Courtesy: UEFA.com


Kozma holding Hungary's hopes

Friday 4 December 2009

by Paul Saffer

When hosts Hungary kick off the 2010 UEFA European Futsal Championship finals in Budapest on 19 January, it will only be the second time they have competed at this stage. Mihály Kozma, the coach that led them to the 2005 showpiece in the Czech Republic – their other Group A opponents – remains in charge has been building a young team to showcase the sport in his nation, as he told uefa.com.

uefa.com: What do you think of your draw?
Mihály Kozma: Whoever gets to this stage of the tournament, whoever gets through the qualification stage, are certainly going to be a good team. With regard to the Czech Republic, I know that they have been performing at this level for the last ten years, they have the experience, and they have good players. As for Azerbaijan, we know they have lots of good Brazilian-born players in their team and their club sides perform well, as well. But we still would like to qualify from this group.

uefa.com: What do you hope to achieve?
Kozma: One of the most important things to achieve at this tournament is to make the sport of futsal more popular within the country. Of course, our aim is to get out of the group – but we have lots of young players as well: for them it will be an experience, and we want to get more players playing.

uefa.com: Is it a relief that finally it's nearly starting two years after you were awarded the finals?
Kozma: We have plenty of players that we've brought in, that we've found – we want to find more, and now we must make them into a real team, and get into form for the championship. But we want to make sure, as well, that on the outside, the organisation of the tournament is something that the whole community of European football sees, and is at a good level. The country of Hungary really wanted to host a final tournament like this, and they want everyone to have as much success as possible – the players, the fans, and everyone involved.

uefa.com: How are your preparations going?
Kozma: It's been a long time since we were in a major tournament – since 2005. Of course, it can have bad effects or good effects but we've been able to build a team. And now we want to make sure, now it's finally here, that we perform well. It probably has helped us build the team that we haven't had competitive matches [since 2008].







Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com