Slovakia eager to make the most of home advantage

The first qualifying phase of the 2013 Women´s World Championship in Serbia gets underway on Friday in Partizánske, Slovakia.

The home side will host Finland, Switzerland and Greece, with only the winner of the group going through to the play offs. 

Peter Sabadka ´s team set-up their camp in Partizánske, where they will be fighting for a chance to compete in their first major tournament since their appearance at the 1995 World Championship in Austria and Hungary.

Since then, Slovakia have been battling unsuccessfully with the qualification rounds of major tournaments, and coach Peter Sabadka is eager to end this long wait with his young ambitious team in his second qualification campaign since taking over women´s national team.

”The girls arrived fit and in a good mood. We are going to prepare in Partizanske, because we want to get used to the local environment, the new arena and feel comfortable here. We adapted our training sessions to the beginning times of our matches.

This time, we do not have in our plans to play any friendly match, we are fully focusing on training, tactical preparation and analysis of our opponents.

We have set ourselves one very straight forward goal; we want to top the group and get the most of the home advantage and go through to the second qualifying round.” 

A big blow for the hosts will be the absence of important line player Patrícia Wollingerová from Luventa Michalovce and Simona Szarkova. The centre back was forced to undergo a knee surgery. Her replacement comes in the form of her team mate from Slovan Duslo Šaľa, Sofia Demajová.

Alžbeta Tóthová and Katarína Dubajová from Czech side DHC Sokol Poruba and Dagmar Stuparičová from SV Union Halle-Neustadt in Germany will lead Slovakian team, alongside the young players should complete, what Peter Sabadka hopes to be “an ideal mosaic.“

“We are happy to play in front of our fans in new arena in Partizánske. It is honour for us to represent Slovakia on international level.

“We want to win all three matches. Respect is the word I use towards our opponents, but not fear.

“We have enough information about Greece and Switzerland, Finland is a bit of unknown team for us, but we have to cope with the situation.”

Slovakia will start their group campaign against Greece, in the second match of the group, Finland will come across Switzerland. On Saturday, the hosts take on Finland, Switzerland will battle against Greece. The final gameday starts with Greece meeting Finland.
Slovakia and Switzerland, two sides expected to fight for the summit of the group and only spot in the next year ´s play offs for the 2013 World Championship meet in, what is expected to be the decisive match of the group on Sunday at 18:00 CET.  

All matches will be played in the rebuilt modern arena in Partizánske. Home team plays all matches starting at 18:00. First match of each gameday starts at 15:30.

Provisional Slovakian squad for the upcoming 2013 Women´s World Championship first phase qualification group 1 tournament in Partizánske 30.11.-02.12.2012 (coach Peter Sabadka will announce final 16 players squad by Thursday):

Goalkeepers: Martina Túrociová (HK Slovan Duslo Šaľa), Adriana Medveďová (Iuventa Michalovce), Simona Súlovská (HK Danlog Partizánske)

Line players: Ivana Trochtová (HK Slovan Duslo Šaľa), Michaela Kovaličková (Iuventa Michalovce), Eva Minárčiková (HK Danlog Partizánske)

Wingers: Dagmar Stuparičová (SV Union Halle-Neustadt), Simona Pileková (SG BBM Bietigheim), Petronela Kováčiková (TV Grenzach), Lucia Súkenníková (HK Slovan Duslo Šaľa), Zuzana Janšáková (HK Danlog Partizánske)

Back court players: Lýdia Jakubisová (Thüringer HC), Alžbeta Tóthová, Katarína Dubajová (both DHC Sokol Poruba), Monika Rajnohová (HK Britterm Veselí nad Moravou), Alžbeta Polláková (ŠKP Piccard Senec), Sofia Demajová (HK Slovan Duslo Šaľa), Klaudia Michnová (HK Danlog Partizánske), Marianna Rebičová (Iuventa Michalovce)