The captain is not only optimistic about the European qualifiers

The women’s basketball team not only fulfilled the first serious task, but also won the World Cup qualifier with a great, very forward-looking game Peter Völgyi under his control. The specialist who arrived after the extremely painful failure of the Olympic qualifier already indicated in his first interview with us what changes he envisioned for the team, and he was able to carry them through, but the specialist from Díosgyőr is also plagued by the biggest problem of captains: he can hardly prepare together with his team.

“In the summer, it was very good that we were able to practice together with the girls for four weeks, I think the results and our game showed that we made the most of the available time. “Now we are continuing on the path we have started, because next time we will have the opportunity to spend a similarly long time together before the European Championship, but this does not mean that we would prioritize maintaining the level instead of development,” said the captain of the women’s basketball team to the MOL Team.

The Euro qualifiers continue

Qualifying for the European Championship is already a clear expectation for the team that reached the semi-finals in the last continental tournament, and accordingly we are in a good position in the group: after defeating the Finns away from home and the Slovenians at home, we are in the lead when we welcome Bulgaria in Diósgyőr, coming after two defeats.

“There isn’t a single team that we can underestimate, and we won’t! Bulgaria has a Euroleague player, they are not a weak team at all, and they have naturalized an American center with whom their game can be completely different. The problem is that we don’t know if he will be available against us, because that way we don’t know what kind of game to prepare for.”Either way, of course, our goal is to win” Völgyi concluded the question briefly.

Advancement against Bulgaria, and three days later, against Slovenia on Sunday, the Hungarian national team can take a huge step towards the first place in the group, and the captain is also preparing his team for two matches.

Dubei Debi defeated Slovenia away from home last time (photo: MKOSZ)

“The most difficult match of the qualifiers will be the match in Slovenia, after that we will see how we stand. A realistic goal is to advance and win the group, because we also proved in the summer that we have a strong, good team, and winning first place is important not only because it is a good feedback, but also because of the European group classification.”

We are evolving, we are being shaped

After the departure of Norbert Székely, the association also thought that after the spectacular European Championship and Olympic qualifying performance, the next step could be to fight for a World Championship appearance. Knowing this, Péter Völgyi and his staff undertook the task with this goal in mind, but the captain is not a fan of irresponsible promises and urges patience.

The already super team can still be better (photo: MKOSZ)

“There are teams better than us in Europe, but we have already reached the level where we can play close matches with them, which, when appropriate, are decided by one shot or good defense. This is already a big deal, but there is still serious development potential in the team, and if I didn’t think that either a World Cup appearance or an Olympic quota at the end of the cycle could be obtained, I wouldn’t have taken on the task.”

“Physically and mentally, we already have what it takes to beat the best, but there is still plenty of room for improvement. “Let’s not forget that we have a good number of players in the strongest competition series on the continent, even in the WNBA, and since our team is particularly young, this is very promising in terms of the players’ individual development. And we also have a legion place in the national team, which at the moment we don’t take advantage of it.”

Unity should never be a question (photo: MKOSZ)

“We have selected players, we hope to soon be able to announce the naturalization of a player who can be of great help to us, but we are not in a hurry. We are happy that we were able to win the World Cup qualifier with a Hungarian team,” added the captain, who announced his 16-man squad for the qualifiers in October.

“This is now the strongest squad that can be put together, so the twelve-man match squad will also be the same. I see that the girls are always happy when the team gets back together, so there will definitely be no problems with the unit. I expect a good match in Miskolc, a big battle in Ljubljana, and then we can continue practicing the strategic changes at the next longer meeting. I’m an optimist!” – concluded the captain.