Heese and the national team

Brian DeBono, of Gzira, writes:

I write to congratulate and thank Horst Heese for the good job he has done for local football during his two spells as coach of the Maltese national team.

In his first match in charge back in 1988, Heese led Malta to a 2-0 victory over Finland in the Rothmans Tournament - Malta's previous win was in 1985 against Jordan 3-1. The positive outing against Finland was followed with a fine 2-1 success over Tunisia.

In 1988-89, Malta reached new heights under Heese, gaining an away win over Cyprus, draws vs Hungary 2-2, 1-1 and vs Scotland 1-1.

In the special UEFA yearly rankings for the 1988 season, Malta placed 16th alongside England and Turkey and above countries such as Spain, Scotland, Austria, Denmark, Norway and East Germany.

Maltese striker Carmel Busuttil finished 1988 as the world's top scorer together with Romario (Brazil) and Russian forward Protassov with nine goals each.

At the time, Malta had a strong squad, led by three stalwarts in John Buttigieg, the elegant Ray Vella and Busuttil who were joined by a nucleus of fine players such as the late David Cluett, Reggie Cini, Martin Gregory, Silvio Vella, Joe Galea, Charlie Scerri, Joe Brincat and many more.

The most disappointing result in Heese's first stint as Malta coach was the 8-0 home defeat to Holland in 1990. On that occasion, the Maltese were punished by the strong Dutch for trying to play an open game but in the return match in Rotterdam, the likes of Van Basten, Gullit and Rijkaard needed a very dubious penalty to beat the Malta 1-0.

Heese's team played a fine defensive game, helped by some grand goalkeeping from Cini. The last game for Heese in his first spell as Malta coach was a 2-0 defeat in Finland.

Heese's second spell as Malta coach was much harder as he could no longer rely on players like Buttigieg, Vella and Busuttil - who for a time served as assistant coach to the German - but a crop of young players.

Good results proved much harder to achieve. Some heavy defeats as the two upsets against Sweden 0-7 and 0-6, plus a 1-4 loss to Iceland and 0-7 rout to Germany did not help to raise optimism.

However, Malta still managed some significant results such as the 5-2 win over Estonia (2004 International Tournament), who had nine regular players in their team, plus the 1-1 draw in a friendly with Northern Ireland who fielded nearly the same line-up that beat England recently.

This month's 1-1 draw against a strong Croatia team, courtesy of an excellent goal by Steve Wellman who was introduced to the squad by Heese, will go down as one of the most prestigious results ever gained by the national team.

Heese has clearly overseen some of the best performances from our national team in the last two decades. Well done Mr Heese... I wish you a happy retirement.