Focus on victories

Meshkov Brest still knows no defeats

The handball players of Meshkov Brest have won the Belgazprombank Cup for the tenth time in history. This pre-season tournament, held in Brest, featured four teams — in addition to the hosts, the reserve squad of Belarus’ national team, CSKA Moscow and Zenit St. Petersburg took part in it.

Meshkov Brest, who did not suffer a single defeat last season and clinched all possible titles, including the Championship, Cup, Belarus Super Cup and SEHA League, has continued its victorious march. In their first match, the Brest team prevailed over CSKA with a score of 27:23, and defeated Zenit in the second match — 26:24. Since Belarus-2 lost to the Russian teams in the opening games, Meshkov Brest players had already secured victory by the second round of the tournament. However, they did not let up, wrapping up their campaign by beating the reserve team with a three-goal advantage — 32:29.
For Meshkov Brest’s line player Viachaslau Shumak, the current victory has also become the tenth in the Belgazprombank Cup. In a conversation with the club’s press service, he said that the win was primarily driven by desire. After all, everyone missed handball, exciting matches and serious rivals, as well as fans’ support. The head coach of Meshkov Brest, Eduard Koshkarov, noted that he considered the tournament as a preparatory event, “It is important to look at the players, evaluate their condition, and work on combination plays after a rest. The games that took place at this tournament really gave us the insights into who we can rely on and who needs to step up to join the main team. Now let’s move on!”
Next, Meshkov Brest is going to play in the Final Four of the SEHA League, alongside Chekhovskie Medvedi from Russia, Eurofarm Pelister from Northern Macedonia and AEK Athens, Greece. The Belarusian handball team will play their first match of the tournament in Türkiye on Friday against AEK. The matches for the third and first places are scheduled for Saturday. According to Viachaslau Shumak, our team is well acquainted with Chekhovskie Medvedi, having faced them frequently on the court; Eurofarm is also familiar to the Belarusians, even though its composition has changed. Eduard Koshkarov has assured that his team will approach every match with the aim of winning, since the task is to win and continue their preparation for the new season.  

By Tatiana Pastushenko