Rocamora: “The EHF European Cup is the tournament that excites me the most and AtticGo Elche has the capacity to reach the final rounds”

Franjiverdes Warriors, last season’s semi-finalists, are the favorites and what’s more, they play two games at home; And The dream is to reach the final and lift the championship.This will be a new success for handball from the province of Elche and Alicante.

AtticGo Elche coach before the match, Joaquin Rocamoraadmitted this Tuesday that it was a rivalry that got them this way. “I am very hopeful”. We have been climbing in recent years. We were eliminated three seasons ago due to Covid, two years ago we fell into the quarter-finals, and last season we reached the semi-finals. We have never been eliminated by a non-Spanish team. I know the complexity of this competition. There are six, seven or eight level teams. We are in the bottom pot so we can run into anyone at any time. These teams include, for example, what happened to KH7 Granollers, who have a very complex relationship with their Turkish rival. But it’s true that I was very excited. For me, it’s the competition that particularly excites me the most. Also because The first day I saw a full house in the Esperanza Esperanza Lag pavilion, there was a good atmosphere in the semi-final of the last season against Atlético Guardés.“.

The Greek commented on Ionas: “He has a good team. It has top players. Some, like Tatiana, even became world champions with Russia. It has nothing to do with it Byala in Bulgarian We saw this in the previous round. In this sense, we hope to see a better showing and we hope that AtticGo Elche can advance to the next round,” says the Oriolano coach.

The coach of the Franjiverde fighters explained how he obtained information about his opponent: “Too much diving on the internet. The second coach, Alberto Zabalegui, devotes all his time to this issue.. We managed to take two games out of their previous draw against another Greek team and then they sent me videos from last year with all the players from this season there except the Brazil centre. I already told the girls this. They are a good team, they have attacking intent, they run a lot, then you have to know how to contextualise that, because they run a lot against teams in their own League and I don’t know what they will do against us. But they are very clear about the stages of the game, they describe them very well and Tatiana, Natasha, Lay or a senior Greek southpaw. “I’m sure they’ll make things difficult for us and it won’t be an easy draw.”

Rocomora also stated: the importance of physical appearanceWe had to play two qualifying matches in just two days. “Our squad is good. All our players are available. Maria Carrillo suffered a slight sprain in the match with the reserve team and this is our only doubt.. “The rest is fine, apart from the normal pain from the three games we played in seven days,” he said. “What we did was reduce the training load. I look forward to playing two in 24 hours and It is in our favor to have 18-19 usable players.. Moreover, most of the level players are over 30 years old and in this sense we are just Nuria Andreu, María Flores and Alexandra Do Nascimento. We have more rotations and can get better doses. “If we can control the match, if there is aggressive defense, there is a lot of contact and we are successful against a good goalkeeper, our passing chances will increase significantly.”

AtticGo Elche coach reveals how “difficult” this season has been Reaching an agreement with European teams to play two qualifying matches at home. “Our president, Juanjo Ávila, could have spoken better about this. After the previous negotiation with the Bulgarian Byala, everything is simple because it was complicated. With Ionas it was difficult because the Esperanza Delay gymnastics competition coincided here. We couldn’t make a pavilion for the weekend and we also had a call-up to the Brazilian youth team for Kelly Rosa’s South American team and it was complicated.. They wanted to play both matches here, but certain dates did not suit them and the economic situation at that time also had an impact. It was easier than with the Bulgarians, but harder than other situations. After these two qualifying rounds, we need to get used to the fact that: European teams portray the Spaniards as strong teams and do not make it easy for them “Or everyone is looking out for their own interests, making agreements and negotiations very complicated.”

Joaquín Rocamora is ambitious, he wants to win the European championship and hopes that this pressure will not affect his players. “My ambition may be a little unfair to the group. After so many messages I sent about the special excitement he gave me, If we don’t make it to the final round, everyone will call it a failure. And if we achieve this, they will say that this is normal, because this was my goal. I know I’m putting a lot of responsibility and pressure on staff that maybe isn’t necessary, but that’s what I feel and we’re capable of delivering.. Our team needs to be assertive. We made it through the qualifying rounds every year. AtticGo Elche is very assertive. You should know that 40×20 puts you in your place, but for us, looking at the top and trying to climb is our daily life. Hence my message.”

Finally, the Oriola coach wanted to send a message to the fans to cheer for his players in these two matches: “Let them come to the pavilion, because what we are going through is not normal. We are in this situation for the fourth year in a row. Playing in European competition is an extraordinary thing.” It had taken us almost 60 years to be able to play in European competition. Elche is a sports city and you can enjoy high international performance in your city. We are around a thousand spectators in all matches.. We postponed the program so that everyone could go to work. These are working days and also a good time for boys, girls and little ones to come. We couldn’t play at the weekend and this season, as I said, we undoubtedly have better fans in Spain in my opinion. “We noticed this and are very grateful.”