Zsolt Varga: There are 6-7 candidates, including us

“It was very difficult both personally and professionally,” he sighed Solt Varga national team captain when we asked him how he experienced the downsizing. No less than 11 world champions from Fukuoka are included in the captain’s 13-man squad from Paris, meaning that the former coach from Ferencváros did not see the point of excessive variation.

“There is no such thing as a team winning the Olympics easily. There are six, or even seven teams that are very close in terms of skill, any of them can win, and it is certain that little things will decide. Taking this into account, I put together the Olympic squad,” added the captain.

The team is not yet ready for the match

The Olympic preparations are going well, according to the captain, the most important goal is for the team to start the Games in perfect physical and mental condition. However, the results show that there are teams that are already ahead in their preparations: we suffered a defeat in Croatia (afterwards we had a chat with Krisztián Manhercz), we lost to the Italians due to our weak opening quarter, and we were only able to beat France on Margaret Island with five points.

“We weren’t in a good playing condition yet, the movements were slow, you could feel that our team had just come out of a lot of physical work. “Meanwhile, the Italians have already returned from a preparation tournament, they are probably preparing with a different method, and I hear that the Spaniards and the Americans have also chosen a different method of preparation than the usual one.”

“Now we have the game in focus as well, and we will play against stronger and stronger opponents, and official matches are also included in the program,” said Varga, who we caught up with when the team landed in Sicily, where they will prepare together with the Italians. The program also includes an official match, and then the team will travel to Spain, where they will also meet the home team.

“These matches are necessary, as many things can be done in training sessions, but the rhythm of the match and the physicality of the game can only be modeled in live conditions. “Of course, we won’t show everything to our opponents, we’re also preparing for surprises, but we have to play friendly matches at such a temperature if we want to be ready for the start of the Olympics.”

We don’t see the others

The clear line is that the Hungarian team is among the 6-7 teams that can win the Olympics, but what position it occupies among them, on the one hand, cannot be said now, and on the other hand, the order among the members of the elite field is absolutely not constant.

We are where we need to be now (Photo: MVLSZ)

“Just look at what happened in Fukuoka: we won the semi-final in the last second, the final with five meters. The differences are so small, so as much as I would like to say that ours is the best team in the world, I cannot make such a statement.”Because it may be, but on that particular day he will have a better one, or it may not be the best, but on a given match day it will be.”

“We see that the Croatians and the Italians are also very good, and I’m sure that the Spaniards and the Americans will also be strong. And there are also the French, who very consciously built themselves up with a strong professional background, and are already absolutely equal opponents to the best. It helped them a lot that Marseille is in the BL, and a very strong professional staff works alongside the team,” Varga said.

Paris needs top form, and it will come (Photo: MVLSZ)

“The results don’t matter in the warm-up matches not only because there is nowhere to count the points, but also because it is not at all certain that the two teams are at the same place in the preparation. I also did not draw far-reaching conclusions from the results of the last period, I identified the problems, but I know which of them need to be dealt with and which result from the fact that ball training was not the focus yet.”

“Of course, a specialist works alongside the team to ensure that we are in perfect condition mentally for the start of the games, and the boys work very well to ensure that we are in top form physically as well. No one needs extra motivation at an Olympics anyway, but we also have this: we all want Dénes Varga to end his incomparably beautiful career with a nice medal,” added the captain.

The men’s polo team will play several matches with the hosts in Italy, but only one of them will be official, and then they will travel to Spain for a doubleheader, where they will also play an official match. Then the boys return home for a day and leave home for Paris.