Marko Brkusanin, key man for Serbia in their quest to win gold on home ice.
photo: Ivica Veselinov
He stayed loyal to his native Belgrade throughout his playing career. Now Serbia´s Marko Brkusanin aims to finish a prolific season on a high on home ice at the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships Division II Group A.
The trophy-haul for Serbian hockey has been eye-catching so far this year. Their U20 and U18 national teams have already won gold at their respective World Championships at Division IIB level. They were followed suit at senior club level, with Crvena Zvedza Belgrade shining brightest to become champions of the International Hockey League (IHL) earlier this month against Croatian and Slovenian club opposition.
Instrumental in Crvena Zvezda Belgrade's success this season has been captain Marko Brkusanin, who now plays a starring role for Serbia at the World Championships Division II Group A played at Pionir Ice Hall in Belgrade between 9 to 15 April.
Having so far beaten top seeds Croatia 3-1 in their opener before succumbing to a 2-3 loss to Australia, 28-year-old Brkusanin is upbeat about Serbia´s prospects in a wide-open tournament.
"We have a pretty good team this year. We played well in our first game against Croatia, but then the team got a bit tired emotionally and physically and our second game wasn´t so good and we had to chase the game against the Australians. In the end, unfortunately, we lost, but I still think we have a good chance for the gold medal and we will continue to chase it," he said.
During the opening ceremony, a fine vintage of Serbian hockey players stepped out on the ice to meet the cheers from the home crowd. Celebrating the ten-year anniversary of Serbia´s fine performance on home ice in Novi Sad when they steamed ahead to win a place in what was then one of the second highest divisions of the World Championship pyramid.
Two players - Marko Sretovic and Stefan Ilic - remain from that team in this year´s crop. Fond memories from those magical spring nights in Novi Sad also remains with Brkusanin, then an 18-year old prospect and top scorer for the U20 national team who almost made the cut for the 2009 team.
"I had been at the preparation camp with that team and taken part in a couple of practices. Instead, I watched every game from the stands and I later came to play and become friends with all of those players in the national team. It was a big inspiration to see them win that gold medal," he said of a time when Serbian hockey was on a high.
"Back then we played in the Panonian League with Croatia. Then I think hockey in Serbia was at the top. We had five pretty good clubs in a professional league and a lot of players competing for the national team. Every game was tough and close in what I think was a good league," said Brkusanin.
When Serbia the following year travelled to the Netherlands to compete at the 2010 World Championships Division I Group A in Tilburg, Brkusanin got his baptism of fire at national team level in a game he quickly would like to forget. 0-13 against an Austria team who went undefeated straight back to the top tier.
"The structure of the World Championships was different back them. Then you went straight from the second division to the first division, not like today where you first need to win division IIA and IB. There was a big gap between Ukraine and Austria and teams like us, the Netherlands and Lithuania. I remember that we lost against the Netherlands in overtime," said Brkusanin as Serbia stepped down after winning a paltry point and have been struggling to raise themselves ever since.
An attempt to give the entire hockey program a boost came in 2016. Then the hockey community in Serbia´s capital got together to form HK Beograd, a professional team playing in what is today called the Erste Liga. Getting together Serbia's finest to lock horns against teams from Hungary, Romania and Austria, it was hoped to give the national team a cutting edge. Despite going into the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships Division IIA in Galati, Romania as one of the pre-tournament favourites their promotion campaign quickly derailed. Despite the initial disappointment, it remains Brkusanin's favourite memory as a national team player.
"I played together with my friends, such as Pavle Ogrizovic whom I played with since the age of 10 and then did his last championship. We were fighting for bronze and got a medal after winning our final game 6-0," said Brkusanin, who scored a hat trick against Iceland in the bronze decider.
When it was time for the 2017/18 season to get underway, HK Beograd had already folded and development was back to square one once again. Since then, Crvena Zvezda Belgrade has taken over as the country´s flagship with HK Vojvodina being the other Serbian participant in the eight-team strong cross-border IHL.
"We would need one or two more clubs from Serbia to compete in that league because now we have only around 30-35 players that could play for the national team," said Brkusanin who is keen to emphasize the impact cross-border cooperation has had on his playing career.
"My best memories come from when playing with Crvena Zvezda Belgrade´s U21 team in the Hungarian league. We played two years against all Hungarian clubs and many great players. As we are a small country we should cooperate even more with our neighbours. It is tough to make national competition for all ages with only two rinks that you share with other winter sports. At U8 and U10 level we have a lot of kids. But as they get older they don´t have anywhere to play as there are not a lot of senior clubs they can come up and play with," he said.
Now hoping that his performances might inspire another aspiring Belgrade kid in a similar way as he once was a decade ago, the full focus for Brkusanin will be to get back to winning ways with Serbia as crunch time is looming in the wide-open Division IIA.
"I think we had toughest games in the first two rounds. I am not saying that China, Belgium or Spain are weak opponents, but I also think Australia and Croatia are better opponents than them. But I think we learned from our loss from Australia and we have a pretty good chance to win gold and we all want it playing at our home rink," said Brkusanin.
