The great ball from a Georgia with Barça ‘DNA’: “They were the Brazil of the USSR”
The fact that Georgia is making its debut in a European Championship and has reached the round of 16 for the first time is no coincidence. Paradoxically, the ‘Spain brand’ has had a lot to do with the ‘hit’ that La Roja’s rival has hit in the round of 16.
“In 2011 there was a first ‘boom’, coinciding with the arrival of Álex García as coach of Dinamo Tbilisi and Andrés Carrasco as coach of the Academy. Then Xisco Muñoz, Mikel Álvaro, myself arrived… Until that moment, no Spanish player had played in the Georgian League,” he points out. Carles Coto to BRAND.
Carles Coto (on the right), along with Mikel Álvaro, Albert Yagüe and Xisco Muñoz at Dinamo.
Coto, La Roda player, provides a key name: Andres Carrasco. “I don’t like having prejudices or preconceived ideas, so we were going on an adventureI didn’t have a very deep knowledge of what I was going to find,” says the now coach of the LNZ Cherkasy Ukrainian.
I don’t like having prejudices or preconceived ideas, so we were going on an adventure
The first impact was tremendously positive. “The president (Roman Pipia) made a strong investment to modernize the club. “A sports city was being created with very good facilities: dining room, residence… The amenities were exceptional.”.
The ‘jewel’ of all these facilities was the Academy directed by Andrés Carrasco. 70% of the national team’s players have passed through his hands. His idea was to export to Dinamo the playing philosophy that he had ‘learned’ during his time as coordinator of the Barcelona quarry: “We provided another way of seeing football. We started working along the same lines, with the same training methodology. We were able to change things and I have been very impressed with the evolution they have had.”
Andrés Carrasco, directing Dinamo.
“In Georgia there is still value in playing on the street”
But, if there is something that stands out, it is the quality of the local player. “In Georgia there is still value in playing on the street,” suggests Carrasco. “It is an unknown football. People do not imagine technically how good they are. The Georgian player has a certain resemblance to the Spanish,” insists Coto.
It is an unknown football. People can’t imagine how good they are technically.
Gerard Zaragoza, coach of the Indian Bengaluru, emphasizes this aspect. “Georgia was formerly known as ‘The Brazil of the USSR. They were the most talented. All the big teams had Georgians in their ranks: CSKA, Dinamo, Spartak… The problem is that many of those quality players left at 16-17 years old to Poland, Belgium, Austria… without completing their training, “They couldn’t make the leap and then they came back at 22-23 years old.”
He knows what he’s talking about. He has lived three stages in Georgia as coach of Locomotive (2) and Torpedo Kutaisi: “The secret of the current success is the work they have done at the base. The sub-17 reached the semi-finals of the European Championship in 2012, the sub-21 reached the quarterfinals last year. Dinamo and Locomotive have led this change. I had a team with an average age of 19 years, but Dinamo has an Academy only for the youth team, which is like the entire Espanyol Sports City.. Andrés Carrasco did a magnificent job there.”
Gerard Zaragoza, during his time at Locomotive.
“The arrival of Spanish coaches helped raise the level, it gave them the touch they were missing. There is another important factor. Areabian and Russian investors began to put money in and there are clubs that have grown a lot, like Dinamo Batumi. Furthermore, more and more young players are encouraged to leave the country for better leagues,” suggests Coto.
Andrés Carrasco, who ‘polished’, among many others, Kochorashvili and Kvaratshkelia, knows a lot about the latter: “In general, they loved the work we did with the ball and jPlayers like ‘Kocho’ have benefited from that idea because he was extremely small but, nevertheless, he had tactical intelligence, he decided quickly, he read the game well… A Pedri type, bridging the gap.”
As for ‘Kvara’, he leaves us another reflection: “It was I who incorporated him into the Dinamo Academy. He has incredible quality, confidence and leadership. Make differences on a wild level. Things were seen, others could be foreseen, but the performance he had as soon as he landed in Italy was impossible to predict. “With Napoli he had the best season that has been seen in a long time.”
He has incredible quality, confidence and leadership. Make differences on a wild level
They say that there is no worse wedge than that of the wood itself, so Spain will have to be careful. In Georgia, at least in terms of football, Spanish is spoken.
