The management of DVSC extended contract with their striker Donát Bárány. The 23-year-old homegrown player, who has become the favorite of a lot of supporters, has already scored two memorable goals in this season against MTK and Diósgyőr too.
“It is a great honour that the club offered me a new contract. I feel good at DVSC and I will do my best to repay the trust of the management and the fans with a strong performance,” said Donát Bárány, who signed his contract until 2026.
Trick or treat! Before the DVSC-Fehérvár match on Sunday, October 22, families are welcome at the stadium from 12:00. There will be a pumpkin contest and the representatives of DVSC will be on site to evaluate the efforts and choose the winner of the competition.
Hurry up to register your family for the competition as places are limited and only 10 families can participate. For registration please follow the link.
Grab your masks and costumes and come to Nagyerdei Stadium, to Red & White! See you there!
The 2-2 draw against Ferencváros will stay memorable for two of our young players.
The 19-year-old Botond Vajda was back on track after a few weeks’ recovery from his injury, moreover, he was on the pitch from the first minute. The talented midfielder spent one half on the pitch and due to his goal, Loki pulled one back during the extra time following the first half. This was Botond Vajda’s first goal in NBI.
Another great news is that our midfielder Máté Tuboly, who has recently become eighteen, played as a substitute against Ferencváros. Thus, he made his debut in the first division.
The technical staff of Loki was not in an easy situation before the Sunday’s match against Ferencváros, who is the title defender and leader of the table, as Meldin Dreskovic, Alexander Mojzis, Christian Manrique and Joao Oliveira were injured, while Dusan Lagator was missing because of suspension. After all, Loki stepped onto the pitch at Groupama Arena with Erik Kusnyir playing as centre-back, while Nimród Baranyai and Botond Vajda were also in the starting XI.
The match wouldn’t have started worse: by the 16th second, DVSC already conceded a goal after a defending mistake, when Marquinhos headed the ball from 11 meters over the goalkeeper of Debrecen who came out of the goal (1-0). It was not easy to come back after this punch but our players did everything that they could. The play was equal in the next minutes, however, in the 18th minute, Balázs Megyeri had to make a big save to deny Abu Fani’s shot.
After that, our defence was shaken again, when after some turmoil following a corner-kick in the 19th minute, Sammy Mmaee nodded the ball below the bar (2-0). From this time onward, not many people thought that we had a chance to earn points, however, in the 24th minute, Oleksandr Romanchuk shot just over the goal, then Donát Bárány was tackled in the last moment.
In the second part of the first half, we had less chances (Dibusz denied the close spin of Bárány). DVSC tried to win most of the duels and we managed to do that in some places. We were able to pull one back until the break: at the end of a wise free-kick combination, Botond Vajda shot the ball into the net from 6 meters (2-1).
Both teams made substitutions for the second half, Zsombor Bévárdi and Márk Szécsi came to join our team. Stefan Loncar almost equalized quickly with a close-range shot but Dibusz was able to punch away the ball. The fight was on, the atmosphere was hot and our team decently fought.
In the 60th minute, Balázs Megyeri had to deny the long-range shot of Botka, then the equalizer came in the 64th minute! At the end of a quick attack, Brandon Domingues broke into the box, dribbled his defender and shot towards the left side of the goal, so the home goalkeeper could only hit the ball (2-2).
In the final minutes, FTC increased the pressure but DVSC also managed to create dangerous situations. Andrija Majdevac came on as a substitute (then Alexandros Kyziridis and Máté Tuboly at the very end), and the game was exciting. The home team scored an offside goal, then came the endgame, during which Loki did everything that they could (Lisztes was even sent-off) and after the tough start, we deserved to earn this valuable point.
According to the coach
According to the statement of FTC, Dejan Stankovic lost his voice and the assistant coach Leandro spoke at the press conference: It was an intense match. We were leading 2-0 but we didn’t win, it can happen sometimes. Perhaps we thought that we already posess the 3 points. We should not have let the victory slip through our fingers.
Srdjan Blagojevic: It was not easy to play, a lot of players were missing from the squad, moreover, we were at a disadvantage already in the first minute. I asked the players to be themselves no matter who we are up against. After the shock of the first 20 minutes, a small miracle happened, the players were brave and they deserve to be praised. They were wonderful!
