The weekly training session of the women’s national team of Russia in Novogorsk is finished. The head coach of the national team Lyudmila Bodniyeva traditionally answered the questions of Handballfast.
— Lyudmila Valerievna, let me start not with your wards, though one day they, probably, will become yours and someone has already been. Do you monitor the youth team, playing under the guidance of Alexey Gumyanov on the tournament in Minsk?
— Of course! However, I saw the first match against competitors from Belarus in record. It was a good, confident victory. Yesterday meeting was expected to be much more strained, I was sure, there wouldn’t be beating of infants. And it turned out to be so: the national team of Belarus won, but not without difficulty. I’m waiting for today’s game with the clubs team with interest. Obviously, these matches will benefit the girls. It’s a serious challenge to fight with adults.
— As I understand, two handball players from there could have been on your training session, if not for that tournament. Is that so?
— Do you mean Yuliya Babenko and Sofia Vasilyeva? We shouldn’t talk hypothetically: those were the players, who had been called. But together with Alexey Nikolaevich we agree that participation in the tournament is always important.
— And I also remember the words of Gumyanov: Alexey Nikolaevich told Handballfast, that he was afraid, we would loose Kazmenko...
— I won’t hide the fact, that we keep a pretty close eye on Nastya. We discussed her with Mikhail Eldarovich (Izmailov — Handballfast). But yet we make a choice in favor of more experienced goalkeepers.
— We will talk about them, of course. And now, in order to finish with the youngers, let me clarify: did you watch the games of the team, headed by Olga Akopyan, with Belarusian peers?
— Of course, our staff watched all the games. We are happy, that girls made their international debut. We saw, how they worked with a great desire in Novogorsk: it happened, that they were training right in front of us, and I always came to the court earlier. A good selection of players of that age, not older than 2006 year of birth, is worth mentioning. I wish these players would have an opportunity to show themselves on the international arena. I hope, the young team will have time to play in top-competitions in their age category, and that this year they will try their forces as soon as possible.
— Probably, I’m overplaying, but did you pay your attention on someone from the junior team to strengthen your team in future?
— Well, yes, you slightly bent the stick indeed (smiling). They are still very young, many of them aren’t even in the main team, not to mention the Super League… Clearly, everything is individual, but let’s stop here for now.
— Yes, I just wanted to turn to the current squad. Obviously, you didn’t consider the legionaires in the absence of matches. CSKA informed, that knee injury didn’t allow Antonina Skorobogatchenko to come to the training session. Did everything go according to plan for the rest?
— Well, it never happens in life, of course. To start with, I will remind, that we called Katya Levchina instead of injured Marianna Egorova. Secondly, Juliya Managarova has health problems, that prevented her from coming. And third, Katya Dolmatova arrived with microtrauma and followed individual training program during the whole session, Dasha Statsenko also missed something…
Team of Russia at the training session in Novogorsk:
goalkeepers — Polina Kaplina, Kira Trusova (both from CSKA), Anastasia Ryabtseva (Astrakhanochka);
left wingers — Kristina Kozhokar (Rostov-Don), Ekaterina Levchina (Kuban), Viktoria Shichkina (Astrakhanochka);
right wingers — Albina Murzalieva (CSKA), Anastasia Starshova (Dinamo-Sinara), Olga Fomina (Lada);
pivots — Alena Amelchenko (Lada), Anastasia Illarionova, Viktoria Shamanovskaya (both from CSKA);
left backs — Elena Mikhaylichenko (CSKA), Daria Statsenko (Rostov-Don), Anastasia Shavman (Kuban), Polina Sharkova (Astrakhanochka);
right backs — Ekaterina Zelenkova (Rostov-Don), Olga Scherbak (Lada);
playmakers — Ekaterina Dolmatova (Dinamo-Sinara), Valeria Kirdyasheva (Lada), Karina Sabirova (CSKA);
coaching staff — Lyudmila Bodniyeva (head coach), Mikhail Izmailov, Aleksandr Yanushevich (physical training coach).
— Coaches in almost every country and of all sports are often asked this question: do you have full contact with clubs?
— Probably, I would rather speak on the issue. We are in good relations almost with all clubs, but, unfortunately, there is one single club, that for some reasons sees no sense in the presence of its representatives in the national team. Moreover, the club asked us not to call the players not for the first time. I would like to express great appreciation to the rest of the clubs for understanding and respect.
