Egypt - N.Macedonia

Handball, World Cup in Egypt

Egypt won 35:29 against Chile in the first round, while the Macedonian national team heavily lost to Sweden (32:20). It was a poor display, but that s the new reality. Captain Kire Lazarov is 40 years old and this is his last tournament, while few more players from the "golden" generation are not here. Playmaker Filip Mirkulovski has retired, but no adequate replacement on the horizon. And there is more.

Coach Brestovac is without three very important players as goalkeeper Borko Ristovski, left winger Dejan Manaskov (Veszprem) and right winger Goce Georgievski are not with the national team. This is a big problem, particularly because their replacements are without international experience. For example, left wingers are Dimitar Dimitrioski (Vardar) and Cvetan Kuzmanoski (Eurofarm Pelister B-Team). The first one rarely play as Timur Dibirov is first option in Vardar. Usually he play few minutes in SEHA League when Dibirov need a rest. Kuzmanoski, meanwhile, is not good enough to be part of Eurofarm Pelister A-team. The question is how he could be good enough to play for the national team? Well, there is nobody better.

Now about the right wing, there are Martin Popovski from Amicitia Zurich and Nenad Kosteski from Eurofarm Pelister B-Team. Popovski isn t something special, though he has some international experience playing in Switzerland. But what could we expect from Kosteski, another player not good enough for Eurofarm Pelister A-team? According to me, nothing.

I wasn t expecting a victory against handicapped Sweden, but at the same time I thought the Macedonians will remain in the match until the end. However, the match showed lack of quality. I expect Egypt to win high.