EURO 2004 – EHF, Slo vs Ger 24:31
Slovenia hosted the 6th European Handball Championship (ehf EURO 2004) from 22 January to 1 February 2004 in four Slovenian cities: Ljubljana, Celje, Velenje, and Koper. The Slovenian national team won 2nd place at home and with this silver medal made the greatest success in national handball and in general in team sports. The Germans were crowned champions for the first time and Denmark was third.
For Slovenia played: Backovič Ognjen, Bedekovič Branko, Ficko Boštjan, Jovičič Zoran, Kastelic Andrej, Kavtičnik Vid, Lapajne Beno, Lubej Zoran, Pajovič Aleš, Podpečan Dušan, Pungartnik Roman, Simonovič Ivan, Škof Gorazd, Tomšič Tomaž, Vugrinec Renato and Zorman Uroš. Coach: Tone Tiselj
The boys start the championship in the group excellently, beating Iceland 34:28 (13:13) and the Czech Republic 37:33 (15:18) and drawing with the Hungarians 29:29 (13:14), which puts them in first place. They then beat Serbia and Montenegro 27:20 (14:11) but lost big to the Germans 24:31 (10:18). However, this is enough for them to be 2 in the group and continue to the quarterfinals, where they beat France 27:22 (12: 9). This is followed by a victory against Croatia – neighbors 27:25 (15:13) in the semifinals. Unfortunately, they run out of power in the final in front of 7,000 home fans in the Tivoli Hall against the really sovereign Germans 25:30 (10:16).
The championship was very successful both from the organizational point of view and in terms of the success of the national team. Games were aired to 109 countries, wiith over 22 million website views. The top scorer was Džomba with 46 goals. In the ideal team of the championship was Vid Kavtičnik as the right wing.
I watched three matches in the championship myself. More precisely on January 28, 2004 in the Tivoli Hall a Group II matches. Tone drummed us former MAOP co-workers and we met in the hall after a long time, the ticket was 6,000 SIT. The first match was at 16:30 between the Czech Republic and France, which the Czechs won 32:31 against the favored French. At 18:30, the match between the Hungarians and Serbia-Montenegro ends in a draw at 29:29. The last match of the evening was another 2 hours later and we were looking forward to it. Slovenia, as the home team, fought against the Germans. The boys gave a hearty battle, the support from the hall was great, but unfortunately the Germans ran over us smoothly 24:31. Still a nice afternoon and evening. What was important, however, was that the points were nicely distributed that evening, which allowed us to continue our way to the quarterfinals.
