Ali Thameem
Following tonight’s defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka, Maldives head coach Istavan Urbanyi has urged Maldives supporters to keep showing support for the U20 National team, and reiterated a message for the players on the value of learning from mistakes.
“We were not able to have a better result, unfortunately.. umm. We made basic errors in the goals, all three goals. And it was not easy to come back”, the head coach admitted the subtle faults from the team.
But he reminded us that we are talking about young, talented players. And that is exactly what they need. “They have to experience these situations, obviously. Game management – It is hard to deal with the situation if the opponent is going very direct, and they press hard against you.
“Some of our players were a bit scared.. but that was part of Sri Lanka’s approach. Where I come from, we say, few tackles for straight red cards. We had two career-ending tackles from them”.
“You know what i missed seeing (in tonight’s game), was the collective play. We played under panic. It should not be our style”.
It is really important to talk about this competition as a must-win. It’s not good if you put that (unnecessary) pressure to the players.
And what i told to the players… was “Hey, life is a lesson. It’s easy to know when you make a mistake.. but if we make mistakes, the question would be, how quickly can we learn from those mistakes. And that’s gonna be the challenge in the next two games.” –
Urbanyi said he intends to make some tactical changes, and to bring in “some fresh legs”. Hinting that he plans to shift things on the defensive front, The coach reassured that “It doesn’t mean the ones who started at the back this game, are out of the story. No, no. It is just very important for these guys to play”.
Admitting that we have a good opponent in the next game, Urbanyi praised the playing style of Bhutan. Hopefully with a win against Bhutan, Urbanyi said, the game against Nepal is going to be a “Who’s going to make it” match.
He passionately urged the importance of not letting despair get in the way of showing support for the players.
“But the most important thing – and this is for the supporters – yeah, you have to support these young players. Because (it) wouldn’t be fair to expect something right away. It’s a process. It takes time”
Urbanyi believed the resilience Maldives showed in the final minutes of tonight’s game was because of the home advantage, and the voice of support they kept receiving. “They go to the zone. There’s no fatigue anymore, there’s no panic anymore”.
