Ronny van Geneugden on Flames performance
Malawi’s Flames’ Coach, Ronny van Geneugden, has maintained that his team is heading in the right direction despite a disastrous Cosafa Castle Cup campaign.
“We went to the Cosafa Cup amid various hurdles. One of them was the withdrawal of our foreign-based players. We were surprised that other teams at the tournament retained their foreign players but we were forced to release them,” Geneugden said Wednesday during a press conference at Mpira House in Blantyre.
Geneugden said the Flames came out of the regional tournament with more positives and it is just a matter of time before his philosophy begins to bear fruits.
The Belgian is under fire after the Flames exited the on-going Cosafa Cup with a bottom-of-the-table finish having failed to score in three games.
But the coach appealed to his critics to focus on the positives from the team’s showing in South Africa.
He said pundits at the tournament liked his team’s style of play, citing the Flames’ dominant ball possession in the games against Tanzania and Mauritius as an indication of progress.
“We played well in South Africa and the fans liked us for that. Our only problem was lack of efficiency in the final third. But my players dragged their opponents from their positions and were positive in transition. We are a very rich team because of what the future holds for us,” he said.
Geneugden said he would like his team to secure friendly matches on all Fifa calendar dates and participate in Cecafa Cup in November.
The Flames mentor said he would like to train his players for one week every month so that they fully adopt his football philosophy.
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