Football expert Oleksandr Sopko analyzed the return match of the Champions League qualifying round play-off between Portuguese Benfica and Dynamo Kyiv (3:0), which took place yesterday in Lisbon.
Alexander Sopko— The miracle did not happen, but, in your opinion, did Dynamo do everything in this game to make the result a little different?
- During all the qualifying games played this summer, I did not see the potential and level of Dynamo to say that today they played poorly, they could have done better, they simply did not realize their potential, something did not go well, they did not tune in and so Further. Today, this is the real level of Dynamo, the team is now not able to compete with top clubs.
The most depressing thing is that last year we played with Benfica more confidently, with some counter chances, which was not even close now. For a year, some degradation of Dynamo, but it happened. I don’t think that Benfica has grown so much in its skill during this time.
- But last year we played at a different time, when there was no war and all the problems associated with it, including those that affected football. Or the events of recent months cannot serve as an unambiguous justification for Dynamo?
- The war, of course, interfered with the development of the club, deprived the players of the practice, the possibility of additional equipment, increased competition. It can be seen that Mircea Lucescu is limited in his opportunities related to football players. And in general, as I noted earlier, there is a feeling that the head coach with the current roster has hit the ceiling, he cannot offer either new ideas or new principles of the game to master with this roster. He, as a coach, suffers from this.
Secondly, the players themselves, primarily the backbones around whom the game should be built, they, unfortunately, have stopped, as I think, in growth. These are, first of all, the players whom we considered promising 2-3 years ago from the standpoint of manifesting ourselves in the West.
First of all, we are talking about Tsygankov, Buyalsky, Shepelev. The feeling that they hit the ceiling and can no longer develop at all, they do not have the resource for this. The only ones who, in my opinion, can add more are Bushchan, Zabarny and, possibly, Shaparenko. The rest in terms of development can no longer give Dynamo anything.
Hence Lucescu's limitations in tactics - a game mainly from defense, with an eye to counterattack, on attempts to catch the opponent on a mistake. But no more than that. Positional attacks, powerful pressure, aggression - all this is not there, the players in these components are inferior in all respects. And now we have seen how a team that is not even top, but which is somewhere under such in Europe - it showed the real level of the current Dynamo so vividly that it is very hard to look at it somewhere, even against such a team the people of Kiev had absolutely no counter-chances.
In this situation, unfortunately, we have to realize that this is a fall into the abyss of our entire football. It is clear that this is due to events in the country and will not be limited to one season. You just need to tune in to the fact that you will have to endure a lot, go through and work long and hard in order to somehow reach our previous positions.
- Didn't you get the feeling that the atmosphere of the Lisbon stadium filled to capacity somehow influenced the Dynamo players, and they lost the match even before the starting whistle?
- I think that they lost this game last week in Lodz, when they realized that this was a completely different level. If Dynamo is on the first floors, then Benfica is a penthouse. Morally, the white-blues were broken even in the home game, so the stadium in Lisbon was full or it would have been half filled - this no longer played a significant role, Dynamo was doomed in advance.
- Popov, who in previous matches "brought" a lot of scoring shots, today did not even get into the application, Sirota, in turn, frankly failed the game. How serious is Dynamo's problem with central defenders?
- Against the background of such an opponent, who plays quickly and aggressively, works well with the ball, the shortcomings of our players are manifested. They seem to be young, promising players, but in order to mature, to become players who are not afraid of rivals - not a single season must pass for this. At the same time, the opponent must be serious enough, then the defender grows in skill. And so - like those chicks that fell out of the nest. When the game is on, everything seems to be not bad, but as soon as it gets hard, they immediately fall off, limit themselves in making decisions, are afraid to make a mistake, try not to help each other, not to take responsibility in the draws.
And immediately it starts to crumble like a team game in that domino. One or two people cannot pull everything on themselves and force everyone to play all the time, all eleven must act as a single mechanism, help each other.
Despite the fact that Shaparenko did not play the best game, he is perhaps the only one who is not afraid to take the ball and see who to give the pass to. Sometimes he even does it for a long time, because no one opens up for him. But at least he is trying to create something, all the rest act according to the principle "my hut is on the edge." And the problem is not only in the central defenders, it is also in the support zone, where the ball is not held, played and controlled at all. All attempts are made through the flanks, but this is very few.
- What should Roman Yaremchuk do, who did not even come out to replace the injured Ramush? Should the leader of the attacks of the Ukrainian national team think about changing the club, where would it be more in demand?
- If he feels that he is losing the competition, that the coach does not see him and trusts others, then he must either prove in training and on the field that he is worthy of this team. Or go somewhere where there will be more practice. Any, even the most skillful footballer without practice begins to degrade. This is a law that does not need proof. The question here is Roman's ambitions, his desire to play. He did not make a single statement, did not give any interviews. And here is the question for him, how prepared he is for such a situation.
- How do you see the future prospects of the current Dynamo this season, both in the national championship and in European competitions?
- Speaking of the domestic championship, we all understand that Dynamo is now the most balanced team, with a practically preserved roster that has been playing for several years. But here the question and the problem may lie elsewhere.
Mircea Lucescu is still a coach of the European mentality and level, he is cramped in the middle class, he wants to make himself known there, playing with the giants, presenting surprises so that they talk about him. So that its players grow into some kind of stars and be sold even by European standards for good money. Then he feels on the wave that he is doing his job and enjoying it. And just to get another title in this championship, which is still not clear how it will be held and at what level - for him this is not some kind of life and career victory. And with the current game and the potential of Dynamo, it will not be easy to make a name for yourself even in Europe. This will not give Lucescu full satisfaction from work.
Another thing is that in this case, the issue of equipment is possible, if he can prove to the management that new players are needed, since those that are have reached, as I said, their ceiling. And the management will satisfy his requirements, after which there may be an interest in the work and development of the game. If it all freezes like this, then a conflict situation is not excluded, since Lucescu may simply not be able to withstand such a state.
Evgeny Savchuk
