Players Aleksa Gulbe and Kitija Laksa, as well as the head coach Mārtiņš Gulbis do not deny that the French girls will be tough, but they do not hide that they will fight for victory in both games.
The Latvian women's national team has never played against Ireland. Despite the fact that Ireland has lost nine games in a row, the Latvian players are not taking victory or granted.
"I think that right now we have to figure out how we will play and what we want to do. The players should switch from their roles in their clubs to the principles and values that are in the Latvian national team as soon as possible," Gulbis told journalists after a training session of the national team.
Wednesday was already the third day of training, and after one of them the coach admitted that special attention should be paid to the defense:
"There [in attack] there are a lot of non-standard solutions from the [Irish] side, and sometimes [to play] against teams where we don't know what to expect is very dangerous. So basically defense will be very important."
"To be honest, I don't know much [about the Irish national team], unfortunately I didn't watch the previous matches either, but I think we will prepare the same for every match, because we have to win! The important thing is how much we win, and we have to pay attention to all the details, so let's not underestimate the opponent too much low," revealed national team player Laksa.
"There are always high demands from him [Gulbis], which include focus, aggressive defense, an endless fight for balls," said player Aleksa Gulbe about the head coach's methods. She plays everyday in the women's Euroleague club "Miskolc" from Hungary. Like all the members of the national team, she is happy that both games this week will be held in Rīga and hopeful of raucous local support.
"With our fans, in our hall - this is a very big factor, and personally being at home, in Rīga, spending time with my family is also very pleasant," said Laksa.
