I definitely want to continue, said national team coach Filip Pešán after arriving home
Sport.cz
The tournament in Riga ended in failure for the Czechia. Do you want to continue as the head of the national team coach?
I definitely have a taste. I think that quality work has been done with colleagues over the years, although I clearly respect the fact that the result at the World Cup is disappointing. However, it is nice to have a slightly longer-term job, then the results can be evaluated better than after three quarters of a year.
Did you talk to the assistants Straka and Špaček if they would like to continue working for the national team?
So far we haven’t talked about it at all. All five of us, including General Manager Petr Nedvěd, are now very disappointed. We went to bed and didn’t say much during the return trip. It’s still too early …
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Did you project the causes of the failure in your head?
My colleagues and I discussed it a bit, but the analysis will be better in a few days. Now it’s really all too fresh. But I certainly failed to create the ideal chemistry in the composition of attacks and the composition of defensive pairs. We played badly weak, we weren’t productive and I don’t think it even helped that we didn’t play much on the big field. But I don’t take it as an excuse, I’m just talking about the fact that we made a fresher impression on the narrower rink in Prague than on the big one in Riga.
Coach Filip Pešán in Prague after the return of the Czech national hockey team from the World Championships in Riga, where the national team finished in the quarterfinals after defeating Finland.
Vít Šimánek, ČTK
Is this one of the reasons for the game performance, which was still promising at the Czech Hockey Games?
I would not say. Overall, we failed to set up the team to adapt to these difficult conditions. Obviously, the other teams compared better with the change and difficult conditions.
Some players were confident before the start of the tournament. Jakub Vrána even talked about the attack on gold. How did you perceive it?
It bothered me a little, I must say. That is why I said that this is the opinion of Cuba Crow, and not the opinion of the implementation team. But a medal is, of course, a dream. If I said I was going to the World Cup so that I wouldn’t fall out of the group, I would probably be in the wrong place.
There were a number of NHL players on the team. Didn’t some fall short of expectations?
Hard to evaluate. They are still young boys who do not yet pull their teams in the NHL as experienced leaders. They have to learn to win, to take responsibility. Especially in the last match we lacked their productivity.
Did the team miss seasoned players such as Voráček?
It is possible, but it is really early for analysis. However, we invited Voráček or Gudas, for example, but unfortunately rejected the nomination. I think I would be under more pressure if I didn’t invite and nominate young NHL guys. We tried this variant, but as you can see, it didn’t work.
The Czech hockey players arrived in Prague from the World Championships in Riga, where they finished in the quarterfinals after defeating Finland.
Vít Šimánek, ČTK
You often mixed with the composition of the formations. Don’t you read it back?
If the attacks had hit us since the opening match, I certainly wouldn’t have mixed them like that. We didn’t weaken during the tournament, so I had to bet more defensive players into the fights, especially weakening specialists, to improve them.
You didn’t put Špačka or Sekáč in the quarterfinals. If you could turn back time, would you make the same decision?
I would definitely leave the line-up for the match with the Finns the same. I took five attacks in Riga and it is clear that not all boys can play. I wasn’t the only coach mixing with the lineup. As for Jirka Sekáč, I needed to use more defensive types in matches. I wanted to make the most of the offensive players in the first two attacks and chose the option of more workers to fight. I didn’t just want an offensive cuff.
The chisel was missing from the last training sessions. So he wasn’t hurt?
It was an internal agreement between him and me. He was healthy.
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