Articles

FINLAND – MOLDOVA 0:0 (0:0)

January 4th, 2016, St. Petersburg, Peterburgsky SCC, 500 spectators

Best players: William Jaaskelainen, Vadim Gulceac

Post match comments

Alexei Eremenko, Head coach of team Finland:

– It was my debut game as a head coach today. Something went right, something went wrong. In any case, I am glad we did not concede, given the fact we were finishing the match one man down. And even having ten players on pitch we still had chances to score. I have set a goal to look at the players that I’ll be working with. Overall, I am happy with the result. The team has also played for the first time here. I know how it is myself as I took part in Granatkin Memorial some time before. It was held in Moscow those days and we had teams coming from Brazil and Argentina – the “grands”. That’s the reason to explain everything – some chaos and nervousness, especially in the beginning of the game.

– Would you give the same reason for low chances conversion?

– Yes, definitely! The guys are still young and lack experience. It is the seniors who know where to catch a rebound or where the ball will go. It is different with the youngsters. When they need to concentrate, they have many unnecessary thoughts like “I’m going to score now” or “I’ll give a pass” that bother them from playing cold-tempered.

– Are there a lot of players in your team who play in senior leagues already?

– Yes, we have such players. I would name 4-5 right away who have tried themselves at a more competitive level! Some are playing for the club that I am coaching, and some are playing on other teams. We have more good players in Finland. I brought here those who I don’t know and who I need to closely look at. Some players need to be in Minsk on January the 15th as there’s another big tournament there. We had to take this into consideration.

– What’s your vision of an incident with a red card for your player?

– It was an obvious foul from him. He lost his position. We warned him in half time, but he did not understand. He reacted half a meter late and committed a foul. The referee was absolutely right in this situation.

Veaceslav Rusnac, Head coach of team Moldova:

– And again, good afternoon! It’s been a very interesting game, but for me, it had two qualitatively different parts. In the first half we didn’t succeed in everything, and there also was a kind of nerve and mess. In the second half my players started to act more organized. They tried to play counting on fast passes and wingers, as my colleague has correctly mentioned. They tried to preserve the density and started to create moments, and even scored an obvious goal, as it seemed to me. But the referees didn’t adopt it showing offside. Then my players lost the tempo. I think they are still not ready to play all the 90 minutes in one tempo. But what for their attitude to the game and their devotion, I am content.

– You’ve been a bit more emotional today than yesterday. Was the opponent stronger?

– The opponent today surely was more skillful. But that’s not the matter. I thought I could encourage and move my guys with my emotions.

– And you’ll have team Russia as your next opponent…

– You see, now we don’t have such obviously weak teams or, on the contrary, obvious favorites. Now you can go and play football with any one. Our main task for the moment is recovering and passing to the next match in good conditions. We’ll try to offer a good battle to Russia, to act in our manner, and to show our best. If my guys are able to hear me, if I am able to pass them the message, everything will be alright!

– Do you have a tough contact with the administration and the head coach of the national team? (a week ago the position was taken by Igor Dobrovolsky – author’s comment)

– Igor Ivanovich is our Legend – a very big and respected person. He treats everyone as equal. So we are in a close contact.