Hungary's head coach feels the pressure of an entire nation

It was an honour for Andras Nemeth when he was asked to take over the women’s national team as head coach earlier this year and lead it to the Women’s EHF EURO 2014.

However, he very much knows that the final tournament on home court will be anything but a walk in the park, as Hungary face various difficulties.

They have some younger player to integrate, they need to get used to a new game philosophy and they have to replace their world class centre back Anita Görbicz who will miss the EHF EURO after she announced her pregnancy.

Andras Nemeth had turned 60 last year and after he had led women’s side Hypo Niederösterreich to victory in the Cup Winners’ Cup at the end of the 2012/13 season, he had decided to retire

But the death of Hungarian national team coach Karl Erik Bohn in early 2014 forced Nemeth to change plans as he was approached by the Hungarian Handball Federation and decided to take on the challenge to lead the nation’s women’s team towards the EHF EURO 2014.

"As far as I know I was the only Hungarian coach the federation approached and I felt honoured to be offered the job," he says.

"I thought to myself that our national team had to be led by a Hungarian in a tournament that we play hosts to."

It meant the start for one of the most difficult assignments in Nemeth’s his long and successful career.

His third spell (the first came in 1998 and between 2005 to 2008) with the Hungarian women’s team promises to be a rough ride as he will have to do it with a young and less experienced squad – and without Anita Görbicz who recently announced that she is expecting a baby.

"We knew about Anita’s intentions, she had informed us well ahead of time. So we started the preparation fully aware of the possibility of missing our biggest star.

"We are all very happy for her even though we are in a difficult situation without her strokes of genius." 

Can speed make up for lack of height and strength?

Having taken on the job less than a year ago, Nemeth had only limited time to prepare for the Women’s EHF EURO and the evaluation of his team’s strengths and weaknesses proved to him there is a lot to change in the team that finished third at the EHF EURO 2012.

"We will not score goals from 10 metres over our opponents’ defence, nor will we outmuscle anybody, but we can utilise our speed and outrun the other team.

"There is a new philosophy that we are trying to implement and I must say we are on the right track.

"There are things you cannot train for, and handling the pressure is one of them. We have a young team but there are some experienced veterans who can teach their ‘apprentices’ a thing or two," says Nemeth.

With the absence of Görbicz, the public expectations, traditionally very high in Hungary as far as handball is concerned, lowered as it is hard to tell what the team is able to achieve.

"If we can play in all three Hungarian venues I will be satisfied," says Nemeth, whose team will play their group matches in the brand new Audi Arena Györ.

They move to Debrecen if they advance to the main round, while the medal games will be held in Budapest’s Papp Laszlo Sportarena.

Five to six teams can emerge as winners

According to Nemeth the EHF EURO 2014 will be a balanced tournament with an almost unpredictable finish.

"It seems the carte blanche for Norway is over. There are now a couple of teams that can match their excellence.

"In my opinion six to eight teams have an equally good chance to reach the semi-finals while there are five to six favourites to win the tournament.”

The EHF Master Coach, who mostly worked with clubs apart from two earlier spells with the women’s national team, believes the shift of importance towards club handball has its effect on national teams.

"It is not as strong as with the men’s teams, but we feel the effect, too.

"The Hungarian league is very strong now; teams are financially strong and can afford to buy foreign stars.

"This is good for their international runs but makes it harder for domestic talents to make their way to the line-ups. And I obviously cannot sign a player for the national team."