What was generally considered to be a reality check for Malta’s national team when participating in the last round of the LEN Euro Cup under the name of Valletta WPC and then in last week’s international tournament, has turned out to be a confidence-boosting exercise.
Facing strong opposition at club level in the Euro competition and then higher-quoted national teams like Holland and Great Britain in the friendly event, the Maltese fared well and issued a statement of intent that they will be no punching bags when they face the likes of Georgia and Slovakia this week in the Euro 2014 Qualification Round III in Porto, Portugal.
Good performances against these two strong nations is the minimum that is expected since we have to acknowledge our mundane standings of being ranked somewhere between the 15th and 18th place in Europe.
Coach Karl Izzo and his assistant Anthony Farrugia are certainly under no illusions that Malta will proceed to the next stage of the competition where six teams from three groups will face the countries classified from seventh to 12th (Holland included) in the last Euro championships on a home and away basis before the six qualifiers obtain a berth in the 12-team finals in May to be held in Hungary.
The truth for Malta is that the handicap of having to compete at top level in out-of-season tour-naments where we had packed schedules of seven matches in nine days has been softened almost beyond expectations.
The first test was in April followed by those in recent weeks.
Proper technical and physical build-ups and our players’ hard work and determination have done the trick. We competed on a par with most of our opponents and results are proof of this.
“The improvement was there for all to see especially in the last matches,” Izzo told Times of Malta.
“I was very happy with our defensive efficiency especially thanks to the inspirational goalkeeper Alan Borg Cole, who had Dean Camilleri as his understudy.
“Players were assigned unusual duties with good results, the best example being that of Niki Lanzon who was the mastermind in his role of playmaker. Matthew Zammit was powerful and always double-marked.
“Mark Meli, as a last man, was excellent and helped to reduce the possibility of Jordan Camilleri, an important and ever-improving player in my set-up, of being fouled out early in the game.
“The rotation also involved the two centres, Jerome Gabarretta and John Brownrigg, Timmy Sullivan, Dino Zammit, Alex Attard, Jean Claude Cutajar and James Spiteri Staines.
“Newcomers Timmy Agius and Ryan Sciortino also gave a good account of themselves during their brief inclusions.
“The offensive strategy of fast strong drives was another positive despite some shortcomings in the extra man sets where it is imperative to score as many goals as possible. Endurance and fitness were also satisfactory.”
As for the mental frame of mind and morale, Izzo added: “This was based on increasing confidence as was seen in the results against 10th-ranked Holland and Great Britain.
“At this point it is good to say that we were without top player Steve Camilleri, who will join the team in Portugal.”
Referring to the prospects in Porto, Izzo, who expressed his disappointment at the poor attendance at the National Pool for last week’s tournament, said that the toughest matches are against Georgia and Slovakia, with home team Portugal and Belarus not to be discarded.
Malta’s fixtures
Today: 18.30 Malta vs Belarus.
Tomorrow: 11.00 Malta vs Georgia; 17.00 Malta vs Slovakia.
Saturday: 20.00 Malta vs Portugal;
Sunday: 09.30 Malta vs Switzerland.