OTP Bank Liga, round 9.
FTC-DVSC 2-2 (2-1).
Groupama Arena, 12 793 spectators. Referee: Farkas Á.
FTC: Dibusz – Makreckis (Botka, 46.), S. Mmaee (Cissé, 46.), Ramirez, Wingo – Sigér, Abu Fani – Zachariassen (Owusu, 82.), Ben Romdhan (Pesic, 70.), Marquinhos (Lisztes, 70.) – Varga B. Head coach: Dejan Stankovic.
Goal: Marquinhos (1.), S Mmaee (19.), as well as Vajda (45+3.), Domingues (64.).
Yellow card: Abu Fani (36.), S. Mmaee (37.), Wingo (52.), Pesic (86.), Lisztes (92, 94..), as well as Ojediran (11.), Bárány (57.), Romanchuk (78.), Bévárdi (85.).
In 2023, DVSC has performed exceptionally well so far, securing a bronze medal in the championship, earning the right to participate in international cups, and starting the current competition strongly, basically without any setbacks. However, our team lost the last three games in the championship, which was not usual in the previous period. Managing director of DVSC, Balázs Makray analysed the situation.
“A defeat never comes at the right time, not to speak about three in a row. Despite this fact, we stick to what we’ve said earlier and our official communication is always the same since our new owner has arived. Namely: this is a construction process and now we are probably in the middle of it. There aren’t any setbacks in this project. The previous season was wonderful, we deserved the bronze medal but maybe it was a little bit unexpected. We have never said or will say that our team is the champion. We claim that we are going through a process of development, the aim of which is to earn the right to participate in international cups every year. Perhaps, our goals changed concerning the fact that last year we were fighting to avoid relegation, while now we are setting some higher aims with our present squad and technical staff. This is basically to be among the top 6 teams and to perform as well in the Hungarian Cup as we can. We are not far from achieving our goals as it is obvious that we are far from the relegation zone, we are among the top teams on the table and we have 5 points more than what we had during this time of the championship last year. If you’re a bit familiar with the Hungarian championship, consisting of 12 teams, you exactly know that almost anyone can beat anyone anywhere within the OTP Bank Liga. Sometimes you win three games in a row, sometimes you lose three. We have experienced both in this season”, said Balázs Makray. The managing director also talked about the factors that influence our performance.
“The most important thing is to be aware of our knowledge, our situation, our goals, to concentrate on the main tasks and do everything for the club, the supporters and ourselves as well. The previous week was not the most successful for us but we cannot say that the players didn’t do everything. The technical staff constantly analyses the data, based on which it is revealed that our guys put maximum effort not only against Újpest. We have to face some barriers that were not present during the last season. I’m referring to injuries, and currently, important players have fallen out of the line-up, making their replacement the most challenging since there have been times when we filled in for those who got injured with the players who are currently missing. It is a problem for us as we cannot count on centre-backs, defending midfielders and earlier, János Ferenczi was also injured. The good news is that sooner or later everybody will be back on track. Outsiders can also sense that there are some factors that we cannot influence and recently, we haven’t been the ones who benefitted from these situations. Just as we want consistency from ourselves, we also want to ask for consistency from others in every round. In our recent matches, there were some same situations, in which not the same decisions were made. In both cases, these decisions had a determining impact on the outcome of the match and unfortunately, not for our advantage. Regardless of the results during the last week, the management and the owner of the club have full trust both in the team and the staff, which was reassured by our president towards the squad and the staff before the game against Újpest. What concerns the future, we are disciplined and hopeful too. It is a long-term process, there are some ups and downs but neither the road nor the championship is over yet. The result of any championship does not get decided in the 8th round. We would like to thank our fans for their devoted support. In the game against Újpest, they were our 12th or basically 11th player! We respectfully ask our fans once again to continue loving this team with such passion. From our side, we are devoted to continue the development of this club, we believe that this process is positive and DVSC is on its way to the place that it deserves to be at”, said Balázs Makray.
