Artem Kravets, Dynamo President's advisor on children's and youth football, summed up the performance of the Dynamo U-16 team at the Ruh Cup 2023 tournament, which ended in Vynnyky, near Lviv:
- Of course, the emotions are negative because we lost, and not very well. But we need to draw conclusions. We conceded the ball after our own mistake. We had several absolute chances that we did not realise. First of all, we need to work on our game, improve it, progress and look for new talents, which we also saw in this tournament.
- Under certain circumstances, Dynamo could have drawn, did this circumstance affect the players' attitude?
- No, I don't think so. We taught the guys that the result is, of course, very important, because it is always nice to win tournaments of this level. But you need to build on your own game first and foremost. We don't train boys to win tournaments or even the Ukrainian championship at their age. We train them for the youth team and the Dynamo first team. Therefore, I repeat, we put the quality of the game in the first place, the way the guys do what the coaches tell them on the field, show their best qualities. Today we did well, but there were some mistakes in defence - this is something we need to work on. We will move on.
- In your opinion, there was a lack of chances and reliability in defence?
- Of course we did. If the opponent has one chance in the whole game and they convert it, and we have three or four opportunities that can be used, but we lack skill somewhere, or the right decision. This is the problem. No matter how well you play in defence, some mistakes still happen.
- Did you change your opinion of the players during the tournament? Perhaps someone performed better than expected, and someone worse?
- It's too early to say that now. We will return to Kyiv, think about it and make a decision on the spot. I repeat, we still have a lot of work to do with a group of this age, including because we are at war, because many children have left, but nothing can be done about it.
- Did you watch the matches of other teams, are there any guys who caught your attention?
- Yes. At this tournament, I, the coaches, and the selection officer were watching the guys. We have a few candidates in mind, I think we will invite them to watch, and if everything goes well, we will take them to our team.
- If you don't take the result into account, was everything else successful in this tournament?
- Yes. At every competition where Dynamo Kyiv comes, the guys have to strive and want to win. It should be so, it's normal, because we are raising winners. When I was standing near the edge of the pitch during today's match, I was also worried about the result and wanted us to win. But this is not what we need in the first place and at any cost. We saw the condition of our players compared to other teams and also watched players from other teams and got the necessary information.
- What can you tell the current 15-year-olds from your own experience? What do you need to do and what you don't need to do to play at the adult level?
- We repeatedly tell them that at this age they need to focus on football and work as hard as possible - they understand this very well. Even professional footballers have gaps in technique and tactical training. The boys must first of all work on these aspects even on their own. In addition, if you want to play in the first team, you need to constantly develop. For example, the graduating team of my birth age was very strong, we had no equal in Ukraine - we were one level ahead of the rest. And yet, only about 50% of the players ended up playing in the top league of the Ukrainian championship. Rivalry and progress are the driving force, you need to keep going, work on your problematic qualities, etc. Everyone has enough of them.