Malta’s performances in international matches always elicit mixed reactions. Wednesday was no different. The legitimacy of Croatia’s 3-0 victory in a Euro 2012 qualifier was undisputed but when it came to discussing Malta’s showing on a rainy night in Zagreb, the few Maltese who saw the match voiced different opinions.
Some looked at the glass as half-full, others saw it as halfempty. When reporting a match, I always try to provide an objective and unbiased analysis but I’m always interested in listening to other people’s views. There’s a tendency among many Maltese football fans to expect journalists to rip into the coach and players every time we lose.
Wednesday’s result offered further ammunition to the cynics to berate the national team and the poor level of Maltese domestic football. There was general consensus that the players had shown admirable fight but some felt that John Buttigieg’s tactics were too conservative while others argued that Malta can’t throw caution to the wind against strong opponents like Croatia.
The team selection and positions also formed part of the debate as opinion was divided over Buttigieg’s decision to choose Andrew Hogg ahead of Justin Haber, the deployment of Shaun Bajada as left-back and his persistence in picking Michael Mifsud despite the Malta captain still being without a club. Most of the arguments put forward were valid and this just demonstrates that people have different, at times, contrasting views of the same match. The match in Zagreb lured some old acquaintances of Maltese football, including former Malta mentor Milorad Kosanovic and Zoran Popovic, the ex-Floriana coach.
Popovic delivered an interesting assessment of Malta’s performance.
“I think Malta played with a lot of pride,” Popovic said. “I’m not happy with the result because 3-0 is somewhat harsh in my opinion but Croatia certainly deserved to win.
“Malta had three forwards in the team on Wedneday and that was a positive step. “I honestly think that Malta have a better chance of improving their results if they play with more attacking players rather than put out 10 defenders.”
Popovic felt that Malta’s problems in the first half, when Croatia scored twice through Niko Kranjcar, stemmed from their difficulties to stop the marauding runs of Darijo Srna down the right wing. “Srna caused big problems to Malta in the first half,” Popovic said.
“They struggled to cope with his incursions from the back. Croatia’s goals also resulted from Malta’s mistakes and that only made their task more difficult.” Popovic was impressed by the display of John Hutchinson. “I was positively surprised about the contribution of the Australian player, John Hutchinson,” Popovic said.
“He has good technique and showed some intelligent stuff during the match.” The upset left Malta rooted to the bottom of Group F with no points from four qualifiers. This negative record has heightened scepticism about the national team’s chances of gaining a win in this qualifying campaign but Popovic is confident Malta will break its duck in their remaining six matches.
“With this philosophy, I think Malta will manage to gain a positive result in the next qualifiers,” he said. “Maybe they will get what they missed in Georgia when Malta were very unlucky to lose to a stoppage-time goal.” Wednesday’s match wrapped up the national team’s competitive commitments for this year as the next qualifier is at home to Greece on March 26.
This will be preceded by another friendly against Switzerland on February 9.
Media restrictions
It is hoped that by the time Malta resume their commitments in 2011, national coach Buttigieg and the Malta FA will find time to sit down and discuss ways to facilitate the work of the media, especially during overseas trips.
While the Malta Football Association officials are making a genuine effort to give media the respect it deserves, the same cannot be said of Buttigieg. In my 13 years of covering the Maltese national team, I’ve never encountered the difficulties I met in Zagreb this week as Buttigieg imposed unprecedented media restrictions, in the process severely limiting access to his players.
Suffice to say that I requested an interview with John Hutchinson on the day we arrived in Zagreb but Mark Muscat, the national teams’ media officer, couldn’t get it arranged!
Now The Times was the only media organisation in Zagreb covering the national team’s qualifier against Croatia. For a newspaper that has been following the national team on a regular basis for much of the past three decades, the least one expects is a modicum of respect and co-operation from the Malta national coach but this was not forthcoming.