Cretu invites 23 players to join Slovenia’s camp
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The Slovenian men’s national volleyball team will contest as many as three elite competitions between June and October. Coach Gheorghe Cretu has invited 23 players to the training camp scheduled ahead of the upcoming season.
The list dispatched by Cretu includes setters Gregor Pernuš, Uroš Planinšič, Gregor Ropret and Dejan Vinčić, opposites Nik Mujanović, Jaka Sešek and Tonček Štern, outside hitters Črtomir Bošnjak, Rok Bračko, Klemen Čebulj, Matej Kök, Rok Možič, Žiga Štern and Tine Urnaut, middle blockers Miha Fink, Danijel Koncilja, Jan Kozamernik, Janž Janez Kržič, Sašo Štalekar and Alen Pajenk and liberos Jani Kovačič, Žiga Kumer, and Urban Toman.
“During the season, I closely followed all the players who were part of the national team in recent years. For a team that performed well in the World Championship, it is important to stay healthy. The five-month preparation period with three important competitions is approaching. It is obvious that we do not have time for major changes or testing new things,” Cretu said.
The national team will gather for the first time in less than a month on Monday, May 8, in Ljubljana. At that time, it will not be in the full lineup, as some national team candidates will still have club obligations or will finish with them shortly before that. “I expect that everyone will be focused on our work during the training sessions and that they will leave behind what happened to them during the club season,” Cretu continued.
Cretu’s roster includes four young players (Bračko, Fink, Kumer, and Sešek) who have yet to make an official appearance for the national team, as well as some who have recently joined the national team programme.
“As I said, there will be no time to try new things. Our task will be to integrate the new guys as much as possible into the team and the system of our game. We will have to devote every moment to this. Our goal is that they will know exactly how they can help the team to the greatest extent if they have to fill a gap,"
tells Cretu, before adding: “I do not divide the team into young and older, more experienced players. It will be important for every individual to contribute to our team’s goal when they enter the court, regardless of our situation.”
Significant challenges await the Slovenian national team in 2023. In June and July, they will try to collect as many points as possible for the world ranking in the Volleyball Nations League. The end of the summer will bring the European Championship, where they will defend the silver medal won in 2021. The national team season will end in October with the Olympic qualifiers in Japan.
Gheorghe Cretu“One of our main goals will be to re-establish a connection between the players as quickly as possible. The last time we were together was in the middle of September 2022, which seems like a long time ago, but I believe that each player knows what we want, and we expect of him. We must keep the players in good psychological and physical condition while their motivation has never been questioned. They cannot wait to return to national team training and fight for the Olympics!”
The road to the Olympics will start with three Volleyball Nations League tournaments. First, Team Slovenia will travel to Japan (June 6-11), then to France (June 20-25), and finally to the Philippines (July 4-9). In matches across the globe, they want to win a place among the top eight teams and advance to the final tournament at the end of July in Gdansk, Poland. They will continue their campaign at the end of August when the European Championship starts in Varna, Bulgaria.
The road to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will be highly winding. A ‘shortcut’ will be the Olympic qualification tournament in Japan. The best two from the eight participating teams (Japan, USA, Slovenia, Serbia, Türkiye, Tunisia, Egypt, and Finland) will fulfill their Olympic dream. For the rest of the teams, the race will continue until the end of the regular season of the Volleyball Nations League in the early summer of 2024.
“The boys know what this summer can bring us. Already at the World Championship in 2022, we went from match to match and tried to get the most out of them. Every game is important in the battle for participation in the Olympic Games. It won't be any different now. Each player is ready to perform his role to the best of his ability to achieve the team’s goal. Here I am not only referring to the boys who have been part of the national team for many years but also to the newcomers."
Pictures courtesy of Aleš Oblak