Fertiberia Puerto Sagunto begin the league against Novás at O Rosal

 

Toni Malla’s side will play their first match in the División de Honor Plata in a challenging encounter against the Galician team

Fertiberia Balonmano Puerto Sagunto will play their first match on their return to the División de Honor Plata against Vilanox Novás. The match corresponding to Matchday 1 will take place at the Pabellón Municipal O Rosal next Saturday, 14 September, from 8 pm. The match can be followed via streaming on Vilanox Novás’ YouTube channel.

The red-and-white team begin the league after putting together a good pre-season in which they have managed to beat Asobal teams such as Cuenca and Benidorm, as well as Portuguese side Póvoa and Agustinos. The only defeats suffered by the Puerto Sagunto side were against EON Horneo Alicante and Granollers away from home. With all this in mind, Toni Malla gives a ‘positive assessment; I think we have managed to reach the levels of automation and work routines that we had set ourselves. The players also arrive at the start of the league in good physical condition. We have managed the workloads well and hope it continues that way’.

Regarding how they will approach the first league match, Malla says: ‘We arrive at the Novás match in good form, and perhaps a little more excited than we expected because, generally speaking, the results we achieved in pre-season are good. But we are also keeping our feet on the ground, because this is a season of building, of the team taking shape and becoming solid match by match. Obviously, without stopping dreaming’.

The manager wants to keep his ‘feet on the ground’ this season, which he believes is about ‘building the team’ after the numerous departures and new arrivals the team has experienced compared with the last three years: ‘Everyone around us has to understand that it will be a difficult year because we have a very new team; there are projects with bigger budgets and very strong squads built to gain promotion. We have to focus on the day-to-day and create a team again with a clear identity and a very defined style of play. The same thing we did in 2021: two seasons to try to return to Asobal, which is where we belong. We have to take it patiently and calmly’.

Translation produced using artificial intelligence.