When the day begins with darkness

Buducnost brought their first phase of preparations for the new season to an end last week after Dragan Adzic’s team spent ten days in the Serbian mountain Kopaonik working on physical fitness.

"The atmosphere in the team is great, all the players are working hard. We had everything needed to do what we had planned. Also, the weather served us well, so we had the opportunity to carry out trainings outside the hall", Adzic said.

The man in charge at Kopaonik was mainly the conditioning coach, Slovenian Marko Mrak, who for many years also worked in Krim. Given the fact that his last name in Montenegrian language means darkness, many players were joking with the phrase “when the day begins with darkness”.

"It was really great at Kopaonik. We had fabulous working conditions. This is always the hardest part of training, but we are professionals and we must past all of this to be ready for any challenge in the Champions League.

“There was certainly a lot of work with Marko Mrak, as we used to do with him in the past years, but we always felt good throughout the season after passing all of this,” Radmila Petrovic said.

At the end of last season, Petrovic decided to take a break due to family reasons, only to then change her mind.

“When we finished the previous season, I said I had plans to the next season. However, that didn’t happen and I'm happy that I'm going to play.

“I am happy that we will once again have a common goal, now I have even more motivation and desire. With a weaker team, without Katarina Bulatovic, last season we reached the Champions League final.

“From the first day we’re working hard, we all have high ambitions, but let's go step by step. In any case, we have the quality to do great things this season," added Petrovic.

With the change of plans for Petrovic, Buducnost was not forced to look for reinforcements at right wing. However, Elena Gjorgjievska, Irina Nikitina, Katarina Jzic ​​and Ivana Bozovic, as well as young Marija Mugosa and Olivera Vukcevic left the team.

On the flip side, after two seasons at Oltchim Rm. Valcea and Györi Audi ETO KC, right back Katarina Bulatovic has returned to Buducnost, as has young Jelena Despotovic from a loan at Hungarian MTK, adding to a long list of promoted youth players.

“I'm glad to be back, because in Buducnost I spent the most beautiful moments in my career. Now, I really have a much greater motivation than ever before.

“I know the team, with Christina Neagu I played in Oltchim, and only haven’t played with Kinga Byzdra and Camilla Dalby, but I believe that we can understand each other quickly,” said Bulatovic.

Dragan Adzic is also satisfied with the quality of the team.

“We are practically without any major changes. Katarina was in our team and she knows our system, so she had no trouble getting used to it,” said the coach, who also commented on the Clara Woltering’s situation.

“Due to her commitments in Germany, Clara will not be always with us, but will join us before the Champions League and will be with us during the competition," Adzic concluded.

Buducnost begin their series of friendly tournaments in Bucharest (21-24 August) followed by Koprivnica (29 and 30 August) and Ljubljana (12 and 13 of September.

In the group matches of the Women’s EHF Champions League, Buducnost will face WHC Vardar SCBT, Thüringer HC and a qualifier, with the first game against Vardar on the 17-19 October.