The Loki-Újpest match started in an atmosphere worthy of a real rivalry game, our fans showed a lot of support. Still, a lot of injured players, such as Meldin Dreskovic, Alexander Mojzis, Joao Oliveira and Christian Manrique were out of the squad. However, Balázs Megyeri was back on track, while Ádám Bódi and Márk Szécsi, as a striker, were also in the starting eleven.
The match started with a minute of silence: the teams, the staff and supporters paid tribute to the memory of the mother of DVSC’s President, Ike Thierry Zaengel, who passed away recently.
At the beginning of the match, Ljujic got injured, we could see some quick attacks from Újpest and in the 13th minute, Loki was outnumbered as the referee sent off Dusan Lagator, who, in his opinion, made a fault as the last player in front of the goal. So, it was definitely not the best start but our team took the fight with 10 men as well.
Obviously, Újpest had more possession as they were in numerical superiority but they were not really able to shoot at our goal. On the other side of the pitch, Ádám Bódi curled the ball wide of the goal in the 31st minute, then Balázs Dzudzsák unleashed a shot that went over the goal. There were no bigger chances in the final minutes of the first half and no goals were scored until the break.
The game remained unchanged in the first part of the second half, the guest team tried to press us but we stood still. For example, in the 47th minute, Balázs Megyeri made a huge save to deny Ambrose’s header from close-range.
As time passed, the game became more intense, and during Ádám Bódi’s chance only the precision of the last pass was missing for a home goal. DVSC was strongly defending and in the meantime, Brandon Domingues, then Donát Bárány and Zsombor Bévárdi also came on as substitutes.
Then, Loki took the lead during the endgame! Hamzat Ojediran made a through pass to Erik Kusnyir, who broke into the box, then beautifully shot the ball into the goal next to Banai (1-0). After this, Balázs Megyeri saved Ambrose’s header once again, but in the 80th minute, Mörschel headed the ball into the bottom left corner after a corner-kick (1-1).
The last minutes of the game were full of excitement, and in the 88th minute, we conceded one more goal: after some confusion, Mörschel found the net once again, scoring from close-range (1-2). This goal decided the match.
We will continue on next Sunday at the home of Ferencváros.
According to the coach
Srdjan Blagojevic: It is a really difficult moment for us, emotions are on the highest level. We played 3 days ago, now we played 77 minutes with one man down but the guys did everything to fight. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the reward. I’m sad because of the players, we took the lead but perhaps, we were too tired, so we couldn’t keep our advantage.
Nebojsa Vignjevic: It is an important victory for us, it’s never easy to play in Debrecen, not even when we are in overload. Congratulations to my players but I would also like to congratulate to Debrecen for their fighting spirit and for the good match.
OTP Bank Liga, round 8.
DVSC-Újpest 1-2 (0-0).
Nagyerdei Stadium, 6645 spectators. Referee: Bogár G.
DVSC has adopted and embraced the three-member red panda family of Zoo Debrecen. The solemn adoption ceremony of the red pandas from Debrecen Zoo, namely Maci, Pandita and their first offspring Mei, born on June 18, was held on Friday in Nagyerdő. DVSC Futball Zrt. joined the circle of foster parents and tries to contribute to the well-being of these wonderful animals in Debrecen.
Loki missed a lot of injured players, namely Balázs Megyeri, Meldin Dreskovic, Alexander Mojzis, Christian Manrique and Joao Oliveira in the championship game against Paks on Wednesday. This was a postponed match from the 2nd round, so now our team has reached the others regarding the number of matches played. After all, Zsombor Bévárdi and József Varga were also among the starting eleven.
A difficult game was expected, at the beginning of which there was a hard fight and intensive attacks from our side. DVSC was dominating more, we had several chances but we needed a little bit more accuracy in front of the goal.
After a short quarter of an hour, the game became more equal. Moreover, in the 14th minute, Paks took the lead: after a cross from the right side, Windecker was left unattended and headed the ball into the goal from close-range (1-0). After that, Loki tried to put more pressure on the opponent but mostly the home team had its way.
In the second part of the first half, our play improved and in the 29th minute, Brandos Domingues headed over the goal just a little. Not long after, Szappanos took the ball in the last minute from Donát Bárány. In the 40th minute, after Oleksandr Romanchuk’s header, the defenders could save even from the goal line, so we were not able to equalize.
