“The coach of the young miners commented on the lost match with Polissy”, — write: sport.ua
– It’s a difficult game, and it’s always difficult to get back into the rhythm of the game after a break related to national team matches. While one group is training, the other is in the location of the national team, so it is not possible to work in full. At the training session before the game, I asked my wards how many players of “Polissya” U-19 were called up to the national team. They have one or two football players, while we have, relatively speaking, if not the whole team, then because of one – the national team. He emphasized to the boys: if you are players of the national team of Ukraine, you must prove it on the field. In football, everything changes quickly, today you are in the national team, and tomorrow you may not get a call-up. Unfortunately, the players could not be reached.
After the negative result, I asked how they played for the national team, because it seemed that they had qualified, for example, for the European or World Championship. They returned relaxed, as if they had a guaranteed place in the base and no longer needed to prove anything. The football players arrived relaxed and, of course, we lost. They lost as a team, I lost as a coach because I couldn’t reach them. At the same time, the elders could not influence the younger ones. Those who were in the national team made the most mistakes today, and Polissia U-19 took advantage of that. The opponent was more motivated, he wanted to beat us and prove that he deserves to be in the team’s place.
The game unfolded in such a way that under certain circumstances we could win, but I don’t want to rely on luck. At the same time, I would like to mention the episode with a potential penalty against Polissya U-19. First, the head referee pointed to the eleven-meter mark, and then, after consulting with the side referee, who was standing 20 meters from the ball, canceled his decision: in general, how can something like this happen under the conditions, if there is no way to review the episode? It is also worrying that our game problem is becoming systemic: we are a team that likes to play with the ball, and sometimes it is difficult to open the dense defense of the opponent. It is difficult even for clubs like Manchester City or Barcelona.
When we manage to open the scoring, we need to continue to play our football and develop the advantage through quality. Instead, we have the opposite situation. With “Rukh” U-19, we led 3:0, but allowed the opponent to reduce the score to 3:2. With LNZ, the team stopped playing after scoring goals. The situation repeated itself: they scored and stopped playing. “Polissya” U-19 pressed us, and we made such mistakes that even players of the U-12 age category should not make. The team will not have a day off after this match. If someone is flying in the clouds, today “Polissya” U-19 brought us down to earth.
– “Shakhtar” U-19 created many opportunities and had chances to turn the game around, but did not realize the opportunities. Can you say that luck was not on your side?
– I don’t want to depend on luck. For example, when someone wishes me luck before a game, I take it as empty words – no offense to the person saying it. I’m not the kind of coach who relies on chance. I believe only in the training process, in what we put into training with the coaching staff, that it should lead to a result. If I tell you to play one-touch, take and pass with the inside of the foot, and the player doesn’t do that, then that’s a problem.
During training, I and the assistants literally stand over each football player, we constantly emphasize the quality of performance, and this quality is already my dream. And when we go out on the field, the players do the opposite. If earlier we made mistakes in the last third of the field, today the quality suffered even in simple episodes, when the opponent did not press us and we were able to pass between the defenders. Sometimes the pass barely reaches, sometimes the player delays the ball, although the situation calls for touch play… We constantly emphasize the importance of quality: passing to the right foot, the right power, accuracy. Without it, no tactical scheme works. Unfortunately, young footballers still take this element quite lightly.
– It is known that the meeting with “Polyssy” U-19 was originally supposed to take place in Zhytomyr, but the match took place in Kyiv. Why did you decide to move the game?
– Currently, I am studying together with the assistant coach of “Polyssia” U-19, we asked to postpone the game scheduled for October 17, because the day before that only the national team arrived at the team’s location. On October 18, the first teams met each other, so it was impossible to hold a match at the Polissia training base and it would distract the main team from training. Subsequently, the coaching staff of “Polyssia” U-19 contacted us and informed us that on October 19 they could not host the game at the training base either due to the lack of grass, because “Polyssia-2” and the women’s team were supposed to play there that day. They only had a synthetic pitch, but they themselves said they didn’t want to play on it. For this, I want to thank the coaching staff of Polissia U-19, which takes care of the quality of the field and the game. In the end, we offered our opponent to exchange rounds, we mutually agreed on this. Thanks again to the coaches of “Polyssia” U-19, and they have a good, well-prepared team.
