Suslina: We need a victory and I expect it

Inna Suslina is a World Champion with Russia, but is now hungry for club titles which are missing in her collection. She speaks exclusively to ehfCL.com about her expectations in the Women’s EHF Champions League.

ehfCL.com: How much has Vardar changed since your arrival here?

Inna Suslina: We are talking about two different teams. We all know what kind of team Vardar was when I arrived here. Now we have one professional team consisting of plenty of international players and everything is different starting from the principles of work to the quality of the players.

ehfCL.com: As expected, the match in San Sebastian against Bera Bera ended with your team victorious.  The lack of coordination between the players of your team was noticeable, but this didn’t affect the final result. What were your biggest weaknesses in this match and how will you overcome them?

Inna Suslina: After the match with Bera Bera I saw on my own that there were many mistakes and it is normal that we have weaknesses because we are a new team and it is very difficult to coordinate the entire team in just two months. We have many different languages in the team as well as different handball schools – Spanish, Russian, Macedonian, French etc.

The crucial thing is that we either understand each other on the court or we don’t. I’m sure we can do it better, but now the most important thing is to focus on understating each other. At the end of the match we count the points so it is good they are on our side. After all if we can win with bad game, imagine what we can do if we play well.

ehfCL.com: In the second round you met Norwegian side Larvik. Your team started badly, but at the end you had a chance of victory, which slipped from your hands. How satisfied are you with the result?

Inna Suslina: In this match the first thing I would like to pay attention to are the fans. Thanks a lot to all who came and gave us the support we needed in the hall.  The second important thing is that it was my pleasure to play against a team at such a high level and I’m very happy that we managed to achieve such a good result.

We were preparing hard for this match, but not everything went as planned. I see that our team has great potential and there is a lot of work to be done in future.

ehfCL.com: Your next match is this Saturday against Podravka. Some of the key players left this team during the summer. They had weak performance against Larvik and one good match with Bera Bera. What are your expectations in this match? 

Inna Suslina: For us, the match with Podravka is the most important in the group and we have a little more time to prepare. They have young, good and interesting team, but I’m thinking more about our team.

We are a new club and we are trying to quickly come to a mutual understanding on the court. You simply cannot play without mistakes but I hope that in the upcoming match with Podravka they will be less. We need a victory and I expect it.

ehfCL.com: Skopje is back on the handball map of Europe and Vardar has top teams in both women’s and men’s competition. Can you tell us more about the coordination between these two teams?

Inna Suslina: We are all together like one big family. I have many friends in the men’s team. We are following their matches and they are coming to support us at our matches. It is not that we are the same team and there is some kind of rule that we have to do this, it just comes naturally.

We cheer and support each other honestly and this is really one big motivation for all of the players.

ehfCL.com: How do you see the future of Macedonian club handball?

Inna Suslina: Metalurg has experience and Vardar has just started on international level and therefore I’m sure that the future of Macedonian handball is very bright.

ehfCL.com: With so many transfers in the team, fans expect to see only positive results, are you ready for this pressure?

Inna Suslina: I have been at several matches in the audience and fans are supporting the team from the start until the end so I don’t know much about the pressure as I do not read the comments on the internet after the end of the match.

Mistakes are always part of the game, so maybe afterwards they will forgive us, but after all we don’t have any another choice, we have to win for ourselves and for the fans, of course.

ehfCL.com: According to many, Vardar is among the favorites in the competition. What are your expectation from this competition?

Inna Suslina: It is hard to speak about this right now and I don’t like to give empty promises, but rather prefer to take it match by match and then I will be able to tell you how we are improving, where our weaknesses are and finally say what my team is capable of.