Articles

SAINT PETERSBURG – JAPAN 4:3 (1:2)

January 4th, 2016, St. Petersburg, Peterburgsky SCC, 2500 spectators

Best players: Nikita Goylo, Ryotaro Ito

Post match comments

Vladimir Kazachionok, Head coach of team St. Petersburg:

– The game was good although a difficult one. I said before the tournament that spectators would not be bored. And that’s what we’ve seen today. It should have been fun at the stands. It’s clear the players make mistakes at this age. But they strive for victory and this is important.

– Despite three goals scored, the first half was not much of a show. But the second half made everyone stare without blinking. What happened during half time that the teams showed such an entertaining play?

– I think that the guys did not clearly understand the game plan. That’s why we had to repeat it once more in half time, giving examples and specifying personalities. This way seems to be easier, and, hence, we made changes in second half and started to play faster and more aggressively. You see the result on the screen now.

– Why didn’t you take Dmitry Pletnev and Konstantin Kotov? They are neither in your team and nor in Team Russia.

– They are ill, and therefore they don’t play for any of the teams here.

– Your next opponent is Team Belarus. Have you seen their game yesterday and how will you be preparing for the match against them?

– This is a very well organized team. But we’ll do our best to play a leading role rather than adjust our play to the opponent’s. This is the use of this tournament – we can learn how to play ourselves, how to create rather than destroy the game plan of our counterparts.

– Why did Slovakia had a more convincing win over Japan than your team?

– I saw that game yesterday and I can say that the Japanese did not deserve such a big loss. But they award the same three points for a win 4:3 as they do for 3:0.

– You said that the best player in your team was the goalkeeper. Not the players who scored the goals, but the goalkeeper who conceded three. Why?

– Simply because if not for him, we would have conceded even more. He neutrolised several one-on-one chances – three or four.

Atsushi Uchiyama, Head coach of team Japan:

– Today was a tough and difficult game. The team of St. Petersburg is well organized. We played better today than yesterday, but we made mistakes in the midfield. You see, the opponents are better physically prepared.

– The first half was not very impressive, nothing to look at, but in the second half one couldn’t take his eyes off the play. What was the reason of such a change in the play?

– Our tactics was to build the play from defense, and in the first half we followed it, so the game was not very spectacular, although we scored two goals. In the second half we corrected some aspects and had more combinations counting on attacks and our strikers. We started to play faster and had lots of moments, but the goalkeeper of team St. Petersburg was wonderful. If it were not for him the score could have been in our favour.

– Your players demonstrated an impressive will to win. Did you have any practices, perhaps, you went to the temple?

– No, we just had a meeting yesterday and decided to play better today than before.

– You’ve changed half of the lineup compared to yesterday’s match. Was it because the guys needed to recover, or there was other reason?

– Yes, the guys got tired yesterday, and I gave others an opportunity to play. That’s why I made a few substitutions. Besides, we have 4 players of 99th year of birth, and I wanted to watch them and give them an opportunity to play.

– Last year there were some pretensions to the pitch surface, for it caused injuries. Do you have any problems with it this year?

– No, the pitch is good, there are no problems with it.

– We liked your player number 6 very much. Would you tell us more about him?

– He is our best player, he is very good in one to one duels. Today he performed very well, having scored two goals.