It’s part of my job to make these decisions

The hardest part of a captain’s life is when he has to narrow down the squad, and this condition is exacerbated when he has to tell some of his players before the biggest sporting event, the Olympics, that they will not be traveling to the Games.

“It comes with the job that I have to make the final decision, and it’s really not an easy thing. Fortunately, the players stood by my decision like true professionals, and of course they also know that the squad is final according to our intentions, but unexpected events can always happen, which will make us have to change,” said Vladimir Golovin to the MOL Team.

Szöllősi-Zácsik without Szandra

It was expected that one of the three goalkeepers would be a backup (it ended up being Zsófia Szemerey, who transferred to Metz in the summer), just as it is not a surprise that the captain took only one player to one of the wings, which meant the elimination of Dorottya Faluvégi. But the position of the king’s post, i.e. the bow shooter, caused some confusion.

“In most teams, the top scorer plays here, but the structure of our team is different, and at the Olympics we will often be forced to solve the position of the shooter with managers.“This situation is not new, this is how we achieved our goals at the last world competitions and even at the Olympic qualification tournament,” said the captain.

After the announcement of the squad, it became clear that we will have a player not only in the right wing position, but also in the shooting position: in addition to Csengé Kuczora, the captain named Gréta Kácsor among the reserves, while Szöllősi-Zácsik was not included in the Olympic squad.

“Gréta will be with us as a reserve, and it may turn out that we will replace her, but Sáni has had too few playing minutes after her recovery to be able to help the team according to her skills.“He could feel that he really missed the game, so we had to make this very painful decision, which Szani accepted,” Golovin explained the omission of the best Hungarian crosser.

We are also preparing new products

It can also be seen from the composition of the Hungarian squad that the captain’s room for maneuver is quite narrow, as it is not expected that the Hungarian strikers will decide our matches from the number nine. That’s why we have three controllers and three right-handed shooters, to make room for break-ins and wingers with quick movements and passing games, or for our shooters to get into a shooting position against an unorganized wall.

We also prepare surprises (Photo: MKSZ/Anikó Kovács)

“We are also preparing new things, but I don’t want to talk about them for now. In the closed match against Slovenia, we will try some new elements, and I know that our opponent is also preparing for this,” said Golovin on his way to Slovenia, who, after the western neighbors, will also play an official match against Germany before the Olympics.

“It is very difficult to schedule these matches, as the Scandinavians do not like to play friendly matches before the big tournaments, but our group opponents from the twelve Olympic participants are automatically eliminated, because obviously we cannot play a preparation match with them. It is important to meet good teams, but now we will only focus on ourselves”, he stated.

We are not just preparing for two matches (Photo: MKSZ/Anikó Kovács)

Golovin said that we have a war plan for the shooting guard as well as the right winger, if it turns out that we have to change the only player who is officially in this position. “Keti Klujber would not be unfamiliar with the right wing either, but Niki Papp can also play here, although it is an important suggestion that he should concentrate most of his energy on defense.”

“I’m not worried about this anyway, my players are in excellent physical condition, which is essential in a tournament like this. “Between July 25th and August 3rd we have five very important matches, and although many people think that only the second matchday (Brazil) and the third matchday (Angola) matter, we are not preparing like that. Every match is very important, even the points , we even look at the confidence and belief of the team. For example, we start with the French, who are obviously better than us, but it doesn’t matter in what mental state we start the match against the Brazilians.”

The team would be happy to be together again (Photo: MKSZ/Anikó Kovács)

“There is still some time until the Olympics, we want to use this as effectively as possible. We want to prove that we have a place among the top twelve teams, and we are preparing to be in the fight for promotion,” added Golovin.