“The biggest responsibility is mine”, says Rogério Ceni after defeat to Juventude

Lack of confidence was the guiding point of Rogério Ceni’s press conference after the match against Juventude, in which Bahia lost 2-1 after opening the game with a goal in the first minute. Throughout his speeches, the Tricolor coach stated that the team’s problem is much more psychological than tactical, and commented on ways to ‘resurrect’ Bahia from the beginning of the season.

“I think this is very related to loss of confidence that we had due to this succession of negative results last Octoberwhere we lost two, drew one game… now against São Paulo, we were doing well in the game, we lost the game. Today we came out, we had everything to reverse this, especially with the goal at the beginning of the match, but we were unable to control the game as we imagined”, commented Ceni about the sequence of five games without winning that the Bahian tricolor has been facing.

In the final stretch of the Brasileirão, the championship reached its 33rd round, with just a few games remaining for Bahia to re-establish itself at the top of the table. “We are going to have to reverse this, psychological and mental work, strengthening this. It’s difficult, when you lose trust, sometimes it takes a little time. And there’s not much time left, just five more rounds. Today was a fundamental game. I had already said, after the São Paulo game, that today was becoming a fundamental game, and we had everything”, he said.

Regarding the relationship with the fans, which has been very dissatisfied on social media and even outside of them, with protests that hung a Ceni doll on the viaduct near the Arena Fonte Nova, the coach gave reason for the dissatisfaction of the tricolor fans.

“I know that the fans are hurt, they are upset, and rightly so. But what we have to try in these last matches is to get the team to where it was throughout the season, which was in search of that place in the pre-Libertadores”, he stated.

The coach took responsibility for the situation that the Bahian tricolor faces: “There’s nowhere to run, the biggest responsibility is mine. The choices are made for meand I think that since that game with Flamengo, if I’m not mistaken, we didn’t play a good game.”

For Ceni, Bahia’s goal now is no longer to aim for the top of the table, but rather to reach the Libertadores spot: “From São Paulo upwards, there is no possibility of us moving forward at this momentwe have to live reality and play in a championship that is Cruzeiro’s championship today, which takes our position by one point. This is a championship with the last five rounds, and we have to try to lead this championship, to be able to deliver what we want.”

“I really think the Juventude team competed more than ours. We scored, everyone wants an early goal. The opportunities soon followed and we were unable to calmly control the game in the second half, we completely lost control of the game. The changes were trying to return control of the game to the team, but unfortunately it was only after we conceded the second goal that we put the ball on the ground again and started to play and try to score. But that was only after the 80th minute, when we had already conceded 2-0.”

Juventude’s first goal

“In the first goal, the line is set up perfectly, the line is four, all scoring. It was another error in timing the ball through the ball, because the line is well formed, the four players are profiled, so aligned.”

“In the second goal, I think there was a lot of freedom for the player to make the shot, and we lost time with the ball. But that’s how the plays begin, they are sometimes very gross mistakes on our part at the beginning of the plays. What made us win other games is that we minimized these types of big mistakes.”

“I think these days are important. There will be ten more days, eight days of training, which we will have. But I repeat, I think that the situation we are experiencing is much more due to the lack of trust that we have lost. Because I always say the same thing, we have the capacity, and at a certain point in the competition, we showed the ability to position ourselves among the first. Unfortunately, we lost production, we have to find ourselves in this final stretch. Difficult games, but we will have to score at home.”

“There is still time, with all the difficulties, you still have to reflect, and try to have the confidence necessary to play difficult games. We have three matches at home, and we have to deliver, overcome, and deliver good football. And be calm, a little more calm, calm, so as not to start with basic mistakes.”