Topolyai SC would continue to soar with a new coach

Topolyai SC is flying, the small team from Vojvodina is delivering consecutive podium finishes and has already made its mark in Europe: last fall, the team was in the group stage of the Europa League. Although it was not possible to repeat last year’s second place, with third place TSC will also be on the main table of one of the UEFA series, the only question is whether we will meet them in the European or Conference League.

“We are targeting the Europa League, but we will not be sad if we play in the Conference League in the fall. In the former, there are more serious teams, but in the latter, we have a better chance to score points and maybe even aim for promotion,” Szabolcs Palágyi, Topolya’s club manager, told the MOL Team.

Beyond a painful loss

Last year, Topolya was not successful in the BL qualifiers, so they entered the Europa League. This year, he will start in the playoff round of the second series, and if he is not successful, he will be on the main board of KL. However, the Palágyi have right to hope that they will be able to win the qualifiers.

“We will play five league games until the Europa League playoffs, and we are confident that we will play the duel in the best possible condition. This amount of matches is ideal for us to get in shape for the international matches.”

The players from Topolya will start playing in the Serbian Super League next weekend, on July 21 – in the first round, they will face IMT Belgrade – which really comes in handy when it comes to international matches. However, there is a problem that is much more serious than any other problem: the miracle-working coach left Topolya, Zarko Lazetic.

“We do not deny that the departure of the coach is a big loss. He did an excellent job with the team,” Palágyi said. “Since everyone saw how well he works, we were also forced to prepare for the possibility that an offer would come to him that he would not be able to say no to. This offer was made by Maccabi Tel Aviv in the summer – and Lazetic already won the Israeli Super Cup with them.”

“It is very difficult to find a coach for TSC, because our team, and even our entire club, was built in a special way.

But we solved the task and chose a professional who shares Topolya’s football philosophy, so we have reason to believe that the change of coach will not leave a mark on our performance.” – said the head of the club about Dean Klafuric, who may be familiar to Hungarian readers because he also worked at the Honvéd.

Getting back to Europe

The silver and then bronze medals show that Topolyai SC has absolutely grown up to be the biggest in Serbia. In the last season, they beat Partizan several times and were only slightly behind the Belgraders, whom they were able to overtake two years ago. However, the goal is still not for the Vojvodina team to grow into a giant, because the leaders at the club have two feet on the ground.

There will be something to celebrate in Topolya this year as well (Photo: FK TSC)

“Our goal is Europe, we will be able to tell which series within that, when we see the others and see how we perform. There are many changes from year to year, it is certain that Serbia will delegate four teams to Europe next year, and we will have to fight among them – either from the championship or from the Serbian Cup,” Palágyi explained.

“This year, we strengthened the team in such a way that we know that we will again fight on three fronts, since in addition to the domestic league and cup series, we will certainly be on the main table in Europe as well.“Last year, the three-front fight took a lot out of the team, this year we will be better prepared for the challenges, and I trust that this will be reflected in the numerical results.”

Topolya performed well in the preparatory matches (Photo: FK TSC)

“I am happy to say that we will play in Topolya, no matter which series we are placed in, as UEFA has been convinced several times that we are capable of organizing European Cup matches – and it is not only about TSC matches, since Maccabi from Israel also played several matches in the Topolya arena.”The fact that we can bring good teams and players with a European reputation to our community makes us extremely proud.” – added the club manager.