For the Slovak national team, it will (with probability bordering on certainty) be the fourth final tournament in the history of independence in eight months. According to the aforementioned, the football public should be happy.
But it’s not quite like that. In the discussions under the articles there is mainly criticism, as if people did not even give the national team a victory after the performance in Luxembourg. It was said to be a disaster that could not be watched and the result itself does not correspond to the course.
Should we overlook poor performance with good results? Hard question. The answers of the respondents we contacted are also ambiguous.
Did you advance or not?
Just for comparison, after the home match with Portugal and after the last one in Luxembourg, we gave Športweb readers the opportunity to rate the players. Although the Slovaks lost in the first meeting and won in the second, it was as if they did not take that into account in the poll.
The results after Monday’s duel were as follows: with the exception of Martin Dúbravka and Dávid Hanck, every player from the starting line-up received less than 50 percent. A month ago in Bratislava – when losing to Portugal 0:1 – everyone (with the exception of Róbert Polievka) had a report card of 70 percent or more.
From this it is absolutely clear that the public expects more than just a positive score on the light board.
“I understand the fans, but for the players and coaches themselves, the results are the most important. Because it is the points that will advance them to the European Championships. I admit that it was not the same in Luxembourg, but do you know how many similar matches we played in the national team during my career?
Today, no one knows whether we played well or badly in this or that meeting, history will ask only one thing – did you advance to the championship?” says Ján Ďurica, who was at the WC 2010 and ME 2016.
Read more If Dúbravka was English, today he is a unit of Albion. They would not survive on the islands if the home goalkeeper covered the back of some Slovak
His former colleague from the national team, Ľubomír Reiter, is somewhat stricter.
“The performance of the game is not only for the fans, it is also the way to victory. If it is missing, the successes are only temporary. Our national team is not playing well, but it achieved the goal. Such breakdowns can occur, but with a similar game performance, it cannot work for a long time,” adds the former great scorer.
However, he tells fans to be patient. Especially in the offensive, “because we are fumbling a bit there. There are also players who have not yet played national football. However, there is a perspective.’
Luck belongs to football
Former goalkeeper Ladislav Molnár is irritated when he hears about Slovakia’s football progress under Francesco Calzona. He claims that there is none and the biggest progress is goalkeeper Martin Dúbravka, who has kept the team afloat for a long time.
Read more Slovak performances? Unworthy of a ME participant! A cruel loss for Luxembourg, even though we were lucky and had a benevolent referee
“Yes, I know, points are important, in a few years no one will really care how you got them. On the other hand, let’s not wear rose-colored glasses. Take the data from the past matches and they will strip you naked. They are much worse than, for example, Luxembourg. “Football is a measurable quantity, so pay attention to that,” he emphasizes.
However, Ďurica gently opposes. According to him, Luxembourg was a very challenging opponent, “because it had a huge chance to fight for the first time in a major tournament, and we also had a lot at stake. At the beginning, Calzona was criticized for not having results and if we play badly, then what do we really want? To collect points or play on beauty and losing?
It’s an endless debate. Nothing in life is perfect, besides, perfection is boring. Football is about victories, downs and ups. Trust me, only the result will remain, the rest will be forgotten,” he adds.
One thing is certain, the Slovaks cannot complain about adversity in this qualification, after all, we also wrote in yesterday’s commentary that the representatives are “floating under a lucky star”.
Read more OPINION: What are we going to lie to ourselves about, it hurts our eyes. Slovakia floats under a lucky star
Football expert Ladislav Borbély wants to correct us. He claims that “happiness is an equal component of success. We cannot rule it out, although it is a random factor, but everyone has to do something about it. I haven’t seen a successful team that didn’t also have luck,” he says.
Although he criticized the team for a passive game during Monday’s match in front of the RTVS cameras, he said it reminded him of “Moses, who is waiting for the sea to open, but nothing opens”, two days after the meeting he encourages positive thinking.
“Basically, we are already advancing and we should be happy about that. Let’s not curse the national team, let’s be optimistic, we live in the expectation that we will add something extra to the excellent results that are indisputable. They were ugly victories, but let’s give the players a chance,” he emphasizes.
Combined containers
Borbély also understands the fans’ point of view. “People go to a game or sit down in front of the TV, wanting to enjoy it and notice the visualization of the game. So they will be satisfied only if they get high-quality game content. They didn’t get it in Luxembourg, that’s why they are dissatisfied,” he thinks.
However, he also raises a warning finger…
Read more If Dúbravka was English, today he is a unit of Albion. They would not survive on the islands if the home goalkeeper covered the back of some Slovak
“Our boys paradoxically achieved very good results in this qualification with a very poor quality game. At least three were like that – most recently in Luxembourg and before that in Iceland and Liechtenstein. If we don’t improve the game content during the next six months, there won’t be satisfactory results either. They are connected containers,” he adds.
At the end, we also gave the floor to the oldest football generation. Goalkeeper Alexander Vencel st. he caught at a time when football was not about pure pragmatism, but also about joy. He was perhaps what fans still want to see today – there was less fear of the result, more desire to offer the viewer a real football spectacle.
“We somehow got used to the fact that the position in the table is more important. Today it means much more than the game itself. Often at the expense of the viewer. But it’s not fair. When he comes to the stadium, he will see the triumph, but he won’t get much from the match. Points are decisive, but we still owe something to football as such, that’s an undeniable fact,” the legendary goalkeeper confesses his feelings.
2023-10-18 11:03:00
#field #looked #waiting #Moses #result #remain #rest #forgotten
