After suffering a blowout in the 3rd round of the Olympic men's soccer group stage, defeating Egypt, Spain's national Olympic team head coach Santi Deña faced media interviews and frankly expressed his disappointment with the outcome of the match and reflected on the team's performance in general.
First of all, Santi Denia bluntly pointed out his team's predicament in the match, "We don't like to play defensive counterattacks, and our goal has always been to finish first in the group. But today the team struggled to play and didn't play as well as they should have." He admitted that the team encountered unprecedented challenges during the match, but did not lose confidence as a result.
Regarding the drastic change in the starting lineup, Santi Denia explained, "It's a reflection of the fact that we trust everyone. I wanted to rotate the players to allow them to regain fitness and convince them that they can do better. Of course, I also need to reflect on my decisions and if I have to plant my head, I want it to happen in the group stage so that we still have time to make adjustments."
Despite the unsatisfactory result, Santi Denia still sees merit in his team: "The team still wanted to win and kept working hard. They showed a strong will to win and perseverance, and that's what I'm most pleased about."
For player Pacheco, who made a mistake in the game, Santi Denia gave full encouragement and support: "Keep up the good work, I believe in him. He contributes a lot to us, that's why he can come here. I'm happy with him and he will help us a lot in the next games."
Talking about the team's defensive problems, Santi Denia admitted that goal difference is one of the key factors in determining the ranking: "Conceding four goals in three games is obviously not the result we would like to see. We will try to improve our defense, because the better the offense, the defense will be strengthened accordingly."
Santi Denia appeared very open-minded about the delaying tactics employed by the Egyptian team during the match, "This is soccer, everyone uses their own weapons. If you have to criticize, criticize me. But we have to recognize that we have our own areas of improvement. As head coach, I bear the brunt of that and we'll do everything we can to do better."
Finally, Santi Denia emphasized the team's trust in the bench: "We believe in them and we need everyone. That's the truth and that's the key to our team being able to go far."
