Men’s EuroHockey Championship II-B, Budapest
Budapest welcomes seven sides all going for glory and potential promotion to the top tier of European indoor competition, all contesting a single round-robin group where every match matters.
The hosts are playing in their first men’s competition of this kind since 2014 but have a lot of experienced campaigners from the club stage.
Up against them are Italy who won Championship III two years ago while Slovakia and Türkiye have been involved in the second tier for the past few attempts.
Greece and Serbia met each other in 2022 in Cyprus while Bulgaria is another returning to action after a break with a completely new look side.
** Every game from this event will be broadcast live on www.eurohockeytv.org and is free for all those with an account for the website.
Team previews
Türkiye (World Ranking: 23)
Top-ranked Türkiye will be eyeing a push at least for a top-four finish in the second tier of European indoor for the first time having finished in fifth place in 2020 in Lucerne and then 2022 in Paredes.
Their panel draws heavily from leading clubs like Gaziantep Polisgücü – who were recently crowned champions once again – and Nizip Zeugma. From the latter, they have a quartet involved, namely Onur Açikgöz (captain), Kerem Özdemir, Hasari Erdoğan and Ibrahim Öztürk.
From Gazinatep, Müslüm Ekinci and Müslüm Elagoz are vital cogs in their attack while Celal Aydin is the most experienced operator, going into his fourth European indoor competition.
Slovakia (World Ranking: 27)
Slovakia is competing in the second tier of European indoor for a third successive year having finished in seventh place in both 2020 and 2022.
They travel with a decent amount of knowledge from around the continent with their leading club, KPH RACA Bratislava, is participating in the Czech top league, reaching the final four while others are active in the German and Austrian competitions.
Jakub Bogar is the goalkeeper in DTV Hannover and attacker Daniel Petras is currently a player at Klipper THC Hamburg. Coach Sebastian Volkers and assistant Nils Leest also hail from Germany with lots of time spent in the Bundesliga. Richard Garaj is the rising talent, the 19-year-old having captained the Under-21s at last year’s junior championship in Nymburk.
Italy (World Ranking: 30)
Italy will hope to be major contenders having won Championship III in 2022 in Cyprus. Their side has a strong range of experiences with Mattia Amorosini playing in the Dutch competitions with SCHC, Marco Moretto with White Star in Belgium while Simone Pagliara is with Rotweiss Wettingen in Switzerland.
It extends to the coaching team with Czechia’s Petr Bodnar heading the staff with compatriot Richard Kotrc and New Zealander Priyesh Bhana in support.
Andrea Dell’anno and Alberto Ughetto were key players in their Italian championship success last week while Alessandra Muzzioli and Marcello Succi have a EuroHockey club event to look forward to hosting with HC Bondeno in two weeks time.
Pagliara top-scored with 13 goals in 2022 with Muzzioli landing 11 goals, showing their level of firepower.
Serbia (World Ranking: 45)
Serbia will look to build on their debut Euro indoor campaign last year in Athienou when they concluded their campaign with a 3-0 win over Greece, earning them a fifth-place finish.
They are captained by Michael Dorgan, a dual cricket and hockey international, who has been part of each of their international fixtures. He is joined in this feat by fellow panelists Adam Losonci, Denis Katančić and Adriano Kiš.
The tournament will also act as a good barometer to see how much they have closed the gap to Hungary whom they played twice in Budapest in 2022, falling 3-1 and 12-1.
Greece (World Ranking: 46)
Greece are looking to develop from appearances in 2018 and 2022 where they had tough outings. Their main marker may well be how they compete with Serbia who they came closest to in 2022, losing out 3-0.
This time around, they will have five players making their debuts in the competition while the likes of Periklis Karras and Stavros Sideridis are playing in their third international campaign.
They are also boosted by the naturalisation of Antoine and Nikolas Dierckx who have dual-Belgian roots.
Bulgaria (World Ranking: n/a)
Bulgaria will make just their third appearance in men’s European indoor competition with their most recent outing coming in 2008 in Sheffield. As such, their panel is all making their international debuts this weekend and it is a very young line-up.
All are under-21 except for captain Georgi Baklev and Milush Stoyanov. Baklev has long been among the top scorers for Akademik Plus Sofia and NSA Sofia both outdoors and indoors in European club competition. Stoyanov, meanwhile, is the leader at Slavia 1921 and they will carry much of the guidance for the rest of their side.
Hungary (World Ranking: n/a)
The Budapest hosts are coached by well-known Dutch specialist Sven van der Most who has previously worked with the Belgian and Lithuanian women’s national teams, as well as the Namibian men’s national team.
His side had plenty of time on the boards under their belts on the club scene with seven of their panel aged 30. Captain Tamas Suba and Marton Wesselenyi both were part of their line-up when they played in Championship III in 2014 in Sveti Ivan Zelina which proved to be their last appearance on the EuroHockey indoor stage.
They did, however, impress in a series against Serbia and Croatia in 2022 where Wesselenyi was their top scorer, netting 10 times in four games which resulted in three wins.