A paksi alakulat fogadta a DVSC csapatát szerdán este.
At the begging of the second half, DVSC tried to improve its effectiveness but had to pay attention to the counter-attacks of Paks. In the 54th minute, Donát Bárány headed wide of the goal from 10 meters. Even though we were dominating, there were still a lot of inaccuracies.
In the 61st minute, Norbert Könyves found himself in a clear-cut chance and shot the ball into the goal within the legs of our goalkeeper from 13 meters (2-0). So, Loki was in a difficult situation and it was clear that we would need a feat just to gain some points.
Ádám Bódi, Márk Szécsi and Hamzat Ojediran came on as substitutes for the last 30 minutes. DVSC made a lot of efforts during the endgame as well, but our team was not able to score this time, so we had to leave without points.
We will continue against Újpest on Saturday at Nagyerdei Stadium.
According to the coach
György Bognár: I think we deserved the victory as we were more aggressive and united. Even though Debrecen was playing better at some point, they didn’t have huge chances. I’m satisfied with the team.
Srdjan Blagojevic: Congratulations to Paks. We entered the match well and played according to our plan, then we conceded the first goal. We were aware of the fact that Paks is dangerous from the crosses but we were not able to react well. Today we played better than in the spring when we played a 0-0 draw or when we won 2-1 at home, but that’s football. We were punished for our mistakes. I cannot say that we were playing well as we lost but I told the players to keep their heads up because we have another match on Saturday. We mainly had problems with finishing.
OTP Bank Liga, postponed match from the 2nd round.
Paks-DVSC 2-0 (1-0).
Paks, 1980 spectators. Referee: Bognár T.
Paks: Szappanos – Szélpál (Lenzsér, 46.), Kinyik, Szabó J. – Kovács K., Windecker, Papp K., Mezei (Horváth K., 82.), Silye (Osváth, 74.) – Haraszti (Hahn, 63.), Könyves (Böde, 63.). Head coach: Bognár György.
Stefan Loncar, the 27-year-old midfielder of DVSC, has received a call-up again to the Montenegrin national team. The player has already scored 4 goals in the current championship, and his national team counts on him in the preparation match against Lebanon on October 12 and the European Championship qualifier against Serbia on October 17. Stefan Loncar has already made 10 appearances for the Montenegrin national team.
We wish our player good luck to the international games!
In the rivalry game against Miskolc, Loki missed a lot of injured players, such as Balázs Megyeri, Christian Manrique, Botond Vajda and Joao Oliveira. Among the starting eleven was Hamzat Ojediran, Dusan Lagator and Oleksandr Romanchuk were on the defensive line, while Donát Bárány was responsible for scoring up front.
The match started in a real football atmosphere as in the 5th minute, Balázs Dzsudzsák shot from distance and the goalkeeper of Diósgyőr could save only by punching the ball away. In the first 15 minutes, we were dominating and had more ball possession. The ultras of both teams were cheering for one another, and the first bigger chance came in the 20th minute, when Donát Bárány shot from 14 meters but Sentic made a brilliant save.
However, in the 24th minute, Diósgyőr could have scored but Edomwonyi missed from close range after a rebounded ball. At that point, the game on the pitch was balanced but the opponent took the lead. In the 31st minute, Holdampf stepped behind our defenders and shot from 6 meters (1-0).
In the final minutes of the first half, Loki tried to put some pressure on the opponent. Even though Stefan Loncar was close to scoring in the 45th minute, we didn’t manage to equalize until the break. Instead, the team conceded another goal in extra time as Pernambuco capitalized on a major defensive mistake, converting his one-on-one opportunity (2-0).
For the second half, Márk Szécsi and Ádám Bódi came on as substitutes and DVSC tried to make a comeback. In the 47th minute, Hamzat Ojediran headed over the goal after a corner-kick, then the goalkeeper of Diósgyőr saved Balázs Dzsudzsák’s free-kick from 30 meters. At that time, we were obviously dominating but Sentic could save Stefan Loncar’s shot too.
