Larvik's ambitious plans

Tor Odvar Moen talks to Eurohandball.com. The assistant coach of Larvik is not discouraged by the defeat in Valcea. Moen appreciates Podravka Vegeta, but he is very determined and says: nobody will take points from Bergslihallen.

Eurohandball.com: Experts agree that Larvik are much stronger then last season. What’s changed?

Tor Odvar Moen: Our team has been playing together for several seasons. Now we have more experience and our team play is more stabile. The most important thing is that Tonje Larsen finally got rid of her knee problems and other minor injuries. She is a world class player on a similar level to Popovic, Jurack and the other stars. Last season she broke her hand after the first match in the CL and that caused us problems. Later she came back and we won the Cup Winner's Cup.

The arrival of our new pivot, Heidi Løke, who played for our club at a junior age, also added a new dimension for our play. She is also top class player and our spectators have the opportunity now to enjoy her amazing performance.

Eurohandball.com: Larvik lost the away match in Valcea, though Oltchim did not dominate at home. What do you think about Oltchim’s performance and what do you think led to the defeat?

Tor Odvar Moen: The match in Valcea was a typical opening game. Both teams were a bit “rusty” and very nervous. Oltchim have a fantastic team with great fans at home, but still we thought we could take the two points back to Larvik.

Some of their key players were really good and in the end they deserved to win. My opinion is that this group will see a lot of home victories.Even if you lose away, you’ll have a new opportunity at home the next match. We really believed in our chance to win. We had a one-goal lead at the break, but there were a couple of key moments in the second half we paid for.

We had to play without Larsen for a few minutes when she got injured after a tackle and Oltchim took advantage of that. And the fact that we got three two-minutes suspensions in the last 12 minutes was simply too much to handle for us.

Eurohandball.com: Next weekend you will host Podravka. The Croatians defeated Lada in the first round. In the past seasons you played many matches against Podravka and you always won. What do you expect this time?

Tor Odvar Moen: Podravka started very well with two points against Lada and they showed that they will play an important role in the group. We know them well and as you mentioned we have a positive record against them. But I think it is irrelevant.

We have the home court advantage and our ambition is that no team will leave Bergslihallen with the two points in their bags. But we know that Podravka are stronger than last year with a couple of good signings such as Dokic and Penezic. And Zovko is doing a great job with the team that was already apparent last year.

Eurohandball.com: Your last opponents in Group C will be Lada. It seems that the Russians are not on the same level as before. Can Larvik reach the next round against such strong opponents?

Tor Odvar Moen: We should not underestimate Lada. At home they will be incredibly hard to defeat. They have many talented players, but if Postnova’s injury does not recover, they will be a bit weaker then last season. Postnova is a top player and every team would miss her.

Eurohandball.com: What are the main objectives of Larvik?

Tor Odvar Moen: We want to win every single match and we want to win every competition. To be honest, CL will be very tight this year and our main ambition is to go through to the Main Round. If we do so, everything can happen.