— Let me try to guess: are you speaking about Rostov-Don?
— No, absolutely not! We have wonderful and, I would say, correct relationship with Rostov. They are always ready to help and respond. I’m especially grateful to Anton Nikolaevich Revenko. Let me put and end to it and stop divination. Anyway, I hope the situation will change. Because it shouldn’t be this way.
— Then — about the training session as a whole. Coaches of the national teams, including you, often say that time ran out again, that you would have done a different amount of work, if you had more time… Will you repeat these words?
— No, we had a slightly different situation this time. When you prepare for certain matches or tournaments, time is always lacking. In this case we instantly understood, there will be no games. We didn’t focus on tactics initially, didn’t introduce anything new. We used simple general schemes. And we concentrated on working off short connections and minor interactions both in defense and attack. And then we tested it in two-sided game. I was satisfied in this respect.
We cannot fail to mention the psychological background, when this training session started. Not the most pleasant news for us came from the last IOC Executive Committee. Of course, there’s still a hope, that the situation will change. But many players came to the training session not in a very good mood. At the same time, I want to note that girls were excellent! These news didn’t affect their commitment and ability to work.
It was an important moment for us, when Sergey Nikolaevich Shishkarev approached us on the last day of the camp. He wanted to come himself, but couldn’t. However, he addressed the team on video. He thanked for the work and emphasized, that the question regarding participation in the Olympic Games in Paris is not closed. You know, it’s one situation, when I said it, and it’s quite another thing, when the head of the High Council of the Handball Federation of Russia and Vice President of the Olympic Committee of Russia, who has much more amount of information, said these words. I believe, girls understand things correctly. We are hostages of the current situation. And we have no choice, but to continue working on standby.
— Were there any complaints on the conditions of the training session?
— Absolutely none! It is worth mentioning separately, I should thank wonderful and beloved Novogorsk, where we always feel at home.
— I would quote your words to Handballfast: "As you have surely noticed, we try to involve someone from newcomers in each training session. We try to, so to say, look into our nearest future. Still, we are in a situation, when there is no need to aim for the immediate result in the absence of tournaments"…
— This time namely debutants didn’t arrive. But there were players, who came here for the second time, let us call them "conditional beginners". I mean Dolmatova, Levchina, Shichkina, who came to the national team for the first time before the recent Moscow tournament — that last training session could be hardly considered as complete. Now we looked at them more closely.
— Who was selected as the captain?
— We had Olga Fomina — our captain in the absence of Dasha Dmitrieva. We had no plans to call the legionnaires to this training session.
— How did the sparring between two squads finish at the end of the training session? Did it traditionally pass in a tough struggle with a difference of 1-2 balls?
— We even had two such sparrings. At first, we had a shortened match — two halves of 20 minutes. And after that there was one full-length match, but it consisted not of two 30-minute halves, but of three 20-minute ones. With arbitrators. By the way, I would like to thank judges and the Moscow handball federation, which responded to our request.
In general, we were pleased with the game. You have correctly suggested, that the struggle was hard, as usual. There was a draw, another draw and one half ended with a 2-goal difference. The game was as close as possible to a tournament in terms of emotions, not dedication. We selected the squads ourselves, as usual, they turned out almost equal.
— Did the goalkeepers Kaplina, Ryabtseva and Trusova play for 40 minutes each?
— Yes, they had an equal amount of time. And I would like to praise the goalkeepers specifically. They showed sky-high percentage on these games! All three of them were in good form...
— You didn’t plan to play with anyone initially, did you? Or did you try to negotiate, but unsuccessfully?
— We didn’t plan initially. We knew, that Belarusians were busy. And, frankly speaking, the choice of sparring partners is small in the current situation.
— And do you still have certain intentions?
— Yes, undoubtedly, the Handball Federation of Russia is doing a great work in this direction. We are going to come to Belarus again in October. And we plan to visit China before the Asian qualification in August. There are questions that arise regarding logistics only.
— I have no doubt, your nearest plans are already determined — the Final Four of the Russian Cup in Togliatti, correct?
— Yes, we will be able to see excellent handball there and celebrations of the 25th anniversary of HC Lada. I would like to take this opportunity to convey congratulations from the whole team to the club!
Photo: the HFR press service, Alena Pastushenko / Handballfast
