C. Tulleners: "Players clearly understood their roles

2024-06-02 20:10 © lff.lt

The Lithuanian U19 girls' national team continued their preparation last week for the upcoming European girls' championship, which will start in Lithuania in just over a month.

Remember that the championship will take place from July 14-27 in Kaunas, Jonava, and Marijampolė, where the Lithuanian team will compete in Group A against the national teams of England, France, and Serbia.

Last week, the national team gathered for another training camp, during which they trained in Kaunas, visited the headquarters of the LTOK, where they were welcomed by the tournament host, LTOK President Daina Gudzinevičiūtė, and concluded the camp with a match in Radviliškis.

In a friendly match, the Lithuanian girls played against the team "Metta" from Latvia and after goals from Viltė Švarcaitė and Ema Kriaučiūnaitė, defeated their opponents 2:0.

After the match, the head coach of the national team, Cederique Tulleners, emphasized that he liked the performance he saw on the field on Sunday.

"I think the match was really good, the girls fought hard and worked. Defensively, we maintained a good structure, the players clearly understood their roles.

Although the opponents controlled the ball, we scored two goals, found suitable moments to press them, intercept the ball, and run forward.

After the break, we also had several chances, so I am very pleased with the match," said the specialist from Belgium.

He was seconded by the team captain Karolina Jasaitytė.

"We really appreciate the match, we won, and such a victory pushes us further ahead. Excellent preparation to play against such a high-level team, in the Latvian championship it is the second team. The more such matches we have, the better we can prepare for such a big championship.

Preparation is somewhat different, there are many twelfth-graders on our team, recently there was also the last call celebration, we want to thank the federation for helping us coordinate this so that we could represent the national team and not miss this memorable opportunity. We are preparing, we put a lot of effort, we will have individual programs, we will gather in July and try to prepare as best as we can for the European Championship," she shared her thoughts.

There is just over a month left until the championship, and according to C. Tulleners, such matches contribute to the daily growth of the national team girls.

"I hope for even higher-level opponents at the European Championship, but such tests are a great way to prepare, practically test small details that we learned in training.

There is very little time left, but we are on the right track and we have to keep going. We need to gradually increase intensity both in playing with the ball and without it, we need to strengthen our physical preparation a bit," said the strategist.