The team that never backs up – presentation of the Slovakian team for the WMF U23 WC
In our quest to find out as much as possible what the teams are doing during preparation for the World Cups, we had a fruitful conversation with the Team manager of Slovakia Mr. Matus Kocun. Not any question was left without the answer, as it can be seen through the interview we are conveying here:
Are you prepared for the World Cup you are partaking in?
„Well it´s hard to say, but we are doing our best to progress with our national team, either in the main category or in U23. We had one representation camp at the beginning of July with 19 players. Thanks to our national minifootball league, we can see in action during the whole year the best players of Slovakia and especially this year a lot of young players were involved. Our national team is focusing on EMF EURO, but WMF World Cup U23 is also a challenge for us and we want to do our best!”
What are the best sides and strengths of your team, and what are the points that need improvement?
“Hard to say about the strengths of our team, better said we have a vision what we want to play either in U23 representation and also A-team. We are happy that our young players are really skilled and can easily transform from football to minifootball. We want to play attractive minifootball, we want to create actions and chances and be „on the ball“, we want the goalkeeper to be engaged in the actions. We are not going just to defense and wait for our chance, but enjoy the game and make it attractive. The dark side of this is, that sometimes it’s too risky.”
Has the situation with COVID-19 influenced your work and the way you do minifooball?
“COVID-19 has made things for us very difficult, but we never back up and took every chance to organize something, even it was more than difficult and took a lot of energy, time, cost, but it was worth it. At the end of the day, the Slovak minifootball federation was the most active federation during the COVID period. We played our national league, an event the restrictions were really strict, we organized camps for our representations, we fully recertificated our referees and did a lot of hard work with an information system.”
What are your expectations from the World Cup you are partaking in?
“We are always staying on the ground before the tournament, but there is always a big belief in ourselves. We want to go step by step, from game to game. Last we finished second, so we see the space for doing a better job.”
Would you like to share anything else?
“We are happy to take a part on this WC and really thanks to all countries, that accepted the invitation, because also through this tournament we can show how minifootball is strong and can be done even though all the restrictions with COVID-19. Hope we will have a good time in Kyiv and thanks in advance to the organizations for their job and taking care of us.”
Such enthusiasm is all we need to feel during the World Cup, so good luck to Slovakia!
