The head coach of our national team, Ilija Lucić, said that, despite all the efforts to prepare the team with quality, our cadets had extremely strong opponents:
“We are here as hosts, so we did not qualify by results. We played against extremely strong national teams and we gave our best. The first two matches we tried to oppose, however, we realized that we lacked physical fitness. In today’s match, we closed, our aim was to concede as few goals as possible. Unfortunately, we conceded two goals there as well.”
The head coach also referred to the first two matches played against the national teams of the Netherlands and Denmark:
“I thought that this third match against the German team would be the most difficult for us, but it turned out that it was the first good match we played in this championship. The girls had a desire to show off, but, unfortunately, I don’t think the head followed the heart. We tried, but in a short period of time, in the last matches, we conceded a lot of goals.”
Our head coach also referred to the fact how important this championship is for the further development of our young national team players:
“They received a lot of information. They saw the difference between the best seven national teams participating in this championship and us. They gained a lot of knowledge, starting with how to eat, behave, and the like. They also learned what discipline is and how important it really is. Our players have a great desire to continue building their careers somewhere outside the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is a great lesson that will serve them, so that they can compete on the European, and maybe sometime in the future on the world football scene.”
In the end, he reveals his further plans when it comes to the women’s cadet national team of Bosnia and Herzegovina:
“We have eight girls in our team who are younger, so they will continue to be part of the cadet national team. We need to work on scouting girls from the diaspora. This number we currently have is not enough.”