Four coaches
Upon attending the technical meeting chaired by CEV Vice President and Treasurer Philip Berben, the coaches of the four participating teams – i.e. Slovakia, Austria, Greece and Liechtenstein – shared their expectations before actions get started on Friday afternoon.
“Our only and sole goal is to finish first in the Pool” Slovakia’s mentor Miroslav Cada says. “Our preparations did run very well and we feel ready for the start of the season”.
“We always have got very high ambitions and we want to make it to the next round” Greece head coach Ioannis Kalmazidis states. “We have many young girls in the group which is a good omen for the future but it also means that we lack experience on the international stage. However, we do have ambitious long-term goals with these players”.
“We also have got a very young team that was assembled quite quickly” Austrian mentor, Slovak-born Zuzana Tlstovicova, says. “I started working with these players only a couple of weeks ago and we will see via these matches where we stand. We are not the favourites in this tournament but we will try to play our best. It feels special to play in my home country and I enjoyed meeting friends and the very warm welcome deserved to me here in Poprad. The organization here is just perfect” adds the head coach of Austria’s champions SVS Post SCHWECHAT.
“We only have amateur players and it will be very difficult to stand the challenge to play professional teams” Liechtenstein head coach Ludwig Horvath stresses. “However, we want to use this tournament as a unique opportunity to learn and get valuable experience on the international scene. We have young and short players but we are nevertheless very proud for being here and playing a World Championship qualifier”.
The winner of this tournament will advance directly to the third qualification round scheduled for early January 2014 while the runner-up will continue its campaign via the second round that is slated for early October.
To read more news from this competition click on World Championship – European Qualification W.
