Leaders of the elite U-17 league, the young footballers of Vilnius "Ateitis", defeated the National Football Academy team last week 2:1, which was their first loss of the season. The legendary footballer Valdas Ivanauskas watched this successful match for the Vilnius team.
"It is clear that the team has good chemistry. There are two leaders - Matas Gudaitis and Matas Radžiukynas, and two excellent supporting players for the leaders, which is enough for 'Ateitis' to play well. I saw these boys play three years ago, and they have really made solid progress," the legend spoke about the seen match.
"Ateitis' team has players who can no longer stay in the same juices. The same M.Gudaitis and M.Radžiukynas are simply too good, so they need to get used to playing with the men or at least training with them. If they stay in children's football, nothing good will come out of them. We know many examples when a child, being head and shoulders above everyone, simply degrades," V. Ivanauskas explained his position clearly.
Even more categorical was the current coach talking about the performance of the National Football Academy.
"I couldn't single out anyone in that team. If the national team cannot beat a single club, then the type of football we have in Lithuania now will continue for many years. At least a decade. For those kids, in fifteen years - that's a time when you can still improve, but... you need to have something interesting now. There is none. All academy kids are the same. And that's the level we're at. Honestly, I wasn't interested in watching them. The boys tried their best, but effort alone is not enough. It seems like they should have been motivated by the biggest youth football expert Stankus who watched the match, but if it's not given - nothing will help," V. Ivanauskas said.
Having won six victories out of six possible, the "Ateitis" footballers are undisputed leaders of the championship.
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