Text and image Desney Romeo
BAKU — “Relief!” That is the feeling that prevailed on Wednesday (today) for Orfeo Brondenstein, national coach of the national U15 football selection of Suriname. In The Fifa U-15 World Cup & Festival in Azerbaijan, the first victory was achieved after six consecutive defeats. Brunei was defeated 2-0 in Baku.
By means of the True Time When asked what this first victory means to him, Brondenstein does not have to think long: “Well, to be honest, it is a relief, also for those boys. You could see it in their reaction after the match, where they were clearly very relaxed.”
“I told them that they have to make something of it during the last matches”
Despite the euphoria, the national coach does not lose sight of the harsh reality. “I told them that it is actually late now. This should have been done from the beginning. They said that they want to win the last matches. We may not be playing against the ‘big boys’, but I told them that they have to make something of it during the last matches.” Saint Lucia, no stranger to Suriname, is the next opponent on Thursday. The Caribbean islanders also lost all their matches in the group stage.
Scoring goals remains a headache
Looking back on the match won against Brunei, Brondenstein believes that U15 Natio dominated the entire match. “But despite that dominance, we were unable to score in the first half. At half-time I said to the players: ‘I’m not going to shout anymore, you just play your match, because the more I shout, the more mistakes are made’.”
The national coach’s approach paid off, as two goals were scored in the second half, securing their first win at the global tournament. After a well-organized attack, it was Jurmelzio Vorswijk who successfully completed a back cross (1-0). Emilvio Vorswijk then scored the second goal: 2-0.
Yet Brondenstein still sees plenty of room for improvement. “We did not finish the many opportunities well,” the national coach responded the True Time. He does think that his boys carried out the assignments well against Brunei and that he liked playing football. “They tried to make it more difficult for us through counters, but they were not successful.”
In the group stage of The Fifa U-15 World Cup & Festival, Suriname remained without points. They lost successively to Oman (0-4), Algeria (0-5), Malawi (1-3), Argentina (0-3) and Chinese Taipei (2-3). U15 Natio also did not get off to a good start on Wednesday, as the team lost 0-3 against Malta, after a 0-1 halftime score.
