Crown befits Brest

Belarusian club became the winner of SEHA League

SEHA League ended in St. Petersburg with the Belarusian Clasico — HC SKA Minsk and HC Meshkov Brest met on the ground in the decisive match of the tournament. Even after the successfully passed semi-final stage, the head coach of the Brest team Eduard Koshkarov said, “We wanted to avoid this situation and not play with HC SKA Minsk. What can you do, apparently, this is our destiny: to prove something to someone till the end.” In fact, it was necessary to prove who is stronger from the first to the last minute. 
This season SEHA League was different in its format from the one in which it was held in previous years. The participants were divided into two divisions. In the East Division, four best Belarusian and Russian teams competed, in the South Division — the Balkans. It was planned that after the preliminary stage, the strongest representatives would clash with each other, but already in April, it became known that there would be no play-offs. As explained on the official website of the tournament, ‘the clubs in the South Division have recently received a ban from the National Olympic Committees from participating in matches with teams from Russia and Belarus at this stage’. Therefore, the fight for the title of winners continued inside the East Division.
In the semifinals, HC SKA Minsk took over Chekhovskiye Medvedi, and HC Meshkov Brest took over GC Permskie Medvedi. The face-to-face duel of the leaders of the Belarusian handball this season has already become the tenth. Shortly before the Final Four of the SEHA League, HC Meshkov Brest beat HC SKA Minsk three times in the ‘golden series’ of the championship of Belarus, but according to the results of the meetings in all tournaments, the score was equal: each of the teams scored four victories, one more match ended in a draw. The decisive game of the SEHA League played by principal opponents turned out to be tense. Throughout the match, the Brest team had an advantage of 3–4 goals, but HC SKA Minsk managed to close the lead. Shortly before the end of the duel, the players of HC Meshkov Brest developed their advantage to five points, but even then, having scored four times, the ‘soldiers’ managed to get close to the opponent. Yet, the Brest team gained the victory — 32:31 — and became the winners of the SEHA League for the first time.

seha-league.ru

After the game, the head coach of HC SKA Minsk Igor Papruga congratulated the opponent. The specialist said, “We have been playing in this league for the first time, and the tournament did not disappoint us. They took a worthy place, but they are dissatisfied with it. If we are satisfied with the second place, we will stop in development. In important moments of the match, we lacked discretion, there were extra passes.”
“Two teams showed an interesting game, it was not clear until the end who would take the trophy. I think everyone enjoyed it. I thank my team for being the winners. Well done! As for my time in the team, I have not managed to change anything yet. We slightly improved the game. And the boys showed their character, their desire, that’s all...” Eduard Koshkarov summed up the results of the game.
In the match for third place, however, there was no particular intrigue. Chekhovskiye Medvedi defeated GC Permskie Medvedi: already after the first half of the game, they were leading by 13 goals, and the match ended with a score of 40:30.

By Tatiana Pastushenko