Ryde feels stronger competition

Viborg HK is among the strongest candidates for the Women’s CL title. Nevertheless, the team have shown a surprisingly unstable form in the group stage so far. The five points gained in the first four matches mean that the first place of Group D is far away now. The Danes will also have to wait until January to secure their qualification for the Main Round.

Eurohandball.com talks to Viborg’s Swedish head coach. Tomas Ryde tells us about the problems of his team and his expectations for the future.

Eurohandball.com: How would you summarise your team’s performance so far?

Tomas Ryde: It was not absolutely okay. Our 33-30 away defeat in Valcea was okay, I think, but it was not acceptable to make a 31-31 draw against Budocnost last Saturday. We were leading 30-28 two minutes before the end, and we even had one player more on court. Under such circumstances you must be able to win.

Eurohandball.com: Do you think you lost the first place of the group with that draw in Montenegro?

Tomas Ryde: We probably did. However, I still hope that Budocnost would cause Valcea some trouble. We should do the same when we meet them at home on 2 January.

Eurohandball.com: You have to wait until New Year to secure your Main Round place. This was probably not what you expected…

Tomas Ryde: No, definitely not. It is annoying, but that is the way things are, and now I only hope not to suffer more injuries in the meantime with many of our players going to the World Championship.

Eurohandball.com: Your team has been absolutely invincible in the Danish league: you won all your eleven matches in the first half of the season. On the other hand, you have been considerably more inconsistent in the Champions League. Why was that?

Tomas Ryde: That is an extremely interesting question. I think the fact that there are more and more strong teams in the Champions League explains this partly. It is enough to mention Valcea, for instance, or a team such as Zvezda Zvenigorod in the other group. You can see a tendency in more and more countries that practically all national players are playing in the same club. Furthermore, it is still extremely difficult to win away in the Womens’ Champions League.

Eurohandball.com: Now you have a long break before the Danish Cup Final coming up on 29 December. That will be rapidly followed by the CL top game against Valcea on 2 January. How can you use this break?

Tomas Ryde: Well, we cannot train much as majority of my players will go to the World Championship with their respective national teams. We will not have much time to prepare for the Cup Final or for the Valcea match, but I hope that some of our injured players will recover in the meantime.