At today’s press conference, Ranko Popović, the coach of Vojvodina FC, pinpointed that the derby in Bačka Topola is the chance for his team to show their true colors.
The players of the old lady will be playing against the team of TSC in Bačka Topola on Sunday, November 12th, in the 15th round of Mozzart Bet Superleague of Serbia.
– TSC is probably one of the most organized teams in our league. They have players who can answer to the challenges of the competitions they play, and that’s is why they are at the top of the table. It is perhaps a team that left the most serious impression in Europe at one point, out of all our clubs who played. I don’t want to look at the end results, but at when they were in full power, they showed the most. And that’s why this game is a nice challenge for us, to round up all the good things that we have been working on. I don’t like to talk about it, I like to leave it for you as the audience to see. I don’t like pessimism, I like criticism, constructive criticism, but after this last game which made us all feel like we lost the match, we saw some things we hadn’t seen in some of the previous championships. The first half was our model that is not easy to repeat with that intensity. When someone plays like that in some other leagues, on some other pitches and in some other jerseys, we admire such football. However, when you watch such football at the empty stadium in Novi Sad, then we start being pessimistic and drawing out negative conclusions. What’s good is good, and what isn’t, we will try to make better. It is our fault we didn’t end the match in a win and with standing ovations. What happened cannot be changed, but I hope we will never repeat that. We are aware of it, we talked about it, but we have to it all on the pitch. It is not easy, but we know what we are striving for and what our goal is. In two days, we have a nice opportunity to show it all against a worthy opponent – Popović said.
The coach of Vojvodina believes his team shouldn’t build their optimism around the tiredness of TSC after Europe, but because of some good things in they way they play.
– Vojvodina’s optimism shouldn’t be built based on something that is happening in TSC, but on the things happening in our backyard. Our optimism should be built on that first half, and a good part of the second half against Železničar. In the first half we were like a tsunami, we used each attack to create chances and that is what we want to build our optimism around, but also we want to correct the mistakes. Playing like that, it got to their heads too soon, they lost control, seriousness, but they are aware of it. TSC has top players at 7 or 8 positions, who can play in every team here, 2 to be more precise, so I don’t believe they will be tired. The matches in Europe can just make them better and faster, and being slow is the biggest problem of our football. We work on speeding everything up, and I am sure none of you expected that in 3 months we could reach this level of play, even if it’s for 45 minutes only. We will work on playing like that in continuity, and for 90 minutes – Popović highlighted.
He reflected on some staff issues that are still present, but didn’t talk about it in detail.
- They are better, but we have to see how ready Campbell and Mathus will be, and those are the things we shouldn’t skip when we talk about everything. If you were typing a report, how would you type if someone took 4 buttons out of the keyboard? I hope that as many players will be ready, and that someone new will show themselves. Everyone who is in Vojvodina has to be aware that this club is special. We have been repeating that since day one, and we are working on it. I want to know that those players who enter the pitch will be aware of the jersey they are wearing, and play accordingly, appreciate it and enjoy it. When they enter the pitch like that, then the results will come – Ranko Popović concluded.
The match between TSC and Vojvodina is scheduled for Sunday, November 12th with the live broadcast on Arena 2 premium at 7:30pm.
