Team Russia coach, Vyacheslav Bykov, gave an interview to Sovetskiy Sport where he talked about the quarterfinal game between Russia and Canada.
RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a translation.
Bykov: "I would like to congratulate Canada with this victory. Unfortunately, the Olympic Games are over for us. I would like apologize to our fans. Today we faced a very strong team. We couldn't get out of their pressure since the very beginning. It was really hard. We tried different variants to change the game and move it to the opponent's zone, but we failed. Canada demonstrated very interesting hockey. It was a pleasure to watch them, and I can't say the same about our team."
- Maybe the reason of the loss is that the Russian players visited some parties recently?
Bykov: "Do not search for something that does not exist! The players were preparing really hard."
- Don't you think that such a loss in the Olympic quarterfinal requires a more in-depth explanation?
Bykov: "Yeah, let's bring some guillotines and gibbets. We have 35 men in the hockey team, let's kill them on the Red Square! What's the point of trying to find out who is guilty now? When you lose 0-1, does it mean that this loss is better? There are teams that say: "We lost but we did it with dignity!" It doesn't matter if it's 2-3, 2-4, a loss is a loss.
You want to blame someone? Blame me. We don't have a grudge against the players, they tried hard."
- What about you?
Bykov: "I made some mistakes. Anyway I will watch the game again and analyze it. If the opponent defeated us, we weren't good at something."
- At what exactly? You aren't talking about something specifically.
Bykov: "And I won't... I want to deliver my message to you, but you aren't listening. Hats off to Canada. They were the best. Our team was a level lower than their team. Today. But these are our best players whom we invited to the team. They did their best.
We failed to win. I want to emphasize it once again: we aren't going to blame someone. Never. If you want you can go on and try it yourself: find out who slept with whom, who ate something wrong or who didn't go with the team by bus. The reasons of the failure are that the opponent dominated us, that's all."
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