EHF EURO

Youth in focus for Great Britain on EHF EURO return

Chris O'Reilly

08 January 2019, 19:22

Youth in focus for Great Britain on EHF EURO return

Great Britain’s trip to Luxembourg on 11-13 January marks their first participation in Men’s EHF EURO Qualification since 2013. All bar one of the 2012 Olympic squad have moved on, but a new generation inspired by the London games has come through and carried on their legacy.

This new generation is led by Portuguese coach Ricardo Vasconcelos, who is in no doubt about the importance of the upcoming EHF EURO 2022 Qualification Phase 1 tournament.

“It is a light at the end of the tunnel for the young players coming through.

“For me, it is important to benchmark the work we have done over the past couple of years and see how we compare to the teams which are supposedly at the same level.”

A process-focused approach

Since moving to England in 2013, Vasconcelos was involved in various levels of British handball, before taking over the senior men in 2017.

His focus ever since has been on growing a player pool, with a huge emphasis on youth.

“We are taking a very young team, only two players over the age of 24, so it is still a process-focused approach to the tournament, instead of the outcome

“After the Olympics, we got a bit lost and side-tracked, so we have renewed the team in recent years and now we have a pool of about 68 players we are observing on a regular basis. This is one more step in that and I think it is fundamental that we get the chance to compete and assess our development at this level.”

The current squad has remained relatively similar, compared to the 2017 Emerging Nations tournament, but two big additions for the upcoming matches against Bulgaria, Ireland and Luxembourg is in the right back position. Josh Da Silva from Spanish side Alarcos Ciudad Real and 2012 Olympian Sebastian Edgar.

“The return of Sebastian and Josh is important because they bring some of the experience which we lack and hopefully they will have a positive influence on everyone.”

A key indicator of the improvement in British handball since 2012 is the number of home-grown players coming through the younger age categories and Vasconcelos has noticed a marked increase in ability.

“We have developed well in recent years. Players have moved abroad to gain experience and the level of young players coming through has increased massively over the last six years. We have better decision-makers, players who understand the game better, which we have missed in the past.

Looking within

The opposition in Luxembourg is nothing new for Great Britain, but coach Vasconcelos is taking nothing for granted at this level and is ensuring his team look inwards when it comes to setting goals for the tournament.

“You do not know what to expect when looking at other teams at this level. Luxembourg, for example, are completely different compared to the Emerging Nations, so we would rather look at ourselves.

“Obviously, we want to win all three games, but allowing all of my players to gain experience at this level is more important.

“We want to defend better than anyone, be more aggressive and score easy goals, because the other teams will be physically stronger, so we need to be effective in our strong areas of the game.”