The episode follows the trajectory of Popovic’s career, from her days as a player, in which she won the EHF Champions League six times, through to her gradual transition to coaching — which she reveals was somewhat unexpected, as Popovic has not identified that as a goal when she stepped off the court.
But the game pulled her back in.
Popovic delves deep into her playing style, both how she herself developed her game and how she sees it now as a coach. Creativity is big for Popovic, and her main aim as a coach is to position her players to be able to handle a match as much as possible without her — teach them the tricks then leave them the freedom to use them as they see fit.
“It was my point to put them in this situation — that they need me less and less. If you want to play on the highest level, on the [EHF] FINAL4, in this atmosphere, you need to give them everything until this and then it’s them who needs to take responsibility on this tournament, because I cannot give all information. Everything happens fast,” explains Popovic.
“They need to start to believe in these things: What they are thinking, how they are thinking, how they use the ball, and who is responsible for calling the action, to know why and which action she will call.
“When I come on this level, that they need really less help from me, then I’m really happy. It doesn’t matter if it’s a game that we won or we lost, because I could feel they are there where they need to be.”
When you want to put some attitude in the girls, of course they have it inside — they just need to wake up.
