The quarterfinals of the State Handball Cup took place today (Friday), and the four candidates for the semifinals that will take place on April 5 in Raanana are: Hapoel Rishon LeZion who won 29:32 in Kiryat Ono, Hapoel Ashdod who defeated Maccabi Tel Aviv 23:27, Bnei Herzliya who did it In Ness Ziona and Maccabi Rishon LeZion, which passed AS Ramat Hasharon with 22:32.
3 of the 4 such victories were of the foreign teams, with only Ashdod achieving a home victory. Also, 3 of the 4 illegal immigrants (the first two and Ashdod) were in the semifinals last season as well. The raffle will be held on Monday.
In Kiryat Ono, the local team provided a fight, but the qualities of Hapoel Rishon LeZion in the second half prevailed. Milos Boysic led the conquerors with 7 goals, while Stefan Ilyich and Itai Sorkis in a great game scored 6 each. 9 points by Luka Karnovic and Tariq Ksumovich were not enough for the host.
In Ashdod, in the Turknitz brothers’ derby, Ram’s hand was on the top in front of me. Gabor Langhans led Ashdod with 6 goals, Nivo Levy added 4, and Omer Gera and Ram Turknitz with 3 each.
The reconstruction of the quarterfinals from last season between AS Ramat Hasharon and Maccabi Rishon LeZion was completely one-sided. The lack of Milan Pavlovic (a fracture in his hand) was significant for Ramat Hasharon, and also thanks to this Maccabi Rishon LeZion looked simply great with 10 goals by Yirmi Sidi, 8 by Ivan Kracic, and 5 goals by Branko Kankresh. Sharon Shalem Niv Fischlowitz again stood out in the goal with 11 stops at 42%. 19% success.
In Ness Ziona, Herzliya was dominant and better throughout the game. Precisely with a promising advantage of 5 goals, ten minutes to go, the host managed to shrink back to a difference of two goals, two minutes to go, but the final belonged to the surprising team of the season. Bnei Herzliya, under the guidance of Daniel Lindgren and Oded Ne’eman, recorded their second away victory this week in the Cup (after the impressive one in Holon on Monday).
