Pick Szeged played their first away match in Round 3 of the Hungarian League against Orosháza. Full house greeted the home team, whose aim is to finsih in the best six. They had two former Pick players in their squad (Buday, Balda), while Pick had only one missing player (Lasica due to hand injury).
Very few goals came in the first ten minutes (11th minute 1-3) since the home team couldn’t really penetrate Szeged’s wall, but when they did Mikler produced some great saves. Left-handed Balogh was very effective in attack and the difference quickly grew to five goals. In the second half of the first 30 minutes Orosháza improved their attack and so they came closer (23rd minute 5-7) and were able to keep the two-goal differnce until half time.
Pick increased their lead in the second half thanks to powerful play by Ancsin and so the biggest difference was reached in the 43rd minute (16-21). The home team didn’t give up, 10 minutes before the end of the match they could have come within two goals but Tatai produced a crucial save. Larholm was very confident from the penalty line but Orosháza’s pivot Mazic was unstoppable and Orosháza came closer again (21-23). But the crazy endgame consumed all their strength and Szeged won comfortably in the end – (21-29).
Orosháza had a real chance of robbing a point until the 55th minute. Pick’s attack is still problematic, coach Pastor still has a lot of work to teach his playing system to his team.
Best scorers: Buday, Cifra, Morva, Mazics (4-4)/Balogh, Larholm (6-6), Ilyés (5)
Text: Péter Butty, Gábor Várkonyi
photo: www.delmagyar.hu
