Dainis Kazakevich Photo: Sanita Sparāne / LFF
The Latvian national football team can take many lessons from the loss to Turkey on Monday, emphasizes the head coach of the national team Dainis Kazakevičs
The Latvian national team lost to Turkey 1: 2 in the final home game of the 2022 World Cup qualifying tournament at the Daugava Stadium on Monday. Latvian footballers were the first to take the lead, but then quickly let in the goal and in the last minutes of the match, the opponents took the victory, realizing an 11-meter penalty.
“The result is always on the board, so it is always deserved. Given the quality of our game and the opportunities we created, we could expect something more. I want to praise the team for performance, quality and fighting spirit. It is a great disappointment that we did not get to the points, because the guys deserved it with their performance. From the point of view of the quality of the game, I even liked this match in the team’s performance more than the first round game in Turkey, ”the Latvian Football Federation (LFF) quotes what Kazakevičs said at the post-match press conference.
The national team coach did not hide that there were several individual mistakes. In each of the goal losses, the team could have avoided them with different actions.
“Of course, this is also about the player experience that the Turks demonstrated. You can take a lot of lessons from such a game, ”the coach pointed out. “We had a great desire to attack and create opportunities until the end of the game, and that tells me a lot about the team’s mental readiness. The fact that we were looking for opportunities until the end of the game is a good signal. More had to be pushed out of the standard situations, which were many. ”
Kazakevich also admitted that in such a game to receive an 11-meter penalty kick at the end of the match causes a huge disappointment. At the end of the Latvian national team action game, the coach also connects with the functional condition of the players. For the national team, this was the second game in a row against a top-level opponent, and there are shortcomings.
“Not all the players who came on the field were able to enter such a difficult game,” Kazakevich believes. “We were hoping for a point in these two home games, so it’s disappointing, but in terms of content, I think we showed two good games in a short time. Thanks guys for what you did. I think it was also seen by the fans, who in both matches sympathized with the team until the last seconds, because in both games we fought for the last points. ”
The Latvian national team will conclude the qualifying tournament with two away games in November against Norway and Gibraltar.
In Group G, after eight games, the first place with 19 points is taken by the Netherlands, the second with 17 points is Norway, 15 points are for Turkey, 11 points are scored by Montenegro, five points are scored by Latvia, but Gibraltar is still in the beige.
–
