(Q) How nervous were you feeling going into the game on Friday?
(A) I was just a bit nervous, knowing that Brescia was once serie a material and i was resting some of my starters, but the team did superbly.
(Q) Were you pleased with the performance of your team?
(A) Definitely, a second clean sheet in a row, and maximum points puts us in good spirits before this big Lazio clash.
(Q) Did you already have the team selection in your head or was it a last minute decision prematch?
(A) Some things were changed prematch in order to give some starters a rest for this week. but the majority of the line-up was decided.
(Q) How far do you believe you can progress in the competition?
(A) I think we can make it to Serie A, and i will be as audacious to suggest we can move lazio from their top spot. Yes, Farnell is 2 times coach of the month, and yes they have a shiny, expensive Serie A team playing us small boys in Serie B, but we at Catania believe.. and we believe we can just about manage these things. He can be coach of the month the entire season, eventhough some of Catania's statistics are better, it couldn't mean less to us. at the end its 11 men on the field. And my 11 men are rearing to go.
(Q) Where do you believe your team in weakest at present; defence, midfield or attack?
(A) We have continually strived to make Catania a well rounded team, and a little secret weapon of mine confirms just that. Our Attacking line is a little below what we've come to expect, which is notable with our scorelines always modest. However, our excellent defensive record is exactly where we want it to be. 11 Games unbeaten and 4 goals conceded, less than anyone in the league, may have a lot to say at the end of the season.
(Q) Is there anyone in the squad you feel has been underperforming so far this season?
(A) Scozzesse Fillipo has been been just a little under par, but our defensive standards are set high at Catania. He would be doing well in any other team, especially as he is continually fielded as the sole centre back.
(Q) The bidding for this years Youth Tournament is coming up shortly, will you be putting yourself forwards?
(A)I dont think Catania is ready to host, as we dont even have an academy. But if we do make it to serie a, this will definitely change.
Siena got back to winning ways today with their away match at Empoli. Kevin Smith had a great game but Trovato Salvatore was voted Man of the Match with a first class performance.
PRESS
I thought you started so well that we could have been looking at a rugby score?
TERRY
Yes I was very pleased with the way we started. It is not often that we score twice in the first 6 minutes. I did wonder what was happening after that when we seemed to sit back.
I was very pleased with the performance today and it may have had something to do with the transfer activity over the past two days. It does concentrate the mind when people start leaving. No, I think we can go on from here and build on this performance.
PRESS
Does this mean we are looking to see new faces here at Siena?
TERRY.
I can tell you that the past 24 hours have been hectic with one deal going to the deadline this evening. A week ago I would have said that the next player coming in Siena would have been next season. Anyway an opportunity arose a couple of days ago that I thought we couldn't let go and we have two players coming in and three players have left the Club. I cant wait to see Roman, who comes in from Valencia on loan, play along side Kevin Smith. Unfortunately the deals have meant that Travera, Phillips and Eagle have all left the Club this evening. I will be looking at bringing in an attacking midfielder over the next two weeks to strengthen the drive for promotion.
-- Edited by Tezza on Friday 3rd of June 2011 10:30:23 PM
-- Edited by Tezza on Friday 3rd of June 2011 10:31:16 PM
In a mellow but still positive mood Vasquez spoke about his teams first game lost for the season:
"We were always going to be fighting an uphill battle against Lazio. We went in front and were looking good, but our defence just wasnt strong enough to hold. We could have fielded a more defensive team, but we wanted to attack some, and see if we could have won the game. The players are doing ok, and are already looking towards the rematch. We have learnt a lot and will be looking to put experience into play"
Catania will be looking to get back to winning ways at Torino for the following fixture
Portsmouth had been riding high in the table ahead of the big game in the championship this weekend where they faced one of their strongest rivals for promotion Leicester City. The weight of expectation is heavy on the Foxes who are expected by everyone to finish in the top two but they were behind Portsmouth and Everton going into what all the fans should have seen as a must win game.
'Most of their top players come from Italy. they have seven players who were bought from Italy and three on loan from the Italian champions. If I ever manage in Italy this will have been a good experience to help deal with the Italian way of playing. Leicester City started the season as one of the favourites and we have both made use of our transfer funds but they have worked the loan market getting in six players to help them. We just have the one who joined us last week. Only two managers in the prediction league backed us to win so this result shows how together we are as a unit. This result was about a group of players who eat work and train together every day beating a team of hired guns. We got to see which team had the most passion for the fans this weekend.'
The weekender picked out the new and only loan signing of Mauro Zarate as a player to watch last week when he signed and even though he only scored one goal in the match the manager has said he has arrived and got on with the hard work to fit in with the rest of the team.
'Mauro is only here for three weeks but if we get promoted I would want to go back and talk to Valencia about him. With promotion money I would never say never to trying to sign him. He is a great professional and he showed that in his work rate on the training ground from the first day he got here. He scored the third goal in a game we won 4-2 but his hard work helped get that result more than his goal did. The players saw the type of player we can sign and they saw how hard he wanted to work for me and for the team and that gave them all a lift. That lift is just what we need to help us kick on in the second half of the season now. If we can stop a big team like Leicester City getting promoted and at the same time if we can get into the premiership I think that can only be good news for our chances of staying there next season.'