“The team focused on defense throughout the game. The opponent was playing at home, so a loss was possible, but we didn’t expect such a disastrous result.”
Idman.biz reports that this was stated by former head coach of the Azerbaijan national team, Arif Asadov, while commenting to Teleqraf on the 0:5 defeat against Iceland.
The 55-year-old specialist attributed the heavy loss to a poorly structured game plan: “There could be various reasons, but the lack of match practice and physical preparation of the players could have contributed. The main reason, however, is that the game plan was not properly set up. Throughout the match, the team was only thinking about defense. They would retreat into their own half and quickly lose possession after winning the ball. Even 3-4 passes in a row didn’t work.
It seems the players were given such instructions. Not just one or two, but the whole team was trying not to concede a goal while defending. After gaining possession, they didn’t push forward much to avoid being caught in a counterattack.
When the opponent constantly controls the ball and sits deep in defense, energy gets drained. In such games, one lost ball leads to another. That’s exactly what happened yesterday.”
Idman.biz
