Only a proper performance in both parts brings results.

With a 3:2 victory over FC Olympic Phygital from Uzbekistan, KMF Titograd successfully opened its performance at the Games of the Future qualifying tournament in the Phygital Football discipline, which is being held in Astana, yesterday.

Last year's performance was a kind of "baptism of fire" for KMF Titograd in Phygital Football, as the team participated for the first time in this unique competition format that combines e-sports and traditional futsal. Although the path to the finals was stopped in the qualifications, and the Montenegrin representatives remained one step away from placing, the valuable experience they gained allowed them to better understand this competition format. This year, they arrived in Astana with a clear goal of winning a place at the Games of the Future, and the lessons they learned during last year's performance helped the team to better prepare for the challenges and enter the fight for a place in the final tournament with more confidence.

"Last year was a great experience for us, giving us the opportunity to play against the best teams in the world as debutants, and I hope that this experience will contribute to us taking a step forward this year and qualifying for the World Cup. What posed the biggest problem for us then was adapting to the artificial surface and different dimensions of the field and goals in the physical aspect, so now we have had time to prepare for those conditions," says Zoran Milašević, coach and president of KMF Titograd, in an interview with Vijesti.

His club has been very successful in futsal in recent years, but Phygital Football requires a completely different set of skills. Namely, a lot of it ends up on the virtual field, where if you don't get an advantage, it's much harder on the real one. Regarding how difficult it is to find competitors who can be equally good on both the real and virtual fields, Milašević says:

"When forming the team for Phydigital Football, we took into account the fact that some of our futsal players are really successful on the virtual field, which was a good starting point for us. In addition to them, we also have the most successful Montenegrin players in digital football on the team, which gives us a certain advantage and great opportunities in both fields, both in the physical and digital parts of the competition."

Many assumed that a successful futsal team would automatically be competitive in phygital football, but that's not the only card you can play.

"Our experience from last season is that everything is solved in the second part, in the physical part of the game, and most teams have invested a lot in that part by bringing in really high-quality futsal players. The size of the field and the larger dimensions of the goals leave a lot of opportunity to improve results in that part of the game. However, our results from last year show that we were perhaps less good at the digital part, and therefore our focus is now on both performances, because it is evident that only a real performance in both parts brings results," Milašević is confident, and reveals what they specifically changed in their preparations compared to last year:

"As I have already emphasized, this year we focused our attention on both segments of the competition, so now in addition to five futsal players, we also have three of the best digital football players in Montenegro in the team, which was not the case last year. This is the biggest change compared to our previous performance," Milašević points out with pride.

The goal this year is to qualify for the Games of the Future, although he believes that KMF Titograd has the quality to be competitive among the best Phygital Football teams in the world.

"A place at the Games of the Future would be a truly great success and that is our primary goal for the performance in Astana. However, if that happens, I believe that we have the quality to engage in a fight with all the teams and that we would have something to show at the Games of the Future as well," claims Milašević.

Last year, when it comes to Phygital competitions, we were successful in basketball and hurling. When asked how much the success of KMF Titograd would possibly popularize Phygital Football in Montenegro, he answers:

"The performance of KMF Titograd last season in the Emirates brought a truly great increase in the popularity of Phygital Football in our country, which was also seen at this year's Montenegrin championship held in February in Bar. A possible placement in the finals of the world competition would be a great incentive for all teams in Montenegro and would certainly contribute to the further popularization of Phygital Football. We hope that this will happen, and then we expect the state and the economy to recognize the importance of supporting this fastest growing sport in the world, which would further strengthen our position internationally," concludes Milašević.