For the Latvian national football team, the match in Düsseldorf against the strong German national team was a valuable experience that should not be feared, the head coach of the national team Dainis Kazakevičs admitted in a conversation with journalists after the game.
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It has been reported that the Latvian national football team on Monday with a result of 1: 7 (0: 5) gave way to the German national team, which played the last test match before the 2021 European Football Championship.
The Latvian Football Federation (LFF) celebrated its 100th birthday with the match, while goalkeeper Manuel Noeier experienced the 100th game in the national football team, which was beaten by Alexei Savelyev in the second half with a beautiful shot.
“We are disappointed with both the game and the result,” Dainis Kazakevičs admitted after the match. “Despite the shortage of several core players, we were preparing for the game and hoping to show more decent resistance. We failed to deal with the opponent’s rather aggressive ‘counter-pressure’ game, leaving us out of the defense. We pretty much lost the ball.”
“We didn’t keep up with the speed in the defensive activities. There were two teams of very different levels on the field today. Both the content of the game and the result in general reflect the difference in mastery between the two teams,” the coach said.
Kazakevich did not hide that the game also reflected problems in the organization of defense, making tactical mistakes by footballers. In his opinion, the functional readiness of the Latvian national team is not high at the moment, which was already proved by the match of the Baltic Cup against Lithuanian footballers.
The specialist emphasized that the injured Jānis Ikaunieks and Kristers Tobers were especially missing, but at the last minute the name of Roberts Savaļnieks had to be deleted from the main line: “Robert was prepared for the place in the main line-up where we played him. The lack of these three players was definitely noticeable.”
It was the RFS team’s defender’s positive Covid-19 test on Sunday that temporarily jeopardized the game. Savavnieks was isolated from the team, but on Monday all the tests performed on the representatives of the Latvian national team were already negative.
The game was successfully intensified not only by the goalkeeper Saveljev, but also by Raimonds Krollis. Renārs Varslavāns, a 19-year-old midfielder, made his debut in the national team. Without calling specific names, Kazakevich welcomed the involvement of reservists in the game.
“The course of the game was different in the second half. The opponents didn’t put so much pressure when we regained the ball on the side of the field. Glad that more of our new players were quite brave. The result was clear, but I liked how enthusiastically they left the field. and used his minutes, “the coach wanted to note.
Kazakevich was asked whether a game against such a strong opponent was necessary both from the point of view of footballers’ confidence and in terms of general football advertising in public.
“I think it was definitely a great opportunity to play the game. Obviously we wanted a better result. But if we are afraid of losing, it is better not to play with any such team. Then we will not move forward either,” the coach emphasized the value of negative experience.
Kazakevich pointed out that a large part of the core of the current national team has not yet played 20 games in the national team. Thus, such experience is very useful for inexperienced football players.
“Now we can talk about it post factum after such a result. If the result were more positive, I would not doubt it. I still have no doubt that such a harsh experience is an experience. It is important for us to draw the right conclusions and learn the right lessons after such a game.” presented the coach, who did not hide that the workload was both large, both functionally and emotionally.
Kazakevich also called the game of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers in the Netherlands on March 27, where he lost 0: 2.
“We did not manage to play in the counterattack to the end and played as organized in defense as it was in the Netherlands. The German national team used their moments quite quickly, unlike the Dutch national team. I think there is no reason to regret playing such a game,” the coach concluded.
The game of Estonia is already waiting for the Latvian national football team on Thursday, where the winner of the Baltic Cup will be determined. On Tuesday, the Estonians beat the Lithuanian national team 1: 0 away, but the Latvian national team won the neighbors from the south 3: 1 on Friday. Thus, the Latvian national team will also be allowed to triumph in the Baltic Cup.