All games can be followed in the game centre as free live stream.
The trophy-haul for Serbian hockey has been eye-catching so far this year. Their U20 and U18 national teams have already won gold at their respective World Championships at Division IIB level. They were followed suit at senior club level, with Crvena Zvedza Belgrade shining brightest to become champions of the International Hockey League (IHL) earlier this month against Croatian and Slovenian club opposition.
Instrumental in Crvena Zvezda Belgrade's success this season has been captain Marko Brkusanin, who now plays a starring role for Serbia at the World Championships Division II Group A played at Pionir Ice Hall in Belgrade between 9 to 15 April.
Having so far beaten top seeds Croatia 3-1 in their opener before succumbing to a 2-3 loss to Australia, 28-year-old Brkusanin is upbeat about Serbia´s prospects in a wide-open tournament.
"We have a pretty good team this year. We played well in our first game against Croatia, but then the team got a bit tired emotionally and physically and our second game wasn´t so good and we had to chase the game against the Australians. In the end, unfortunately, we lost, but I still think we have a good chance for the gold medal and we will continue to chase it," he said.
During the opening ceremony, a fine vintage of Serbian hockey players stepped out on the ice to meet the cheers from the home crowd. Celebrating the ten-year anniversary of Serbia´s fine performance on home ice in Novi Sad when they steamed ahead to win a place in what was then one of the second highest divisions of the World Championship pyramid.
Two players - Marko Sretovic and Stefan Ilic - remain from that team in this year´s crop. Fond memories from those magical spring nights in Novi Sad also remains with Brkusanin, then an 18-year old prospect and top scorer for the U20 national team who almost made the cut for the 2009 team.
"I had been at the preparation camp with that team and taken part in a couple of practices. Instead, I watched every game from the stands and I later came to play and become friends with all of those players in the national team. It was a big inspiration to see them win that gold medal," he said of a time when Serbian hockey was on a high.
"Back then we played in the Panonian League with Croatia. Then I think hockey in Serbia was at the top. We had five pretty good clubs in a professional league and a lot of players competing for the national team. Every game was tough and close in what I think was a good league," said Brkusanin.
When Serbia the following year travelled to the Netherlands to compete at the 2010 World Championships Division I Group A in Tilburg, Brkusanin got his baptism of fire at national team level in a game he quickly would like to forget. 0-13 against an Austria team who went undefeated straight back to the top tier.
"The structure of the World Championships was different back them. Then you went straight from the second division to the first division, not like today where you first need to win division IIA and IB. There was a big gap between Ukraine and Austria and teams like us, the Netherlands and Lithuania. I remember that we lost against the Netherlands in overtime," said Brkusanin as Serbia stepped down after winning a paltry point and have been struggling to raise themselves ever since.
An attempt to give the entire hockey program a boost came in 2016. Then the hockey community in Serbia´s capital got together to form HK Beograd, a professional team playing in what is today called the Erste Liga. Getting together Serbia's finest to lock horns against teams from Hungary, Romania and Austria, it was hoped to give the national team a cutting edge. Despite going into the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships Division IIA in Galati, Romania as one of the pre-tournament favourites their promotion campaign quickly derailed. Despite the initial disappointment, it remains Brkusanin's favourite memory as a national team player.
"I played together with my friends, such as Pavle Ogrizovic whom I played with since the age of 10 and then did his last championship. We were fighting for bronze and got a medal after winning our final game 6-0," said Brkusanin, who scored a hat trick against Iceland in the bronze decider.
When it was time for the 2017/18 season to get underway, HK Beograd had already folded and development was back to square one once again. Since then, Crvena Zvezda Belgrade has taken over as the country´s flagship with HK Vojvodina being the other Serbian participant in the eight-team strong cross-border IHL.
"We would need one or two more clubs from Serbia to compete in that league because now we have only around 30-35 players that could play for the national team," said Brkusanin who is keen to emphasize the impact cross-border cooperation has had on his playing career.
"My best memories come from when playing with Crvena Zvezda Belgrade´s U21 team in the Hungarian league. We played two years against all Hungarian clubs and many great players. As we are a small country we should cooperate even more with our neighbours. It is tough to make national competition for all ages with only two rinks that you share with other winter sports. At U8 and U10 level we have a lot of kids. But as they get older they don´t have anywhere to play as there are not a lot of senior clubs they can come up and play with," he said.
Now hoping that his performances might inspire another aspiring Belgrade kid in a similar way as he once was a decade ago, the full focus for Brkusanin will be to get back to winning ways with Serbia as crunch time is looming in the wide-open Division IIA.
"I think we had toughest games in the first two rounds. I am not saying that China, Belgium or Spain are weak opponents, but I also think Australia and Croatia are better opponents than them. But I think we learned from our loss from Australia and we have a pretty good chance to win gold and we all want it playing at our home rink," said Brkusanin.
All games can be followed in the game centre as free live stream.