Salah Assad to Echorouk: “Golden generation marginalized by officials”

Algeria former International player, Salah Assad talked in this dialogue with Echorouk about a lot of things that belong to the national team, and its chances in the World Cup finals that will be held in Brazil next summer, as well as its group, as he also spoke about the career of Desert Warriors in the World Cup 1986 and the problems that caused the failure in the first round.

What is your comment on the national team career and the difficulties it has endured in order to qualify for the World Cup Brazil?

In fact, I thought the national team will face great difficulties in meeting Burkina Faso, as the federation and the coach did not know how to conduct the pressure that was experienced by the team, this is mainly due to the remarks made ​​by the coach Vahid Halilhodzic before the match and which had a negative impact on the performance of the Group on the ground, but before this we must also look to the other party, which is the federation. President Mohamed Raouraoua in turn said that he has provided everything for the team and the players and the coach, and it has been shown clearly that he tried to previously to clear himself of any negative result and blame the coach and the players only in case of exclusion, which forced Halilodzic to respond to it indirectly by saying that he has players who do not participate with their clubs and are not ready physically, and there was a silent conflict between the president and the coach before the match in Burkina Faso, and this is a mistake. Those statements resulting inevitably from the pressure that was imposed on the two parties, which were not, unfortunately, at the complete time and this caused the emergence of players with a so pale face in Burkina Faso match, and without the determination and the will that shown by some players, led by Madjid Bougherra even if we would not have qualified.

Do you mean that the coach did not know how to save the players from the pressure before the meeting in Burkina Faso?

Coach is not the only responsible, and even the federation. Raoraoua’s words a few days ago has no benefit an talk to the media that he did such and such, as well as for the national team, would not help the players on the ground? Certainly not… The president and the coach should avoid statements that increase pressure on the players ahead of any confrontation, because they hurt the team more than it will help him, we have to take advantage of the lessons, this happened in the African Cup and we recorded shameful results by failing since the first round without a victory, and the same thing was repeated in the crucial Qualification for the World Cup.

This matter will be repeated again for months ahead of the World Cup… Raouraoua confirms that the coach is obliged to qualify for the second round, and Halilodzic replies to him that Algeria is the weakest team in its group, what could say about it?

President Raouraoua has the right to dream as the whole Algerians to qualify for the second round of the World Cup for the first time in history, in 1982 despite we win in two matches, we did not go beyond the first round, and it would be great if the team could currently realize this achievement, while the words of Halilodzic is based more to realism, at the time we process something different, and we should not lie to ourselves, we must tell the truth and work to find solutions to overcome the pressure phase before any date in order to achieve good results, I assure you only that the pressure in the World Cup will be the larger that the interval match, and we are really in trouble if things continue as they are now.