With a single goal, but victorious: our U17 team defeated Politehnica Timișoara in the weekend round of the Elite League. Here is how head coach Szilárd Mitra saw the match.

With a single goal, but victorious: our U17 team defeated Politehnica Timișoara in the weekend round of the Elite League. Here is how head coach Szilárd Mitra saw the match.

“I knew that the match against Timișoara would be the toughest of the four so far, for two reasons. First, because Timișoara desperately need points, as they haven’t managed to collect many until now. Second, because our boys also look at the standings, and after three wins in a row, they took this game more lightly. And that’s exactly what happened!

Even though we dominated the play, the opponent had maybe one shot on target. At the same time, we weren’t aggressive enough, neither in recovering the ball nor in maintaining possession. Because we treated the game too lightly, our decision-making was poor as well. We moved the ball around a lot, and in the first half we managed to be dangerous in front of their goal, but due to imprecision and poor choices we couldn’t score.

We also controlled the second half, but fatigue was already visible in the players, and we couldn’t create real danger in front of the opponent’s goal. After the substitutions and switching to three defenders and two forwards, we managed to put more pressure, and eventually scored from a corner.

Overall, it wasn’t a bad match, since we kept possession most of the time. If we had scored already in the first half, the game would have turned out differently. Timișoara have a very well-organized defense and solid players, and that’s why it was harder to play against them on Saturday.”

R. A.