Great Plans, Promising Squad

MKB Veszprém, quarterfinalist last season in the Champions League, have gone through big changes during the summer. Coach Zdravko Zovko was replaced by Lajos Mocsai, a most experienced and succesful Hungarian expert. The greatest star, FYR Macedonian Kiril Lazarov left, while young players (Ilyés, T. Iváncsik, Markovic) joined the club.

The team are currently in Germany preparing for the season. Last weekend, Veszprém finished second at the Brümmerhof Cup after beating Hamburg and losing against THW Kiel. This week, the squad travels to the Schlecker Cup to meet top teams including Kiel. Between the two tournaments, Veszprém played against lower division German teams.

Eurohandball.com asks new coach, Lajos Mocsai, about the preparations and about the prospects of his young team.

Eurohandball.com: The Hungarian Championship starts early September, the Champions League group stage starts at the end of September. How does Veszprém prepare at the moment?

Lajos Mocsai: Our preparation will have three phases. The second phase just began in Germany. We play lots of test matches – we played five in just six days. The most important is to finalise our tactical plans. The third phase will be in Hungary where we will be training until the start of the championship.

Eurohandball.com: Your team takes part at big tournaments with top clubs. How are these tests going?

Lajos Mocsai: Bundesliga starts two weeks earlier than the Hungarian championship and it means that the German teams have a two-week advantage over us. Our players arrived to Brümmerhof Cup tired from fitness trainings, hungry for some handball and they were highly motivated. This is a possible way to reach good results.

This week we have been travelling a lot. We played many matches with German teams and we arrive to the Schlecker Cup after all this. We would like to be good opponents of these top teams, but we are in a phase of great physical fatigue. All matches are important for us when we can play against foreign clubs to see what our players are capable of.

Eurohandball.com: There have been many changes in Veszprém. What is your new, young team like?

Lajos Mocsai: We have 6 or 7 player who are 21 to 23 years old. We work continuously on different aspects: we want to reach top level in physical abilities. This is very important in international handball today. We also want to get closer to the European elite. There are differences, however. German teams also buy young players, but those young handballers have 3-4 years of Bundesliga experience. It’s enough to mention Kiel signing the Czech Jicha, for example.

The players we sign are not mature players and they need 1 or 2 years to reach top level. We have an agreement in Veszprém. We are going to take a look at the team one year from now and we will see which players are able to take us to the top international level, which are not.

Eurohandball.com: Does it mean that there is a lot of patience from the management’s side?

Lajos Mocsai: This will be a year of serious work. Luckily, the young players are quick, creative ones who work with great mentality.

In Veszprém it was always important to evolve, but at the same time it was also important to keep on bringing good results.

Eurohandball.com: It will not be easy in the Champions League this time. Veszprém are in a very strong group…

Lajos Mocsai: We are in one group with former CL winning Celje and the German Gummersbach. The latter I know well because I also worked there not long ago. They are a rich club, signed good players, they play in the Kölnarena… Fantastic! Everyone expects them to finish in the first five teams of the Bundesliga. The fourth team will probably be Reykjavik, which is also a difficult opponent.

This is the strongest group in the Champions League for sure. I believe that the home games will be crucial. The team that makes an away victory will qualify for the main round.

Eurohandball.com: What will be decisive in the race for the first two places?

Lajos Mocsai: It all depends on the form in the given period. Who has fewer injuries, who can concentrate better at the given game? This will decide. The differences are tiny.