In 15 matches, Lobos de Arouca has never lost against Gilistas
After the away defeat last Friday (3-1 against Casa Pia), FC Arouca returns to Municipal de Arouca and plays again on a Friday evening at 8:15 p.m., during the 16th opening day, the last of 2024, with a duel against Gil. Vicente. Note that, during the 15 confrontations between the two teams, the Arouquens have never lost – six draws and nine victories. Another good premise for tonight's game is the offensive record (something the team is currently struggling with), as FCA has scored in all 15 games.
The Santa Mafalda land team returned to last place on the last day, because they did not score and their direct opponents (Nacional and Farense) did. Gil Vicente, under Bruno Pinheiro, comes from a streak of three positive results – two wins (Nacional and Farense) and a draw against Sporting – remaining comfortably in tenth place.
During the preview press conference, Vasco Seabra analyzed the opponent, talked about the state of the task force, the importance of winning tomorrow and the winter transfer market.
Here are some of the technician's words:
- How do you see the game and do you hope that, also on the FCA anniversary, you can reward everyone with a victory?
“First of all, reward us, who work hard and want to be the ones who deliver, because the people who follow us, who believe in us and support us, suffer with us. We know that we will have an opponent who is on a very good course, in the last three matches he has produced very good results. We also know that this historical fact (FC Arouca has never lost against Gil) presents itself to us and the only thing that creates us is the feeling that we must work hard, dedicate everything we have to maintain this historic record .
It's another responsibility for us, in the sense of trusting the process, what we've done. We know that, since we entered, we sometimes have the impression that here is one small step back to take two steps forward, then two steps back to take three steps forward. We want to create consistency of exposure, and that too will produce results. It is the ideal game, because it is the next one, where we have to give all the energy of our families, the Arouca family, for the birthday party, for the moment when we are with our families and we want let them be happy. with us. So many arguments that push us to give the most to be even better and create this winning dynamic.
- Was this week of training marked by the healing of the injuries, which you spoke about at the end of the last match?
“Going back a little bit, the truth is that when we come in, we know that when we introduce a new process where we have another approach in terms of the pressure, the construction, the intense way we want playing under higher pressure. this naturally forces us to sometimes have a different rhythm in terms of the game, we know that when we change these references, there are also certain positions which have been modified. When these things happen, we know that at one point or another we are going to experience that setback, that growing pain.
We also feel within the group that everyone already shows the way, everyone already knows where we want to go, how we want to compete, how we want to look at our opponents and what approach we want to have and, therefore, we know that sometimes when we take that little step back, we know we have a lot of guidance, we want to create that real consistency.
The week met our expectation of reaction, of the team's desire to show that it remains connected to the process and to what it wants to do. We trust them, we are motivated, with a lot of ambition to compete, to play. We even have this positive anxiety to come to the match, to be with our loved ones, at home, to return to a space that is ours and therefore with this passion for the game.
- Is there any confidence in the process, since the team ended up having much of the ball possession and often on the attack? Did you see any positives in that match (Casa Pia) to bring to this one and was the offensive organization trained this week?
“In the last match we scored three goals, two of which were offside. And the truth is that we pushed the team forward, we didn't give Casa Pia much and we ended up conceding three goals. In other words, we are in this detail, in this detail, in what has sometimes been for us a tendency to have different situations in which we can adapt to the last line of Casa Pia, or we circle the last line/last third. from Casa Pia and we are not creating the volume of opportunities that we are capable of creating and with very few we end up conceding goals.
When we train, every week, we try to be very focused on all moments of the game, on the four, both offensive and defensive in transitions and also on set pieces. These are things that we work on in terms of process, we don't suspect based on the results. Naturally, the results are synonymous with what we can or cannot do and we do not hesitate to do it. But we are in a club that naturally wants to win and as we want to win, the pressure and the demands come from ourselves, from the group, from the coach, we all really want to win, we really want to value what we let's do during the week »
- Do you want reinforcements for January?
“There are no perfect teams of any kind in any country. It is natural that there will be readjustments in the January market. We are not going to make any revolution, that is certain and known. We trust the team, so any situation that might happen, we will be open to it, in the sense of the players who might have difficulties here and whether they want to leave or not, to the proposals that might come from other clubs for our players, which is also natural because we have a lot of internal qualities.
We must always be attentive to the market and be active to understand that we can improve it, we can balance it, without being suspicious of what we have because we trust the team.
Absences at this meeting increased compared to previous ones. According to Vasco Seabra, in addition to the usual absentees Galovic and Vitinho (in the process of reinstatement, but unfit for the match), Pedro Moreira (slightly conditioned), Henrique Araújo (still recovering) and David Simão (who will serve a match suspension for accumulation of yellow cards) will not come into play either.
Probable lineups for FC Arouca and Gil Vicente
Text: Simão Duarte
Photo: FC Arouca
