Igor Speaks - but what's he saying?

10 April 2002

The following piece appeared in the Slovakian edition of Pravda, better known as the principal Russian daily newspaper. Unfortunately, it makes about as much sense to us here as Igor normally makes to his teammates...

Somewhat bizarrely, athough it credits our own Dave Hewitt as the photographer, it doesn't include the photo. You'll have to get hold of real printed copy of the paper to see that... good luck!

Our thanks to Jiri Kalous, from Kralupy, near Prague in the Czech Republic for translating the piece as follows:

BALIS IS WAITING FOR THE NEXT PENALTY

West Bromwich Albion, with its two Slovak players, is on the verge of the Premier League

West Bromwich, part of Birmingham [Pah! - Ed], is upside down as regards football recently. Local club Albion from 1st division, with two Slovak players Igor Balis and Stanislav Varga, are two games away from the Premier League. They are in 2nd place, a point ahead of their nearest rivals Wolverhampton and everything remains in their hands.

"What is the atmosphere like after Sunday ?" After Sunday no enthusiasm. We only drew with Rotherham at home in spite of opinion we take the bait fully. But the chance to go up is, no matter of that, still highly probable." said midfielder Igor Balis, who arrived at WBA from Slovan Bratislava in December 2000. Passionate discussion was caused by Jordao's disallowed goal after free kick in last game with Rotherham, when the ball dropped behind the goal line even though television footage showed it had gone in.

"To tell the truth, we played badly,"Igor commented. In his second season in England he is performing well. "Based on the reports after each game I think the manager is satisfied with my performance. And I am happy that I can play regularly."

Not long ago Balis said goodbye to the Slovak International team. Reasons? "I am 32 years old, it was about time to give a chance to younger players. What is more, manager Megson does not like it much when players disappear on international duty. I experienced this before. After return from two international games in a row I did not play for 10 games and what is more, for 7 games I had to sit in the stand."

In March another Slovak arrived. Stanislav Varga from Sunderland and manager Megson joked: "It is vital that Igor has someone to talk to, at last." With regard my English it was written and said a lot. The fact is I understand quite a lot. Not everything, but a lot. With Stan we talk a lot on the pitch in Slovak. And we taught something our playmates in dressroom also.

Albion's weakness in the past season has been taking penalties. Several players did not succeed when taking penalties. Next chance for penalty taking should fall to him. " Yes, I was assigned to take the next one. But we have not taken one for four games. If it comes, I wil be definitely be nervous."

Previous Stories:

  04 April 2002:  Wolves open the door

  04 April 2002:  FA strike at "Bin Warnock" (updated)

  03 April 2002:  Bradford tickets? No chance

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