Debate about the condition of the pitch in Stožice: The Austrian coach complained, while Matjaž Kek emphasized that it will only get worse
Photo: Luka Vovk / Sportida
Slovenia, the land of destroyed football pitches. On Friday, we followed the 2. SNL derby between Tabor and Gorica. The pitch? Terrible! In Celje, the situation is so bad that Albert Riera is searching the country for training fields for his players. In Nova Gorica, they even closed the stadium due to work on the pitch. Koper? No better. Novo mesto? Even worse. And so on and so forth. Even in Stožice, it seems that just a year after those almost embarrassing scenes of “”drying”” the soaked pitch with towels, a new ordeal with the playing surface is looming. The state of it has gotten on the nerves of Ralf Rangnick, the coach of Austria, and his Slovenian colleague Matjaž Kek couldn’t hold back his comments either.
“We just had a match that was played under extremely unfavorable conditions. It was difficult to play on this pitch. The players should be forgiven for not performing well today. In these conditions, it was almost impossible,” emphasized the coach of the northern neighbors, while his colleague from Maribor pointed out that the situation will only get worse in the future. A new match is already scheduled for Monday. And then the league encounters of two clubs. And Europe…
Kek: “Even in Klagenfurt, it’s not great…”
“I agree that it was difficult to play on this pitch. But if anyone claims that the pitch is not worthy of this competition… The pitch is worthy of this competition! That is an exaggeration… But it is not a good pitch. It is unusually soft, it tears up. But the problem with pitches is everywhere; even they in Klagenfurt, as I saw, do not have a great pitch. Is the pitch to blame for this result… Partially, yes. As far as the quality of the game is concerned, definitely. But for the result, I still think no. This pitch will be a problem. Already on Monday, not to mention November,” highlighted Matjaž Kek, addressing the pressing issue that someone will have to deal with (the city municipality is responsible for the stadium in Ljubljana).
Matjaž Kek, after Slovenia’s first match following Euro 2024, also commented on the pitch in Stožice: “”Olimpija and Bravo also play here, but that is in someone else’s domain. Both absolutely deserve a better pitch, but it is what it is. Above all, it is the same for both teams that play on it.“”
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This text was automatically translated using AI.
Author: editorial Football Planet
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