Our Goals in Sourth Africa
In the days and even the months after our successful qualification campaign for the 2010 FIFA World Cup last November, I often had to realize again that my team had really made it. It's a tremendous achievement. We are a small footballing nation which doesn't have the privilege of considering World Cup participations as normal. Then again, I thought that we have fully merited the success of going to South Africa. So, why would we bother anyway.
I'm no friend of big words, although I covered the last World Cup in Germany as TV pundit and co-commentator for the national TV. I do not want to nourish unrealistic expectations among the most optimistic fans, who see us through into the knock-out stage, despite my team's phenomenal rise in the last two years. I can imagine how difficult it is for every team and every manager to reach the round of 16 of the World Cup, but I'm extremely proud that my team's performances have given our supporters the right to at least dream of making this happen.
We all cherish dreams of the fans, we all dream sometimes ourselves. But I won't deliver any promises but one. Hard work. The Slovenian team relies on it, we respect and love it because it is the only way to improve. My team has the talent, but its main strength is in its working ethics, discipline and cohesion. Our main goal in the preparation period was to reach the level of our best performances in the qualifying campaign and trying to take off from there, trying to reach a new level. We simply cannot know, how far this could lead us.
Speaking of respect, we owe it to all our fellow group members from Algeria, the United States of America and England. They all are great teams, they all have fantastic football players and they are all big challenges for us. We shall give our best, we are not afraid of them.
In the end, I'd like to stress one important element. I fully acknowledge the fact that Slovenian football is not well known outside our country or our region or Central and South-Eastern Europe. But bear in mind that this small nation of Slovenia was able to qualify twice for the FIFA World Cup in the last eight years with two completely different teams. In my team of 23, there is no single player from the 2002 squad. Not, that I deliberately refused to take anyone. It's simply a completely new generation of players. Some would say that my country still benefits from the footballing resources of the former Yugoslavia. To some extent, this may be considered true. But, on the other hand, every single player of the present Slovenian team was formed in Slovenia by Slovenian junior coaches by applying the knowledge and values of the Slovenian School of Football, established in the seventies and eighties by one of my mentors, Professor Branko Elsner. Now, think of this: between 1930 and 1990 a total of three players from Slovenia took part in the Yugoslav World Cup teams. In the short time of our independence (which is less than 20 years), the number of Slovenian players with World Cup experience has risen to 46 in South Africa.
So, we are proud and hopeful. We can give no promises. But we can guarantee genuine respect for the other teams, hard work, fair fight and high spirit.
With best regards,
Matjaž Kek,
Head Coach of the Slovenian Football Team
