It would be nice to write another page of history
Hey guys!
It’s great to talk to you again, I hope to see you soon at the VELUX EHF FINAL4 in LANXESS Arena!
This is my third time when I’m going with Kielce to Cologne to fight for the most valuable trophy in the club handball and in general this will be my eighth semi-final of the Champions League! This is something, isn’t it?
Today it looks totally different than how it was years ago. Lot of things has changed. The formula of the FINAL4 tournament pushed our discipline on a higher level. You know, all self-respecting team sports have their final fours. Basketball, volleyball... Yeah, okay, maybe apart from football :)
It gives handball some kind of added value. Of course, I’m not talking from the perspective of a pure handball, I mean the marketing and promotional point of view.
When it comes to a show, that’s really a great idea. The only thing I’d like to change would be arranging the matches on Friday and Sunday with one day off in between to rest! I hope that in the future it will be possible to change the Saturday & Sunday set.
The trophy itself has changed as well. Now it’s a hand-shape piece of art and before it was just a cup or a medal. The last one I won with Ciudad Real from 2009 I always have with me in my toiletry bag.
It makes me laugh when I think how small it is! Come on, you become the European Champion and all you receive is just a tiny piece of ore? :)
Yeah, okay, I’m joking of course. You know, the most important thing for an athlete is that you win. It doesn’t matter what you receive for that. You write some pages in the history of sport and that’s beautiful.
It would be nice to cover another page in the end of May. This year we have been playing on a very high level. What is crucial, we broke through with our variability.
You know, hot and cold, up and down – that’s how we looked over past seasons. Now, in my opinion, we constitute a solid team, we know each other well and we finally managed to even our shape. “We play together” as the motto of Vive Tauron Kielce says.
There is no point to compare our previous performances. Which coach was better, which players were stronger, who had better ideas and set proper tactic – I hear such questions quite often.
Look, everyone always did their best, everyone pushed their own limits and everyone deserves his place in the history. Now the future is waiting for us and it’s in our hands what we will do with it.
There is no Barcelona among the four best teams this year. This was twice our fate in the semi-finals, that stopped us from advancing to the final.
But does their absence mean that we will manage to do this next week? Haha, maybe, but we have another strong team, Paris Saint-Germain ;)
Of course we have a huge chance to win against them, but in my opinion, they are the favourites, not we. Anyway, we have our goals and dreams and we will not give up.
We played a friendly match against them in the summer but we cannot compare these two situations as we were just looking for our form then. Have we found it? I hope so! :)
To be honest, I don’t pay too much attention to the second semi-final. I focus totally on our game, I want to win it and wait calmly for the next opponent. Kiel or Veszprem – it makes no difference.
Especially that there is really a lot of tasks to deal with in Cologne. For you, the fans, these few days are a pleasant weekend you can spend with your friends enjoying the great handball party.
But for us, the players, it’s a busy period full of duties. We arrive on Thursday and right after check-in in the hotel we start the show. We meet the sponsors, pay visits to autograph sessions, attend the opening party and struggle with the journalists.
Divide it between Thursday and Friday, add one training per day and it comes out that right before the most important matches of the season, our days are full :)
But this is part of this party and I’m looking forward to meet you closer in Cologne. I hope you will all have a great weekend. Enjoy the show, support your teams and let the handball win!
TEXT:
Uros Zorman, KS Vive Tauron Kielce centre back