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.

Born in Philadelphia, USA, O’Rourke made her professional debut with the W-League powerhouse FC Indiana in 2008, the club with which she won the W-League Central Conference Championship, reached the League Final, and won the US Open Cup in the same year. Her no-nonsense performances earned her the selection into the 2008 W-League Championship All-Tournament Team.

O’Rourke spent 2009 season being the vice-captain of another professional team in the USL W-League, the Buffalo Flash, whom she led to the play-off spot in their first year of existence. In addition to her stellar defensive work in midfield, she notched 3 goals and 4 assists in 14 games played.

Former North Carolina State University standout and team captain, O’Rourke most recently played for Sporting Huelva in the Spanish Superliga. She was selected by Chicago Red Stars in the inaugural Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) general draft.

Profile

Name: Jessica O’Rourke
Place of Birth: Philadelphia, USA
Date of Birth: January 3, 1986
Nationality: USA
Height: 1,68 m
Position: Midfielder
Preferred Foot: Right