With just hours before the first game at the European Championships, we spoke to the head coach of the Hungarian women’s national team, Atilla Biro, and one of their biggest names, Greta Gurisatti.
Despite huge disappointment after losing in the final of the World Championships in front of a home crowd back in July, Hungary will take many positives from the way they played in that tournament, says their head coach, Attila Biro:
“It’s always disappointing to lose any final, but I can’t blame my players because they played close to their maximum.”
And coming into Split, the three time European champions are one of the favourites to take home the title in the next fortnight. Biro himself knows the feeling of winning gold at the European Championships. He led Hungary to the title (his first with the team) back in 2016, something he would love to repeat here in Split:
“That success was the first (I hope not the last) gold medal, which is unforgettable. Even the place (Kombank Arena) was unbelievable, and hopefully the Spaladium Arena in Split will be equally as memorable.”
Hungary are used to winning medals, particularly when it comes to the European Championships. In fact, they have won more medals at the Euros than at any other nation. But according to Biro, he is looking to get more out of Split than just silverware:
“The European Championships (like the Worlds) are a very important part of our road to Paris. I build the team, check young players, and will try different tactics. We’ll have a very young team, and our young players must prove their ability and how to fit into the Hungarian team. We had some good performances, for example in Sassari, but we need improvement if we want to take a medal in Split.
But whilst the Hungarian coach is happy with his team’s preparations, he still has an eye out for the opposition:
“I’m absolutely satisfied with my team because we continued our hard work that we started before the World Championships, but the team that has the biggest chance to win, obviously, is Spain. After them, the Netherlands and the Hungarian team have a chance at the best positions. The Greek and Italian teams can spring a surprise against everybody. It will be no surprise that these five teams will fight for the podium.”
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Greta Gurisatti: Hungary more appreciative of success
As one of Hungary’s most reliable players, Greta Gurisatti will continue to be an integral part of Attila Biro’s plans. The Ferencvaros signing is one of best female players to emerge from Hungary in the last decade. One of Gurisatti’s biggest strengths is her positive mindset, viewing Budapest as a success rather than a failure:
“I don’t feel like we lost the final, we won the silver medal. It’s better mentally to think of it like this. This was our first step on the road to the Olympic Games in Paris. This European Championships will be the second. The most important thing we learned is that if everybody does their job, not more, but also not less. I strongly believe if we give our passion for each other we can beat every team”
Greta Gurisatti proposes that every setback her team face, like the one in Budapest, is making the team stronger:
“We just do our job and we love doing it. I believe we’ve grown up as a team and now we can face any difficult situation that comes during a game or championship. We’ve had success and losses which we grew from especially mentally. We needed these losses to appreciate success.”
Gurisatti demands a lot from herself and her teammates. She herself acknowledges that, despite recent successes, the Hungarian national team needs to remain grounded, and to have the right attitude if they want to continue to grow:
“We want to give our maximum, that’s all I want from myself and the team. We are on the road, we want to be on the top of the World by 2024. We need to learn how we can win the semi-finals, and the finals too. If it will be routine for us we can handle this situation for the future and in Paris too. We want to win a medal for sure but, our focus is to improve our game and to do that we have to improve one by one to make a whole.”
But the former player of Dunaujvaros also believes that there is another ingredient that contributes to their success:
“Everybody can see we give our maximum every time and our team is improving. We love each other outside the pool too, we’re not just teammates we are friends. This is another important part of our success.”
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