Skorovich: Russia into their stride
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
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"The first step is taken," said Russia coach Sergei Skorovich as he, Gustavo and Cirilo reflected on the 7-1 defeat of the Netherlands, not that Marcel Loosveld is angry with his team.
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Sergei Skorovich, Russia coach
The first step is taken. All of our players took part in this game and I think that all of them are glad. The most important thing was to win, and we did it – we won. Furthermore, we scored seven goals.
The tempo of the match was set by us. We scored the first goal quickly. Of course, we could have played even better. The lads tried to play well – they have done a lot of work, but that wasn't us at our best. If you lead by so many goals it's hard to force players to show everything they can do.
It's natural that a game changes direction during the match, especially if your opponents are losing and trying everything to turn things around. Of course, we didn't want to concede and it's not good that we finally did, but it's not a disaster. We made some mistakes and let the Netherlands create their chances, but overall we did a good job. The Dutch are persistent, but it didn't do us any harm as we won.
Gustavo, Russia goalkeeper
It's not that bad that I conceded a goal. I always shout a bit at my team-mates. It's normal as I am a goalkeeper and I need to guide our defence. I just kept silent during the match. It's not that nice, but in futsal goalkeepers always 'get bitten' – it happens every day.
We expected a tough match. We have watched many of the Netherlands' matches and they are skilful players. We had the right mentality before this match and that's why we got this comfortable win.
Cirilo, Russia forward
It a big honour to score the first goal of the EURO. I hope that I will score a lot more. We didn't have a competition for who could score first within the team. I am happy for Robinho [who was celebrating his 31th birthday] who scored one of our goals. He is happy too. I wish him good luck and good health.
[About first of his two goals] I think that the Dutch didn't expect this fast movement from me. But, to be honest, a small rebound helped me.
The Netherlands are good team, they are technically strong, but I don't know what was wrong with them today. They didn't threaten much and played badly in the defence. We relaxed a bit too much when it was 6-1, and that is not acceptable.
Marcel Loosveld, Netherlands coach
The result is not the most important thing. I was a little bit disappointed with the way we started the game – we could at least have made a match of it, but after ten minutes it was over, and that set a stamp on the whole of the match for us.
If you can stay close to your opponents you can stay enthusiastic about a game, but I was surprised that the players looked like they were nervous. I did not put any pressure on them in preparation, just let them enjoy the game. That was disappointing for me. We saw videos of Russia – we knew they were very strong, very skilful, everything. We said we have to fight to get any kind of result. The way they advance on our defenders – it was too easy.
I got them together [at half-time], and said if they gave 200% then the goal difference would not be any bigger at the end. I changed the formation because I understand the difference between the teams – it is not a surprise. I am not mad at my players. I understand totally what all the fixtures are – what the difference is between the teams. They tried. There were some good attacks and at times we were able to get one-on-one, but you have to do that for the whole match.
Mohamed Attaibi, Netherlands scorer
You can see the difference between full professionals and semi-professionals. We got the first chance and then the first goal was a little bit lucky because they got the ball and our keeper was down, so it went in. Then they got confidence and they were on a roll – it was really difficult. We had to come after them. They know how to play the game, and they have a full professional league so they are used to this. [On his goal] it was a little bit pleasing but not now – maybe later I will enjoy thinking about it, but not now.