Arouca’s coach highlights the lack of effectiveness against Tondela and refuses to discuss the fairness of the scoreline (3-1).
Vasco Seabra, Arouca’s coach, in statements at the press conference after Tondela’s 3-1 victory over Arouca in the 17th round of the League:
Analysis of the defeat and the fairness of the result.
“It’s always very difficult to talk about justice. The truth is that I think we were capable at different moments of the game, apart from the set pieces. I believe we created conditions to win the game, but congratulations to Tondela because they were more competent on set pieces and ended up scoring three goals against us. I think we dominated the game territorially for almost the entire time and created goal=scoring opportunities as well. In the second half, given the volume of play we had, we could have been more present to create even more chances and get back into the game before Tondela made it 3-1. I believe it was a first half of practically total dominance on our part, with many opportunities created, but we were weakened by two set-piece situations, which we obviously have to take responsibility for. We have to correct this because in recent games teams have only created problems for us from set pieces, and it’s a situation we can’t allow to happen, which happened and penalized us with three points.
Lack of effectiveness
I believe we had a lot of possession, we dominated the game, we found spaces many times. Tondela is a team that defends well and is difficult to beat, and we pushed Tondela back. We created clear goal-scoring opportunities. We have to close out the game and then we have to prevent the opponent from getting into the game with situations that are part of it, which shouldn’t make us afraid, but which we’ve felt lately, it has penalized us and cost us many points.”
Is this lack of effectiveness the only justification for not having won in the last two games?
“When we really want to get out of a situation where we believe we have the capacity, potential, and conditions to not be in that moment when we are winning, we want to close the games quickly. That competitive maturity has to appear and has to be more serene, and the truth is that the opportunities that our opponents created for us were solely and exclusively from set pieces. In other words, it’s not something where we feel that the opponents dominate us, that they push us back, that they create opportunities for us and we are left hampered, unable to press, unable to regain possession. Especially in today’s game, I believe we had the conditions to close the game, not allowing Tondela to inflict the damage they did on us, therefore, it’s our responsibility and Tondela’s competence.
Responsibilities in set pieces
“We all have to take responsibility. The players work hard, they give us positive feelings that they can do it, and therefore we have to maintain that. We can only reverse things when we focus and work hard. It’s not talent; it’s something we have to work on, and we all have to be united, with individual responsibility but collectively, to be able to solve it.