In recent weeks, he did not miss two football holidays in Slovakia. First, Slovan’s progress to the main stage of the Champions League and on Sunday the sold-out match between Slovakia and Azerbaijan (2:0) in the Košice football arena.
Photo: TASR, Veronika Mihaliková
Two games, two wins, full points. The Slovaks started the League of Nations one hundred percent.
It was played in the capital of the East after almost three decades, and more than eleven thousand fans watched the successful entry of the national team into the new edition of the League of Nations.
“Slovakia is riding a positive football wave. It is not a matter of course. Even in life, you are once up and once down. Just look at the Czech Republic,” says former representative Stanislav Šesták (41).
Two games, two clean sheets and six points. Is that the most important finding?
Football is played for points. Once you get them, they help. If you lose them, you miss them.
Are duels against weaker opponents the most thankless with this logic?
I always took it as if I wanted to win with the strong or the weak. The boys did a great job, even if the opponents were perhaps not the most attractive.
The Slovaks started with the tightest win 1:0 in Estonia. What caught your attention in the match?
About ten worked out chances. It may seem simple, but it is not. Thanks to our own quality, we deservedly won, although we were tormented by a lack of shooting.
Captain Milan Škriniar said that a few years ago they would not have been able to handle such a duel, because football Europe is equalizing. Do you agree?
Yes. Everyone has a skillful player or generation. Opponents are better organized. If Milan is talking about the Estonians a few years ago, I wouldn’t have said a few years ago that the Czechs would get four from the Georgians.
Let’s remember Luxembourg, which attacked the progress bar in the qualification for the European Championships. It is increasingly difficult to score points with weaker players.
As a striker, did you like opponents whose defenders were not so good?
The most important thing was that I wanted to get the best out of myself in the national team. If the audience came in large numbers, they booed you.
If they make Mexican waves in the 25th minute, as they do now in Košice in the match against Azerbaijan, that is the best testimony. In the past, they came to see, for example, Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal. But now they were interested in Dávid Hancko, Milan Škriniar or Stanislav Lobotka. It’s nice.
Were you in the audience of the sold-out Košice football arena during the 2-0 win with Azerbaijan?
Yes.
How did you perceive the return of the national team to Košice after almost thirty years?
It didn’t even occur to me that the last time it was played here was in 1998… Sure, Tehelné pole is twice as big as KFA. However, maybe five or six thousand people would come to Azerbaijan. I believe it wasn’t just one swallow. The fan in the east deserves and appreciates it.
How do you perceive the two years of the Slovak national team under the leadership of Francesco Calzona, which are surrounded by a 1:2 loss in September 2022 and a 2:0 triumph in September 2024?
Different results and performances. Progress is rocket. The team is excellently composed. He has a game face. Maybe I’m taking it too easy, but just by changing the interpreter, a lot has changed.
Pavol Farkaš started to translate, and a better and more accurate response came from the coach – towards the public and maybe even the players. At the same time, there were also moments, such as at the press conference after arriving from the European Championship 2024, which do not help Slovak football.
Did it stump you?
Each of us wants to help Slovak football. I do not believe that there are people who like him and purposefully harm him. It should have been handled better. I also had a personal interview with Coach Calzon.
What was he about?
About football. (laughs) I explained to him how we, Slovak fans, take it. We are modest, but to underestimate us in 2022 by saying that we currently do not have Azerbaijan or Luxembourg was not correct.
He lacked humility and the beginning was not good. I feel like Calzona has realized this and is acting differently now. Thanks to him, we play nice offensive football, which has also been adopted by his wards. He looks good on it.
You had to get a cab. How decisive solutions to the cases regarding Vladimír Weiss Jr. helped. and Robert Mak?
He has a track record, so he could afford it. If it didn’t happen, he would get it again on a plate from the critics. I think it should have been handled more constructively. Weiss is specific. He was injured and not in ideal form at the time, but Calzono’s introduction was not good in that respect either.
I do not claim that Mak or Aleksandar Čavrič would help so significantly. However, we cannot pretend that we have solved these cases perfectly. Not at all. It should not have happened that Mak criticizes the coach in the newspaper and thus closes the door to the national team. It should have been resolved in the cabin and in silence. Mak deserved it during those years in the national team. They didn’t have to treat him like this.
Source: sportweb.pravda.sk