There were a lot of excitements as Diósgyőr was also dangerous from counterattacks. In the 62nd minute, Sentic saved another shot of Balázs Dzsudzsák. Loki’s performance got better, and the goal came in the 64th minute, when Donát Bárány converted János Ferenczi’s cross and shot the ball into the net with his heel (2-1).
The game became open again, and the final minutes seemed to be even more tense. That’s how it was: in the 73rd minute, Donát Bárány almost doubled, then Andrija Majdevac came on as a substitute. In the 87th minute, Stefan Loncar hit the right post, DVSC pressed the opponent very much, but we were not able to equalize. Moreover, Acolatse’s goal decided everything at the end (3-1).
We will continue away against Paks on Wednesday.
According to the coach
Sergei Kuznecov: It was a good match. We played well in the first half, but DVSC took over the control in the second half. Our goalkeeper’s great performance was quite necessary for the victory.
Srdjan Blagojevic: Congratulations to DVTK. In the first half, we were not playing seriously. We cannot allow this to happen, it seemed like we were playing a friendly match. It’s not even because of the two goals that we conceded but because of the energy that we lacked. After the break, we showed that we could play well against a good team, but the first half decided today’s game.
OTP Bank Liga, round 7.
Diósgyőr-DVSC 3-1 (2-0).
DVTK Stadium, 9518 spectators. Referee: Berke.
Diósgyőr: Sentic – Gera D., Szatmári Cs. (Brankov, 76.), Bárdos, Stephen – Vallejo, Holdampf (Klimovic, 76.), Pozeg Vancas, Pernambuco (Acolatse, 60.) – Lukács (Jurek, 90.), Edomwonyi (Jurina, 60.). Head coach: Sergei Kuznecov.
The first part of the season ended with the international break, and the next few weeks hold significant challenges for DVSC. Sporting director Hayk Hovakimyan told dvsc.hu about the recent period and the future as well.
“First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to the fans for their amazing support throughout our European journey. Huge respect to all the fans that traveled to Armenia and Austria. I was very sorry to hear that some of our supporters were stuck in Vienna on their way to Yerevan because of a flight delay. On behalf of the whole club, I would like to thank those more than 27,000 fans who supported the team at Nagyerdei Stadium. A few months have passed since my last interview and now it’s time to have a sincere conversation again. There is nothing to hide, so we have collected the questions that may interest our readers. Let’s go!”
The summer transfer window period was quite long and it may be interesting for the fans to know how the club works during the transfer window. Can you share more details?
“The summer transfer window was really long and exhausting but, in my opinion, DVSC had a very balanced and rational transfer campaign. We started the work a few months ago. Together with the head of the scouting department Bence Gulácsi, we had discussions with the head coach to know the positions that needed to be strengthened. He gave us characteristics of the players he wanted to see in those positions.
Before signing a player, we consider numerous conditions. At first, we check if we have a player in the same position in our second team. After that we analyze the Hungarian market, only then the foreign market.We have a fixed strategy regarding foreign players. Of course, there might be some exceptions, but we don’t plan to sign a foreigner who is over 27. I hope it is useful information for those agents who want to work with us.
A football club is like a living organism, inside of which keeping harmony and balance is of vital importance. Due to this, before signing a new player to our family, we try to gather maximum information not only about his professional qualities but also about his personality. If I go into more details, I can tell that we analyze everything, eventhe social media pages. Considering all the information that we have, we make a portrait based on his personality traits. Before choosing a player, we make sure that his game is entertaining to watch, his attitude is exemplary, that he is the one that kids who come to Nagyerdei Stadium can admire and look up to.
We work in two directions: the first one is our everyday work with the scouting department. In the previous interview, I already mentioned that we have recently launched a scouting department. Our regional scouts do the research, they upload their scouting reports to a special platform and update their lists after each game. I constantly keep track of this procedure and get in touch with the players’ agents immediately to gather all the information. Close interaction with the agents is the second direction. We receive a huge number of requests every day, the hardest task is to filter them. If we receive a profile of someone playing in the championships covered by our scouts, we immediately consult them, and me and Bence took over the other profiles.”
During the summer transfer window, the core of the squad didn’t change, but of course, there were some departures and valuable players arrived. How would you assess the quality of the squad at the moment?
