Today, in the Polish city of Bielsko-Biala, the preparation of the Ukrainian youth team for the playoffs of the Euro 2023 U-21 qualification with the Slovak team begins. Before the start of the training camp, the official website The UAF asked a few questions to the head coach of our team Ruslan Rotan.
- Ruslan Petrovich, the first and most important question: is everyone healthy?
“Unfortunately, there are two significant losses. This applies to goalkeeper Ruslan Neshcheret and forward Vladislav Supryaga. These are our main performers who are very useful both on and off the field.
We are really concerned that we will start our training without two main goalkeepers - Neshcheret and Trubin, whom Alexander Petrakov called up to the national team. Of course, we are counting on Kirill Fesyun, who has been in our team for a long time, but he has no game practice in Kolos. Two newcomers were called up: already experienced Dmitry Matsapura and young Yakov Kinareykin, but for them this will be the first visit to the national team. Nevertheless, I see no reason to panic, and our goalkeeping coach, Vitaly Reva, has the same mood.
- In a word, is the team mentally ready for the decisive matches of the Euro 2023 qualifying round?
- The main thing is that we are getting together by reading positive news from the front. I never tire of thanking the Armed Forces of Ukraine and being proud of them. All our “youth team” are preoccupied with such thoughts, I know this for sure.
We studied the Slovakian national team well, having watched more than 10 games with its participation. There is a lot of information, so it is important to highlight the most important. While we are doing this.
However, the number one task is to remember precisely our principles of the game as soon as possible. We never hide that, given, of course, certain stylistic and tactical features of the opponent's game, we build our own football and do not adapt to anyone.
I have never put pressure on football players with a result - each of them can confirm this. I always emphasized that I would be responsible for every defeat, but you must answer with me for every game.
There will be no pressure this time either. It is also superfluous because the guys have come so close to their goal that they don’t need to be particularly motivated at all. But I will remind them that they dream not just to go to the Euro, but to show meaningful football there. Let's not forget about the chance to get to the Olympic Games.
- In Poland, you begin to work not at full strength, without legionnaires. This won't be a problem?
— No, everything is fine. I hope that from the 19th our line-up will be complete. You know, when we started our journey, we had only two players playing abroad. Now there are seven. So far, seven.