Day 10, Group B – Genesys-OSC Budapest (HUN) v AN Brescia (ITA) 14-14
Not surprisingly, Brescia had a better start, after 1-1, they staged a 0-3 run, hammered two from the perimeter while they killed a series of man-downs. Two fast goals, in 28 seconds, deep into the second period gave them a 2-6 lead and at that point they seemed to keep the game under firm control.
However, the hosts had other thoughts and came up with a fine spell, halved the distance at 5-7, goalie Marton Levai produced some great catches, including a penalty stop, offering his team a couple of possessions to come even closer. However, they couldn’t capitalise on that, and Brescia could finish off a counter, by Stefano Luongo for 5-8. OSC then missed a man-up in the dying seconds, and Luongo kicked off the third with another action goal, so the Italians were sitting comfortably in the driving seat once more at 5-9.
OSC didn’t give in, though, Daniel Angyal put away a man-up, then incoming goalie David Bisztritsanyi saved another penalty and Gergely Burian’s smart left-handed shot from action brought them back to 7-9. Dordje Lazic stepped up to save Brescia, killed OSC’s momentum with a great centre-move, then the Magyars wasted a man-up and another action goal, this time from Edoardo di Somma from the perimeter, reset their four-goal lead.
There seemed to be no way back from here – though Krisztian Manhercz offered at least something special even neutral fans would applaud for: in a man-down, after a time-out, he hunted down his Italian rival right away on the first pass, stole the ball and sent it to the empty net as the goalie was swimming back after the restart… The Italians weren’t concerned too much, buried the next man-up, and another one still in the third to keep the distance at 9-13.
The Magyars fought on, though, and they caught another wave. They earned two penalties and netted both, killed a man-down and made a 6 on 5, and after some heroic defending Burian’s 6m shot brought them back to even at 13-13, with 3:29 to go. The Italians lost their composure, sent the ball wide from another man-up, but OSC couldn’t take the lead from a possession which saw a double exclusion. Brescia finally netted a man-up with 73 seconds from time – their first goal in the fourth –, di Somma was set up on the 2m line for 13-14. OSC got the chance too and Burian hit his fourth from their 6 on 5, 44 seconds to go for 14-14. And a fine steal secured this hard-fought point for them – indeed, quite a change from Day 5: they also conceded 14 goals, like in Brescia, but instead of being limited to 6, they also scored 14. Their hopes to go through have already been fading fast before this game and this point didn’t help much, but at least they regained some pride this evening.
How they saw it
Daniel Varga, coach, OSC
“It was a kind of victory from our perspective – we managed to bring down our own boundaries, step over them and show some quality. Had we done that in our previous matches when there were much more at stake, we could have more points. What I loved most was our fighting spirit, the inner power which a team either has or not – and I’ve been waiting to see that for a while in this season. There were a couple of matched when I felt that – but not in the extent it burst out today. This can give the players a huge boost for the rest of the season.”
Alessandro Bovo, coach, Brescia
“We started the game well, and we did what we had to for three periods. Then in the fourth we started making more and more mistakes and that cost us the win.”
