Although he was never a skilled technician, he knew how to score goals. Even in the national team. This is what his successors in attack have lacked for a long time. What does Martin Jakubko, who currently works in the youth coaching structure of Tatrana Prešov, say about names like Adam Nemec, Michal Ďuriš, Dávid Strelec, or Vladimír Weiss? He also revealed this in an interview for ŠPORT.sk.
If you were a teacher at a school, what grade would you give the Slovak footballers for their performance in Luxembourg?
“It is probably better to evaluate the result than the performed performance. I don’t know if it’s a rule, but our first halves are worse than the second. In a few days, no one will ask if we were better or worse. Simply, the goal was achieved in the global and we have three points.
A grade for game performance cannot be good. In the first half, we were lucky, if, God forbid, something ‘flew’, I think there would be a problem. On the other hand, the win balanced it out. I would give it a three. Maybe two minus.’
The striker is dependent on the support of the team
Why is it that, just like in Portugal, the first half didn’t work out for the team?
“In the post-match interview, coach Calzona could see that it was difficult for him to explain it as well. It’s even harder for us outsiders to comment on because we don’t know what his intent was in terms of tactics. Certainly even the coach did not want the team to play the way it did in the first half. There was an awful lot of nervousness and simple loss of balls. We were careless in defense, the Luxembourgers had two or three good chances. If they had a better striker, it could have been bad.
However, it is true that teams like Slovakia need a bit of luck to advance. It was like that in the previous qualifications as well. Whether it was when we advanced to Africa and the opponent scored an own goal in the match in Poland, or in other cases as well. This time we prevailed after a nice event. And in the second half, the boys took more.”
During the match, we only shot twice into the goal area, the sharp attackers came up empty again. How do you perceive it from the position of the former protagonist of this post?
“The fact that the striker does not succeed may not be his fault, but the result of the team as a whole playing poorly. To judge him only by the fact that he didn’t score a goal is stupid, in my opinion, since he depends on the whole team. If teammates play it on him and he doesn’t convert even one out of six chances, then we can talk about him being bad. But if no ball comes into the box, then it’s difficult. We don’t have players like Messi who can go through four players and score a goal.
Fortunately, we performed a great action, during which Hancko confirmed, as before in Portugal, that he is one of the driving forces of the team. His center was fantastic. Kucka did a good job when he connected two hitters. If he didn’t go for it, one of them would reach Ďuriša and nothing would come of it. There were many good things about this event. That’s how we should present ourselves.’
news-item-description">Slovak footballers suffered a 1:0 victory in Luxembourg and are within reach of progressing to European Championship 2024. ŠPORT.sk evaluates the individual performances of the players on a scale of 1-10. The higher the value, the better the performance.
The shooter must wait, his time will come
Polievka and Boženík are currently on the top. Your former national team teammates Martin Škrtel and Róbert Vittek brought out other proven names in the past period – Adam Nemec, Michal Ďuriš, or Dávid Strelec. Can you imagine any of them there?
“One thing is what I can imagine, another is the intentions of the coach and what type of player he needs typologically. Each coach has certain system things that the attacker must fulfill. The German is probably passed out, but Mišo Ďuriš could still help the national team. The striker is young, he scores goals in Slovan and I think his time will come. He has to mature as a footballer and establish himself in the league on a regular basis in order to be a valid player in the national team.”
news-item-description">We didn’t win against Portugal again, but this time we scored at least 2 goals (3:2). It took 605 minutes, or an incredible more than 10 hours before the 2016 European champions cashed in at all in the current qualifying cycle.
In the post-match studio of RTVS, it was again discussed whether it is a good step to leave out the universal Vladimír Weiss Jr. from the nomination. What is your opinion?
“Vlado Weiss is a quality player, but for my taste, he has too many conflicts with the coaches. He is a controversial type of footballer. He could help, especially against opponents like Luxembourg, he would definitely be a valid player. It is rather a question for him and the coach, obviously there is a problem. At his age (33 years, editor’s note) and his position, he could easily play in the national team. If they can’t find a common language among themselves, there’s no point in commenting on it.”
Events in Brussels? It’s a tragedy
In the next meeting, Slovak footballers can seal their progress to next year’s EURO 2024 in Germany. A draw will be enough for them in a home match against Iceland in a month. Will they succeed?
“I think it certainly is. I believe that they will bring it to an end so that we are all satisfied and can look forward to the championship.”
This would be the third Slovak participation in the European Championships in a row. The team led by Ján Kozák sealed the promotion to the premiership 8 years ago with a win in Luxembourg. You intervened in the game in the final 11 minutes and watched Marek Hamšík seal the final 4:2 in added time. Did you remember now?
“Of course, memories cross my mind sometimes, but it was a long time ago. 8 years have passed since then. I try to live in the present and not in what was. Today there are other players, and football is different. I saw some pictures of our progress, we were a great team. I say, the memories are nice, but there’s no need to drag it out too much.”
news-item-description">The F-group match of the football qualification for the European Championship 2024 between Belgium and Sweden did not take place on Monday. The reason is a terrorist attack, two Sweden fans died in the shooting in the wider center of Brussels.
On Monday, a terrifying event also happened. The match between Belgium and Sweden was canceled due to the terrorist attack in Brussels, in which two Swedish fans were shot. What do you think of this heinous act?
“It’s terrible. When someone travels to a game and doesn’t come back… Unfortunately, we see what’s happening in the world right now. It is difficult to comment at all. Such things should definitely not be built. It is a tragedy.’
2023-10-17 11:55:00
#INTERVIEW #dont #Messi #evaluating #strikers #goals #stupid #Weiss #Sport.sk
