Oriented on making people closer

Today, on August 22, Merv is holding a very important match on the road – in Tajikistan against the local Khujand. Turkmen football players will fight for entry into the group stage of the AFC Cup - the second most important club tournament in Asia.

Before leaving for Tajikistan, the captain of "Merv" Merdan Saparov in an interview with ORIENT told how the preparation for such an important match took place.

– The preparation for the game with Khujand, on which the further participation of our team in one of the main tournaments of the Asian part of the continent depends, took place systematically. It included several directions. Firstly, our coach, Begench Magtymov, paid a lot of attention to the tactical component, including studying the style and nature of the opponent's game. Khujand is a strong team that can present any surprise.

Our task is to impose our game on Tajik football players, to link the opponent in our defense, neutralizing his strengths. And at the same time, given its certain weaknesses, it is unexpected to take advantage of them at the right moment. Khujand has its own game style, the players have their own style of play, developed during training, the key players confidently act on any part of the field, involving each player of their team in the fight.

They also took into account the fact that Khujand will be ready to use rather tricky tactical tricks during the game, as well as the fact that their coach can use various options with the squad. We watched the videos of the opponent's previous matches, discussed the plan of the upcoming game with the coach and teammates.

The second thing we paid special attention to is technical training. It consisted in working out standard situations, honing long passes and long-range shots at the goal, as we expect it to be crowded in the opponent's penalty area, and the defenders at Khujand are moderately tenacious and attentive. It will be difficult to catch them by surprise. In defense, we practiced a clear interaction of all the links, hedging each other and techniques of tight tutelage of fast Tajik forwards.

Physical training consisted in the ability to fight on all parts of the field throughout the match. We are aware that a difficult match is waiting for us, so we try to be as focused and motivated as possible for the best result.

And once again recalling the previous game with the Kyrgyz team, I will add that an indomitable desire to win helped us then, as well as, as they say, a sense of elbow and the support of comrades in difficult moments of the game. We fought the duel as a united and cohesive team, acting smoothly and efficiently. We did not let ourselves get discouraged, even when it seemed that it was impossible to find a gap in the opponent's defense. We believed that we would find the strength to turn the tide of the game, even at such moments when not everything was going well in our game.

And also (and this is important) we felt the active support of loyal fans throughout the game with Alai. In Tajikistan, you understand, we will not have such complicity in the game from the stands, but we will feel the support of the Turkmen fans even at such a great distance.

I remember how in the second half in the game with Alai, in response to the tough manner of the opponent, we kept our composure and did not change our style of play. Sometimes, falling into the opponent's tactical tricks, we did not panic, skillfully holding the initiative. This will need to be achieved in the match with Khujand. So the experience of that game, we hope, will give us the opportunity to play well on the land of our Tajik brothers.

Artur PETROSYANTS

Photo: orient.tm