The first to speak was the president of the federation, Edgaras Stankevičius, who discussed the new outfits, which no longer have the color red. The President emphasized that such a choice was made taking into account the political situation in the world.
“The most important thing we emphasized after the last cycle of the national team, when it comes to the outfits, was to avoid the red color that does not raise any associations. The national team returns to its traditional colors: yellow and green,” said the president.
Perhaps the most discussed topic both at the conference and in the public space as a whole is the condition of the lawn of the Kaunas Darius and Girėnas stadiums. Recently, the impact of other events taking place in the stadium on the grass has been strongly discussed.
Less than a week before the match scheduled to take place in Kaunas on September 6 against the rivals from Cyprus, a concert is scheduled at the stadium, after which it is not known whether the national team will be able to play in the country’s biggest stadium.
E. Stankevičius mentioned that there could be panic regarding the possible transfer of the match to another stadium, regarding the photos that appeared in the public, which show the poor state of the lawn, but he noted that all efforts will be focused so that this does not have to be done.
“UEFA raises certain concerns. They do not understand the practice of having a concert in the stadium less than a week before the match. But this is the choice of the stadium operator and it will take place. We are doing our best to get the grass ready, it will be exposed on the night of Friday to Saturday after the concert and then we will see the situation.
There is definitely some panic on the part of UEFA and thinking about plan B,” E.Stankevičius said about possible problems.
Men’s team coach Edgaras Jankauskas, who replaced the LFF president at the microphone, spoke about the importance of the upcoming League of Nations C division matches and selected players for the matches against the Cypriot and Romanian teams.
Veterans Arvydas Novikovs and Fiodoros Černychs, as well as Edgars Utkaus, Armandos Kučis, Gvidos Gineitis and Paulius Golubickas, who are recovering from injuries, are not in the squad for the September tests.
“We welcome the match with mixed feelings. This cycle will be one of the more interesting and difficult because we have serious losses in the lineup, although I don’t want to sound like an excuse. It will be a great opportunity for players who will make their debut for the national team or return after a long break.
Perhaps the connection between the players can be disturbed, because losing 5-6 players from the starting line-up changes the face of the team and the importance of leadership. However, difficult times give people a chance to become stronger and I hope that we will use this opportunity”, said E. Jankauskas.
When asked how the team’s goals could be affected by so many losses in the lineup, the strategist said that it does not affect the team’s goals.
“Our goals remain the same. We will aim for victory in every match, we want to be competitive. We want our opponents to be able to say after every game that it was a very tough game, even if we don’t get the win.
Of course, we do not want to end the cycle in the last place, we are really capable of beating the Cyprus national team and giving a strong fight to the leaders of the group, the teams of Kosovo and Romania. We talked with the president of the federation that the third place is the goal, and if we go higher, it would be even better”, – the coach singled out the most important goals.
After reminding E. Jankauskas about the friendly match against the nearest rivals – the Cyprus national team, which took place last November, he said that he drew the necessary conclusions from that match and is not afraid of slightly better ranked opponents.
“The first memory that comes to mind is that we lost. But looking at the whole game, we didn’t play badly. I don’t like to say it was a good game but we lost, but it wasn’t a bad performance from us.
We had both possession and created more chances, we didn’t let them dominate, but the final result was still negative. Therefore, I cannot call that match successful.
At least 4 or 5 of our players who played in that game will not appear in this camp, so it is safe to say that we will need to fill almost half a new team.
As far as I have been following the Cypriot team, their striker has already scored 15 goals in both the Swedish championship and the national team since that game. They have players who represent Italian Serie A clubs, Cypriot league leaders.
It will be a serious opponent, they are a bit higher than us in the FIFA ranking, but I think that we have to consider ourselves favorites when playing at home”, – E. Jankauskas, who scored 10 goals in his career in the national team, expressed his confidence in his team.
The 49-year-old strategist, who took the helm of the national team in 2023, already had time to implement the desired style of play for the team. When asked what changes could be seen in the game after so many injuries have decimated the team, he said: “With those losses, we brought in players who have similar qualities to the injured players.
Qualities that fit our model: players who are quick, can attack open spaces, ask for the ball up front, have leadership and combativeness. Some dropped out, others came – this is a natural process. Players with those qualities are on our list.
There are also new names: Titas Milašius and Tomas Kalinauskas. These are players with a similar profile to those we lost, Arvydas Novikovas or Fedia Černychas”.
E. Jankauskas, who did not avoid questions about the condition of the lawn at the Darius and Girėnas stadium, said that he had not seen the lawn himself and hoped that it would be ready for the game in time.
“I didn’t see it, only the president showed the photo. The color was not what it should have been, but there is still time. In addition, I know that the stadium has the best lawn specialist in Lithuania, who gave all possible guarantees that the field will be in the necessary condition, in order not to receive claims from the inspectors”, said in 2004. UEFA Champions League winner.
When asked by the coach, what is plan B if it is not possible to play in Kaunas – whether it is the Marijampolė city stadium, with natural grass, or the artificial surface LFF stadium in Vilnius, he answered succinctly.
“Maybe it’s better to play the first match in Cyprus and the second at home (laughs). You always have to have a plan B, but I believe that everything will be fine and we will play where we have to,” said the man from Vilnius.
We remind you that on September 6 from 19:00 the Lithuanians will host the Cypriot eleven at home, and on August 9 they will meet the Romanian eleven on the road.
2024-08-29 21:35:37