After eight weeks of pre-season preparations, the Borussia Dortmund women's handball team are ready to get the new campaign underway. The Black & Yellows, who were league leaders before the cancellation of the 2019/20 Bundesliga season in March, face newly-promoted Buchholz-Rosengarten on Saturday (19:00 CET). The Champions League then begins the following weekend. Head coach André Fuhr joined us for an interview.

How excited are you about the upcoming road game near Hamburg? 

Very excited! We haven't played a competitive game in six months, so it's a very special situation, and you could sense that in training this week. There's a certain tension in the group, a certain butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling. 

What are the objectives going into the HL Buchholz-Rosengarten match? 

We're going on the road to play a newly-promoted side, and we know how dangerous that can be, as teams that are new to the league often play out their skin in the first few weeks. But we're well aware of the quality we have. We're the favourites, and we need to pick up the points. We want to use this game as a launching pad to get the season off to a good start and continue making progress from there. 

How have the eight weeks of pre-season training been?

I'm fairly satisfied. We only lost one game, or rather we were losing 21-19 to Metz before the game was cancelled due to water damage in the arena. Apart from that we got good results. However, one thing was missing for me: we weren't consistent enough in our performances. It no doubt had something to do with the heavy training load. But we have to improve and make sure we maintain the same intensity until the end of every game. 

And on the personnel front?

With the exception of Rinka Duijndam, who suffered a slight injury to her tendon, we managed to get through pre-season without any injuries.

Have you had enough time to integrate the new players? 

You can never fully integrate players in pre-season. When you have new arrivals that don't speak any German, then of course it takes a little longer. But all of them are on the right path, all of them have been welcomed in the group. We've signed some very good handball players and improved our strength in depth. Everything is going well. 
Interview: Boris Rupert

To mark the start of the new handball season, club members can look forward to an in-depth interview with head coach André Fuhr, head of department Andreas Heiermann and world champion Kelly Dulfer in the latest issue of BORUSSIA magazine, released 15 September.