LTA Agency client and WFC Zvezda-2005 Perm head coach Shek Borkowski gave this interview to lta-agency.com one month before the start of the League season in Russia.

LTA: How do you assess the first half of the preseason with your new team?
SB: The progress has been slower than expected. While physically Kaloyan (Petkov) is building a good foundation of the long-term conditioning of the players, in terms of tactical discipline the challenges we face as a team prove more difficult than I initially anticipated. The team has responded well to the new philosophy and methods. The difficulty stems from the fact that we went from a Russian based team to a team with more foreign players, and it is natural that all players come with their specific sets of physical, technical, and most importantly psychological characteristics.

LTA: What new players have you brought in so far?
SB: Fatima Leyva, Jess O’Rourke, Jomo, Busi, Ifeanyi Chiejine, Svetlana Zangieva, and Galina Vazhnova are here for the preseason.

LTA: Do you feel that the foreign players are adjusting well to the team and the unfamiliar environment?
SB: There’s always an adjustment period when you go to a different country, but the players have been doing well so far.

LTA: How has the team responded to the influx of new players?
SB: Most players evaluate all the newcomers in terms of the value they will bring to the team, so looking at the players we have brought in now, they accept them.

LTA: You have played a couple of preseason games already? Are you satisfied with their outcome?
SB: FC Zurich (whom Zvezda-2005 defeated 3:0) was a disciplined and well-organized team, but still lacked experienced international players, so the challenge for us was creating opportunities and scoring goals. I gave ourselves C- for that performance. Against LdB FC Malmö (Zvezda won 3:2), the challenge was different because that team has very experienced international players (Therese Sjögran, Nilla Fischer, Pavlina Scasna, Manon Melis, and others), so the game against them was tactically much more difficult. Technically and physically we coped with it relatively well, but tactically it took us quite a bit of time to solve the problem in the midfield. I would give the team B+ for the fighting spirit and C for the overall performance. Finally we played Tyresö FF also from Sweden today. We won 4:1, and I can give the team a B-. Our forwards did very well this game, and Apanaschenko scored a great goal.

LTA: What has pleased you so far?
SB: The team’s attitude towards learning new ideas is good, but it took me at least 6 weeks of individual and team meetings to try to get my ideas across. At this point I believe all players are behind what we want to achieve and how we want to achieve it.

LTA: Can you tell us more about where your team trains and plays during the preseason?
SB: It is the sixth week of the preseason. Most of it we have spent at the so-called Turkish Riviera on the Mediterranean coast. The facilities here in Antalya are simply fantastic, and there is nothing in the US that even comes close to it whether we talk about the hotels, the service, the food, the training fields, etc. Two years ago we had a preseason camp in Bradenton with FC Indiana, and with all the due respect to Florida, there is simply no comparison to where Zvezda trains now. We use the same facilities which all the leading European men’s clubs use for their preseason training.

LTA: Is the squad now set, or do you expect any changes?
SB: As any leading team in the world we are never completely satisfied. We will always look and evaluate any potential players for the club.

LTA: What are your team’s plans now?
SB: Russian WNT players will go to the national team camp for a week. We’ll go back to Perm for 10 days and continue to train there. Then we plan on going to either Belgium, Spain, or Holland to get a couple of strong friendlies before we kick off our season. Our first game will be at home against FC Energia Voronezh on the 17th of April.

LTA: Any final comments?
SB: The most important concept I stress to my players is that we don’t play against our opponents; we compete against ourselves. Giveaways, lack of effort, or lack of tactical discipline are the things that we can avoid, and as long as all the players carry out the tasks that I ask them to perform, then it doesn’t matter what our opponents do, we should win.

We, at LTA Agency, are satisfied with 2009 and are looking forward to an even more eventful and successful year for our company and all our clients. In the past year, we signed a number of top international players from different countries, began representing coaches, established important ties with a number of leading football organizations around the world, launched our company Website, and attended a number of important competitions.

Among the highlights of 2009 we can point out the performance of our Spanish striker Laura del Rio who after becoming the best goalscorer in the US W-League with FC Indiana ended the year as the hottest striker of the most renowned German Bundesliga team 1. FFC Frankfurt by consistently scoring goals (1 goal every 70 minutes) in a completely new environment and in competition with a number of World and European Champions.

Our coaches Shek Borkowski and Kaloyan Petkov have taken charge of the three-time Russian Premier League defending Champions and last year’s UEFA Women’s Cup finalists – Zvezda-2005 in a very ambitious project.

Our strikers Pam Conti and Mery, and South African defender Jomo helped the new US W-League franchise Buffalo Flash to qualify for the play-offs in the first year in the League. Conti and Mery have followed that by leading RCD Espanyol of Barcelona to the top of the Spanish Superliga standings.

Conti and fellow Italian international goalkeeper Anna Maria Picarelli were part of Italy’s sensational run to the quarterfinals of the UEFA EURO 2009 Finals in Finland in September.

Our New Zealand international Kirsty Yallop won two unprecedented League championships in one year with Pali Blues in the USA and Auckland Football in New Zealand.

Our Nigerian international Ifeanyi Chiejine was the best player and the key in PK35 (led by the newly appointed coach of the WPS champions Sky Blue FC – Pauliina Miettinen) promotion to the Finnish Premier League.

Our Mexican standout Fatima Leyva has completed another stellar season with FC Indiana and is currently close to signing with a top European club.

Finally, our youngest player South African international winger Busi Ndimeni has been the leader of the U20 WNT Basetsana’s continuous run in the FIFA U20 World Cup Germany 2010 qualifiers.

After making scouting and negotiation trips to Finland, Bulgaria, Russia, and Germany in the second part of last year, we plan on visiting Turkey, Italy, Cyprus, Spain, Macedonia, and other countries as we continue to improve our network and our service commitment to our clients and partners.

Apart from exciting new signings we currently work on a number of interesting projects including expanding our presence in Europe, Africa, and the Far East, getting more involved in men’s football, and launching personal Websites of our clients.

Please, stay tuned with lta-agency.com as we continue to share with you our undertakings in the new year.

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