Football: Interview with national team coach Jan Mak |03 August 2013

‘We could have played better as a team’

National team coach Jan Mak arrived in the country on Thursday afternoon and expressed his disappointment with our team’s showing at the recent Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) tournament.

Coach Mak had taken leave after the tournament and upon his return, Sports Nation caught up with him to talk about the tournament and especially our team’s performances.
“It was a pity we did not have three games as it meant one experience less as such matches are important for us as we had a new selection with younger and new players.  Therefore this was a missed opportunity to play three matches,” explained coach Mak.

He added that our results give a very clear picture of where Seychelles football stands at the moment.
“Both matches provided me with a good experience to see the players in this competition environment and how they handle it individually and as a team and what we saw were two games of two halves,” noted a very philosophical coach Mak.

Coach Mak went on to analyse the two matches in detail as well as our players’ performances.
“The first half against Namibia was good though not very good while the second half was OK though we could have done better. Nonetheless, the first 20 minutes were our best at the tournament,” coach Mak reflected.

“The first half against Mauritius was our worst and had we played at the same level as we did in the second half we would not have lost.

“But there were a lot of individual mistakes. We did not start very well and consequently they took the lead. Overall, it could have been better,” said a disappointed coach Mak, though he felt his team improved a lot in the second half against Mauritius where he thinks they played better as a team.

Coach Mak added that he was not unhappy but still disappointed with the results as it did not meet his expectations.
Mak claimed that in the team’s last friendly match against the selection of Malagasy players playing in the local leagues prior to the tournament, he could already foresee some problems the team would face.

“We could already see problems from our friendly games as for such competitions where we intend to get maximum results, we need three or four international matches for us to have a clear picture of where we stand. Unfortunately we worked from our reality and if we had had the national day tournament here it would have helped a lot,” coach Mak exclaimed.
As for the players selected, coach Mak has no qualms about them.

“I am convinced we had the best players available though I am sure some did not give the best of themselves. But with more time to prepare and more possibilities, we could have performed at a higher level,” coach Mak said.

He also stated that the younger players did not disappoint him though he had expected more from some of the more experienced ones.
When asked on the way forward, the Dutchman said there is a lot of discussion to be made especially with clubs to help improve the level of the national team.

“We need to discuss the national team in relation to the clubs and our national league. The time is here for us to realise there are areas we need to address if we are to move forward and we do not want to look back five years from now to talk about the same things. There are opportunities as there are positive things but we must realise them and this is my goal and my aim,” coach Mak said in conclusion.

R. J-L.