St. PETERSBURG, June 5 (RIA Novosti, Maxim Nechiporenko) - At a press conference after the game between the Russian and the Latvian teams in the framework of the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifier round, Russian National soccer team coach Yuri Semin expressed his concern about the quality of the team's defense.
"We cannot allow so many counter-attacks. I am mostly concerned about our defensive line," Semin said, adding that during the preparation for an unofficial game between the Russian and the German national soccer teams (June 8, in Munichgladbach), the team will consider "other tactical options."
Semin also stated he was happy with the result of the game against the Latvian national team. "I am very satisfied with the result of the match. We made a lot of mistakes, but the result is good. I would like to mention that the players were determined to win," he said.
In his turn, the coach of the Latvian national team Yuri Andreyev congratulated Semin with the victory and wished the Russian national team good luck, " but not in the current round, because the teams remain rivals at present." "It is a pity that we haven't scored. We should have scored even when we were losing 2:0," Andreyev added. He also said Semin was capable of bringing the Russian team to the "European level."
The 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifier game between Russia and Latvia took place in St. Petersburg at the Petrovsky Stadium on Saturday. Russia won with the score 2:0.
