What was a feat yesterday will become an expectation tomorrow

Captain Vladimir Golovin’s second Olympic cycle began with the friendly matches against the Romanians. The women’s handball national team performed well beyond their strength and not only made it to the Paris Games, but also came within a hair’s breadth of reaching the top four. It was almost natural that the federation extended the contract of the captain, who immediately made changes in his staff:

“In the last year and a half, it was seen that our team was slowly coming together, we got along mentally and physically, and what was the greatest joy for me was that we also found each other as a community.” This work must now be continued, which will not be easy, because those who achieve a feat once are expected to perform similarly the next time.” Golovin said with a smile.

We’re not going to Los Angeles yet

The captain said that, of course, the most important task for the next four years is to obtain the Olympic quota and to perform as well as possible at the Games, but before we turn to Los Angeles, we have one more important thing to do: at the end of the year, the European Championship is coming up, which is co-hosted by Hungary.

“There are no big surprises in the national team at the domestic tournament, we will continue with roughly the same players who made up our Olympic team.”

“Being able to play in front of the Hungarian audience is also a responsibility, and I trust that we will play handball in Debrecen with similar motivation and in good mental condition.“I’m not worried about the unity of our team, our community is strong even if not everyone is playing well, and this – as we saw this year – helps us through many difficulties,” said Golovin.

The unit must not break (photo: MKSZ)

“After the European Championship, we have to touch the squad a bit. We have to start integrating the young people who are still a bit inexperienced and have no international experience at all, but in Los Angeles they will be at an age where they can even be key players.”

You have to know when you wake up from your dream

Our team defeated the Romanians twice in a friendly match, and now the women’s handball team is playing a double match with the French, which promises to be a much more difficult task. Mainly because after the festive atmosphere of the Olympics, you have to return to the gray everyday life, to the usual problems.

“A tough club season has started for the players, they come to the national team training after a lot of matches and great physical exertion. Unfortunately, we also have injuries, but we also have players who play much less than before, and this is a serious problem for us.”

“We need the national team players to be on the field in their clubs when the matches are decided. Not in the rush, when everything doesn’t matter, but when the important questions are decided, because that’s the only way they can be expected to make good decisions in the national team at key moments.” explained the captain.

It is not difficult to guess that Golovin was targeting, among others, Simon Petra (photo: MKSZ)

In the national team, which is already struggling with structural problems, it is also a problem if a key player drops out, since we do not have two rows of players with the same ability, but Golovin is not worried about this.

“There will always be problems, injuries and fluctuations in form are part of the game. We have to focus on having such a strong base game that we can play even when we wake up from our sleep. We’re used to almost never being able to play in our strongest line-up, but we’ve been getting good results lately.”

To stay behind the best

“I was not at all satisfied with the team’s play against the Romanians, we had problems especially in defense. However, it must be acknowledged that we can only be successful if the wall is well supported at the back, and the saves come from the goalkeeper. We must build on this strength at the European Championships and in the next Olympic cycle as well, as it is unlikely that our structural problems will suddenly be solved.”

Captain Golovin will not have an easy task in the next cycle either (photo: MKSZ)

“Against France, I expect us to enter the field with the same will to fight as in the opening match of the Olympics. However, it is not true that the result does not matter, because in such matches we have to gain self-confidence, we have to strengthen the belief in ourselves that we can compete with the best, and that doesn’t happen if we simply lose. “We have to fight, we have to try to beat France away from home,” Golovin stated.

The women’s handball team will play the French team on October 24 in Toulon and then on the 26th in Paris-Tremblay, M4 Sport will broadcast the first match live, the second will be shown on M4 Sport+. Ours will miss him this time due to injury Klujber Katrin, Viktoria Győri-Lukács and Janurik Kinga.