“In my opinion, we have quite a balanced squad with equivalent substitutions. We have a depth in the squad. Our priority task was to keep the core of the squad, which also concerned the extension of the contracts of the coaching staff. I believe that we have succeeded in establishing competition among the players because I’m sure that for them it’s possible to grow only in that type of environment.
Overall, I’m very confident and happy about the squad that we have now. I don’t want to make assessments, it would not be fair with the newcomers, they need time for full integration to show their best qualities and prove why we chose them to become a player of Debrecen. Let’s trust and support all the players who joined us this summer and hope that they will avoid injuries.”
Would you call Babunski’s transfer to Grasshopper Club Zürich successful?
“It is always painful to lose key players, Dorian had a significant impact on the team’s success in the previous season, and, naturally, there was a great interest around him from different clubs. Together with Dorian and his agent, we agreed to be open and honest with one another from the very first day of the summer transfer window. We also agreed to discuss every concrete offer but the final decision was to be made only after Loki finished its appearances in the Eurocups. And that’s how it happened. After our match with Rapid, the Swiss Grasshoppers showed great interest, the sides agreed and Dorian went to explore new horizons. Of course, it’s hard to find a worthy replacement for Dorian, but we made our choice and we fully trust our strikers.
I want to thank Dorian for the goals he scored in the colors of Loki, for his respect towards the club and the fans. One more team was added to my Flashscore! Good luck, Dorian!”
From your last interview, it became even more clear that DVSC strives for the development of young Hungarian players. A few young Hungarians joined DVSC, how is the process of developing and educating youngsters going?
“I have full trust in the leadership, coaches and Spanish partner coaches of our Academy. I’m waiting for the coming wave of promising Hungarian players (starting from 2005-born) with great excitement. As you may be aware, we have a wide range of players, some of them have already trained with the first team. We closely monitor the games of the second team. I can only say words of appreciation for Péter Máté, we are in constant contact.
By the way, unfortunately, I have a bad habit and sometimes I read Facebook comments. I noticed that after the games of the second team, people ask who David Nwachukwu is. I advise you to read the article about our African partnership. David is the first fruit of that partnership, and I promise to introduce that project with more details in the near future. Currently, I can tell that David scored 5 goals in 5 matches, which is a very good result. We don’t want to hurry and we try to systematically integrate our talented young players who have exceptional results in the second team. David is not an exception to that.
Our scouting department puts forth a lot of effort to find a skillful young Hungarian footballer or foreigner with Hungarian roots. In this regard, I can say that our efforts during this transfer window were successful. We signed Botond Vajda (2004), whose integration to the team was quite fast and successful. Unfortunately, he is currently recovering from an injury, so I wish him a fast recovery. We have a loan agreement with Győr regarding Máté Tuboly. I know that one of the questions that makes everyone worry is whether we have a buying option and if not, what is the reason to sign and develop a player from another team? Both the scouting department and the coaching staff approved Máté as a candidate. We see a big potential in him, he has a huge work rate and a high football intellect. As he joined us a bit late, he needs time to adapt to our football philosophy but I’m sure that everyone will see him in action soon. What concerns the buying option, our agreement doesn’t include such a possibility, but still, it doesn’t mean DVSC doesn’t have a chance the acquire the player in the future. Nothing can hinder the club from sending an official offer for a player. As I already told you during the last interview, we really lack 2003-born players and we don’t have a big choice. We needed one more 2003-born player and after discussions with the coaching staff, our decision was made and we brought Máté here.”
DVSC has made a lot of progress in player selection and player monitoring. At which stage is this process now?
“It’s a never-ending process. As I started my professional career in scouting, this area stands really close to me. I am very happy that I can work on joint projects with like-minded people, such as Bence Gulácsi.
Scouting doesn’t have boundaries. As you may know, we’ve already explored the African market, in January, we will probably also explore the Latin-American, Talent doesn’t have boundaries. There will be a great youth U-20 tournament with 132 participant teams. We try to enlarge our networking as much as our human resources let us to. I will be honest, we decided to work on the Latin American market after this transfer window. Three Brazilian players were very close to joining DVSC but these transfers fell through for various reasons. For football managers, refusals are normal things but, in these cases, we were so impressed with the skillfulness of the players that we decided to find talents of similar quality.
