A race against time for busy Thomsen to get FC Midtjylland ready

Last season, FC Midtjylland surprised a good deal of the handball world by qualifying for the first MVM EHF FINAL4 in Budapest.

Although the outcome of the Danish team’s efforts that weekend in May was only a fourth place, their achievement was still considered to be remarkable.

Back then, FCM were taking part in the Women’s EHF Champions League as Danish champions. In the meantime they have lost that title to Viborg HK and as runners-up the team under head coach Helle Thomsen will have to go through a qualification tournament in order to get the chance to emulate their achievement from last season.

In Kragujevac, Serbia, FCM will have to try and qualify for the group matches from a tournament containing hosts WHC Radnicki Kragujevac, Norwegian runners-up Byasen Trondheim and Croatian champions HC Podravka Vegeta.

The qualification tournament takes place on 20-21 September, but before then a lot of work awaits Helle Thomsen and her players.

“We’ve said goodbye to three key players, Trine Troelsen (Toulon, France) Lærke Møller (Danish league rivals Team Tvis Holstebro) and Louise Svalastog (another Danish league club, København Håndbold)

“Of course, we have got some highly qualified replacements in Sabina Jacobsen (from Randers HK) Ida Alstad (Team Tvis Holstebro) and Sabine Pedersen (Viborg HK) but it takes a lot of time to get three new players integrated in key positions, and Sabina Jacobsen is even still recovering from a cruciate ligament injury,” said Helle Thomsen, who was gifted an additional and unexpected boost this week.

Augustesen to add competition

Former Danish international Mie Augustesen had actually ended her career this spring, but now she has gained an appetite for top handball again has now signed for FC Midtjylland.

“I am hungry to play handball, and I am really looking forward to getting started in the club which was on the top of my wish list,” said the 26-year-old left wing, as her contract with FC Midtjylland was announced.

“Obviously she is an extension to our squad, but Mie has not played since April, and we already have two highly qualified left wingers, so she will have to start from scratch and see how far she can take it, but of course her arrival increases the competition for the positions in the team which appeared to be a bit small, consisting of only 14 players,” Thomsen told ehfCL.com.

She realises that she has limited time to make her team click, as the Danish league season starts at the beginning of September and the Women´s EHF Champions League qualifiers are little more than a month away.

“We have the Danish Super Cup and a match in the Danish Cup before the league starts, and we have several league matches before the Champion League qualifiers, so I am sure that we will make things work in time.

“Nevertheless, we have not even started to think about the Champions League yet. Even if we get past our qualification group, you only have to take a look at the group matches opponents (Buducnost, Thüringer HC and WHC Vardar SCBT) in order to see how tough our path towards another FINAL4 is.

“Playing the FINAL4 last season was one of the greatest and coolest things we have ever experienced, but you cannot take such things for granted and right now a remake of that achievement is only a distant dream to us,” added the FCM coach.

Multitasking coaches

Alongside making her team click in time, Helle Thomsen is facing another challenge. Apart from her job as head coach at FCM she is in charge of the Swedish women´s national team together with Thomas Sivertsson.

But it doesn’t end there. FCM’s new assistant coach Kristian Kristensen is head coach at Roskilde Håndbold in Denmark’s second league.

“It is all about planning. It is simply a question of synchronising our time management. I have Roskilde’s match schedules and Kristian has FCM’s and Sweden’s, so we know all the time which one of us is available. And in times of trouble, our under-18 coaches can help out.

“So we make things work and we are on the right track,” concluded Thomsen.