Coach István Urbányi has requested the higher ups who develop Maldivian sports to establish an environment that can properly train and prepare the younger players before all hope is placed onto them.

During the post-match interview after Maldives drew against Bhutan last night in a goalless match in the 2026 SAFF U-20 Championship, Urbányi's answer to a question posed by a journalist was that it is not a good idea to hope for the youth team to reach the finals and win while they are playing in a competition without having garnered some proper experience at an international level.

"Where are these expectations coming from? Who is creating these expectations? Is it social media? While saying that they are the golden generation of the future?," stated Urbányi, while gesturing to his desire to make the youth team better players as being the reason he took on the role of coach.

"Our players are very skilled, they need to be developed."

The coach stated that before speaking of the team in a hopeful manner, the first thing that needs to be done is to build an environment where the players can be properly molded. 

"You can start hoping after that. Expectations can be formed if the players are constantly tested by matches such as these. You cannot begin to have hope after just playing two matches in Singapore."

According to Urbányi, hoping for a good result is not a bad thing in itself. However, he said that it is bad to only hope for good results without looking at the progress of the players.

Coach Urbányi responded last night to player fitness criticisms as well. He said that the issue is not with fitness and that the issue is due to their physical development.

"Can I tell you about the time spent on the physical activities of the players? About our players' sustenance? I am astonished that the players can play the entirety of the match," stated Urbányi while sharing the importance of a development plan for the players.

"As I have said before, these players are skilled. Only when proper work is put into this generation should there be high hopes."

The coach said that preparing the Maldivian players for the upcoming match against Nepal is the biggest obstacle. He highlighted that even though players for the Nepalese squad were selected within an ongoing tournament, the situation for Maldives is different.

"I got to know most of this team's players during an U-19 international interschool competition. Now they have to play at a much higher level," said Urbányi.

Speaking on last night's match, Urbányi said that the team was unable to capitalize on many opportunities and the reason for that is the players in central midfield did not perform very well. However, he said that what they are missing is experience at this level. He also mentioned that the players can be made better in the future by experiencing matches such as these.

Coach Urbányi stated that some players were more confident during last night's game than they were in the first game, with the changes to the defensive lines improving their defense compared to the first match.