every year with some Championship, and this January also, we will have a difficult task to ensure the place in the Olympic qualification tournament. That is our primary goal, but normally, we won’t give up from some others as battle for the medal podium. We organised preparation in two phases. In the second one, we will play two friendly matches against Serbia. Plan was to play also with Hungary, but they changed the coaching staff in the mintime. Serbia are strong rival, we will have a chance for a quality test – said Gobac and commented team’s compositon:

– We are working on rejuvenation of the roster. That is a long process, but still, we want to keep the level of results. There are no secrets. We are working closely with the coaching staff in two directions. The first one is the level of psychical condition of our players, and the second is discipline. We don’t want to go against the players’ freedom, but when they wear the T-shirts of the national team, they have to act with more responsibility than in their teams or privately. The national team is an institution, which helped all of the players to raise their personalities and to sign serious contracts abroad. This is a challenge for all the members of the team, as they are idols of the kids, fans and the whole nation. We wish to help them to extend their careers, and that’s why we suggest more trainings and less vices.  That is the only thing we want – concluded his speech Zoran Gobac.

NT’s head-coach Slavko Goluža explained his list of 20 players, who are invited to start preparation for Qatar 2015. Experienced members of the team, Drago Vuković (left back) and Denis Buntić (right back) stayed under the line:

– We continue with rejuvenation of the squad. I decided to call Bičanić, Slišković, Karačić and Obranović instead of Drago Vuković. I think that Duvnjak is also ready to play on left back position. I choose Blažević also because his good season in Pick Szeged. He deserved to be here. In the case of Denis Buntić, he asked me to miss this action with NT due family reasons. We need to respect that. As you all know, Lacković is injured and lost for Qatar – said Goluža.

Croatian delegation will leave for Qatar on 13 January, two days before the official start of the Championship, and three, before the first match.

Croatian squad for preparations:

  1. Mirko Alilović (Veszprem)
    2. Ivan Pešić (Meškov Brest)
    3. Filip Ivić (PPD Zagreb)
    4. Manuel Štrlek (Kielce)
    5. Ivan Ninčević (Bešiktaš)
    6. Lovro Šprem (PPD Zagreb)
    7. Ivan Čupić (Kielce)
    8. Zlatko Horvat (PPD Zagreb)
    9. Igor Vori (PSG)
    10. Željko Musa (Kielce)
    11. Ilija Brozović (PPD Zagreb)
    12. Marko Kopljar (PSG)
    13. Luka Stepančić (PPD Zagreb)
    14. Mario Vuglač (PPD Zagreb)
    15. Damir Bičanić (Chambery)
    16. Ivan Slišković (Celje PL)
    17. Jakov Gojun (PSG)
    18. Sandro Obranović (PPD Zagreb)
    19. Josip Valčić (PPD Zagreb)
    20. Igor Karačić (Vardar)

 

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  1. Pingback: Croatia without Josip Valčić at WCh 2015 | Handball Planet

  2. Pingback: Klibba.com » Croatia set goals for Qatar 2015: To win the place in Olympic qualifications and attack medal podium

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