How does your selection arrive and with what expectations for this Eurohockey2018?
I think we arrived very well, with six weeks of work here in the CAR that have served to strengthen the game model we want to implement. Most players had already been to Beijing last year at the World Cup. Therefore it is giving a twist to what we had already done and I think that basically, the team arrives with a formed identity and with clear ideas. Later we will see where all this takes us. There is no need to hide that our goal is to regain the title of European champion. The key is to try to improve our game model and play better hockey. The consequence should be to take the title.
How will your style of play be?
We are a team that plays a very aggressive and direct hockey, we do not speculate with the score and we practice a transition hockey; we recover the ball and try to finish the play as soon as possible in the opposite goal. Playing in this way entails a series of risks that we usually assume and coexist with.
What are you based on or what do you value most to select your players?
It was a project that began last year thinking about choosing the best players in our country, the selection has to have the best. However, within these characteristics, I had the clear idea that I wanted to renew the team, some times are ending and others start so I wanted a young and impermeable team, eager to receive new information and want to try it. What we have right now is a mix between very young players with some veteran players who know me a lot because I’ve already had them in clubs where I’ve trained and it’s a combination that I hope will continue to work.
Do you assume the role of favorites since the Eurohockey is in A Coruña?
Yes. We do not have to assume any other role. I understand what it has to be. We are the current world champions and the championship is played at home. Therefore, we must not hide that we are favorites. There are other teams that have the same objective as us, Portugal will want to revalidate the European Championship because it is the current owner and has an extraordinary team, Italy won the title four years ago in Alcobendas and France has a good group of players. I suppose it will be a fight between four.
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