Yanaki Dimitrov, "Topic sport":
The national team was completely clean against Luxembourg (0:0) and Northern Ireland (0:5) in the October session of Group 3 matches of League C of the Nations League. In fact, the days even before the announcement of the call-ups to the disaster in Belfast passed as if everyone in the selection had memorized a kind of “Manual of failure”. The series of 8 matches without defeat under the leadership of Ilian Iliev had clearly raised the nose not only of the national selector, but also of his wards. Although in this series the victories were only over Tanzania (1:0) and Northern Ireland (1:0), which fought itself at the “College”. After the specialist announced the chosen ones, it started to get interesting. There was a lot of noise around the fact that four players from CSKA, who are reserves in the team led by Alexander Tomas, found a place in the extended squad. In his first speech after the announcement of the invited players, Iliev stumbled and recalled that before he took over the team, no one was interested in who we were playing, let alone who was in the group. And he pointed out that there are 7 million breeders in our country… And in the end, he said: Better criticism than indifference. He could afford to say that, because he really tightened the team and made it so that it arouses interest, and the once poisonous atmosphere around the national team became positive. And proof of this is the over 15 thousand spectators in the stands of “Hristo Botev” in Plovdiv, at the same time hosting Luxembourg – a rival we didn't consider alive years ago.
But from the match against the representatives of the Grand Duchy everything went downhill. One of the most repeated words before the two clashes was “aggression”. However, the tricolor
apparently they don't know
its exact meaning
Because against Luxembourg, she personified “roughness”. Red cards drawn were spared, but three of the yellow cards received were dropped due to suspensions for the game with Belfast. And this contributed to the situation of “Windsor Park“ first to be comic, to pass through tragic and to end as a historical resolution. Play the situation with Ivaylo Chochev for the home team's fourth goal. He first passed to an opponent, and then he didn't even bother to run and chase him, and after a step or two he stopped, lowered his head, and a moment later the ball was in our net. In fact, all of Northern Ireland's goals can be studied. But not because of the actions of the British, but because of ours. They are
ideal for the rubric
„That's not how it's done“
On the first hit, Zhivko Atanasov groaned to an opponent on the back and dropped him. In the second, our full-back Viktor Popov pushed an opponent in the back, he was supposedly helped by Atanasov, but the ball was still in our goal. In the third, the Northern Irishman goes unmolested down the flank, goes inside and gets to the front of the arc without anyone bothering to get in his way! And in the fifth, a breakthrough on the wing, a ball dropped into the penalty area, three or four defending in front of our goalkeeper and no one beats the man who will shoot at the goal!
We made Northern Ireland look like Brazil at times. And not because the opponents were so strong, but because we are tragic. The British had six players under the age of 21 in their squad, as many of them play in the third tier of football in England. The bad thing is that in our country, at 18, they already think of themselves as stars. A
can't do
the most basic
– to run as fast as their rivals. Once you can't keep up with the pace, you can't be close to the opponent to get in the way and take the ball away. This is the base, and then comes quickness of thought, accuracy of passes, tactical preparation and so on – all elements in which we give way.
There is no mutual aid either. Each thinks the other is to blame. And he does not see that the change must start from him. To try to develop every day, but to do it with deeds, not words. Then learn to work in a team. And to have the feeling that it hurts when the other is hurt.
The topic with the coaches is even longer. Those in schools must keep up with the latest trends. And besides tacticians, they also need to be nutritionists and psychologists. But their salaries are… And hence the motivation. And it is forgotten that they even need to be educators in order to make people, not just players.
„We produce hybrids“ – the words are Stanimir Stoilov's and they are a diagnosis of the condition of the young players, who then drag their mistakes instead of cleaning them up. In general, more than 90 percent of the things in local football, and in general in the country, seem to be done after we have studied a textbook on impossibility. And they are applied in the BFS, the clubs and everywhere… That's why we are heading headlong towards it, to start saying about teams like San Marino and the Faroe Islands that they are “from our rug”.