I know that everyone is waiting to hear sensational announcements or insides but I can make only a small hint. If nothing extraordinary happens, in the summer of 2024 one very talented and promising Hungarian player will join us. We have been following him for a long time, I have more than 15 pages of reports about him.”
The international cup matches attracted a lot of fans, more than 27,000 gathered during the two home matches of Loki at Nagyerdei Stadium. After eliminating the Armenian Alashkert and achieving a remarkable draw in Vienna, Rapid decided to stop us. Are you satisfied with the performance of the team?
“Behind the scenes of our European journey, stand a lot of effort, diligence and hard work during the previous championship. The whole club and the team suffered a lot to participate in those matches. Our efforts speak about the fact that we deserved to introduce Hungary internationally. How successful we were, that’s the other side of the medal. For me, the match against Alashkert was very emotional as I’m Armenian. I know their coaching staff and players well, so I knew what to expect from them. In those thrilling games, victory was on our side. The fact that Alashkert hasn’t lost any games in the current Armenian championship speaks a lot.
What about the games against Rapid, whatever I tell now, it may sound like an excuse. We played a brilliant away match, I will dare to say that we could even win, but the home match wasn’t successful. There are a lot of reasons for that, we should look inside for the answers and just move on. Every home loss is painful and psychologically it was very difficult for everyone to recover after that. However, it is the beauty of football that after a few days, we had a chance to make our fans happy again. The best way to move past a loss is to win. If we go into the reasons of the defeat more professionally, I can tell that I agree with the coach, who said that the players were overexcited and they just burned out. They wanted to make the supporters feel proud and happy. Rapid was scoring goals right when we had a chance to mount a comeback. After the first goal, Dorian scored and evened the score but due to a minor offside, the goal was cancelled. Rapid scored their second goal just after that. We eagerly launched into the second half and gained many set pieces. Almost all Rapid’s defense was on yellow cards. I really believed that we could make a comeback. Unfortunately, we were unable to respond quickly and Rapid scored a third goal on a counterattack. The game was decided by this goal. It is very hard to be prepared for such games as there aren’t a lot of matches with such intensity in the Hungarian championship. Anyway, the better team won but in my personal opinion, there is not a 5-goal difference between the teams.
If we consider how we started the previous championship and where we ended up, we can even make a Netflix series out of it.”
We started the championship with home matches, we managed to win 4 out of 5, DVSC leads the table. What can we expect from this season?
“It’s a fact that, at the moment, we are in first place in the standings, but I try not to pay too much attention to that and I advise our supporters to do the same. We should bend our line, which was the key to our success in the previous season. We should think from training to training and from match to match, we should be united in good and bad times and only then it’s possible to register good results again. These are the results after 5 home matches and, indeed, the presence of the 12th player has a huge impact on the positive outcome. We should follow our principles and continue our systematic and focused work. I’m a man of system and I’m devoted to the process and the coaching staff’s ideology.”
We have injured players, how do you see the game of Loki without those players? When they are expected to join the team?
No matter how much time we devote to injury prevention and how much time our players spend with working with the professional staff, they are never secured from getting injured in playing moments. Unfortunately, injuries are regular in our profession, but I assure you that our medical staff and head of performance are excellent professionals, who go above and beyond to ensure that the players recover fast.
I’m very sorry for Mojzis’ injury because it was very hard to find a left-footed centre-back in the market that would fit all our requirements. Alex has played more than 2,000 minutes in the last 4 consecutive seasons, he is a physically strong athlete, unfortunately he has a very unlucky period of injuries following each other. What about Dreskovic, during the game against Mezőkovesd, he made a sliding tackle. Luckily, the injury only involves a partial ligament rapture and not a more serious condition. This week, Vajda should start partial training with the team. What concerns Joao, additional tests are underway and we expect him to train with the team very soon.”
What are you most proud of since you have been working as the sporting director of Loki?
“Above all, I’m honored to be here. I don’t think it’s appropriate to evaluate my own work, I believe in my ideas and I hope that in the future I will have even more things to be proud of.
Finally, I’d like to wish everyone a peaceful sky and a successful season. Hajrá, Loki!”
