Vadym Deonas, a former goalkeeper of Chornomorets, Prykarpattia, Mykolaiv SC, Borysfen, Tavria and Kyiv Arsenal, spoke about the events at the end of this season's Ukrainian league.
Vadym Deonas- The last 28th round of the Premier League was quite eventful with interesting results in many matches. However, most of the attention was focused on the central match between Shakhtar and Dynamo, in which the Donetsk team proved to be stronger. Did the match meet your expectations?
- It was a game for the result. Everyone understood that it would be a difficult, tough game. And that's how it eventually turned out. You know, whenever there is a game, due to my former role and the specifics of my current coaching work, I always follow and note the work of the goalkeepers. How many saves did Dynamo's Bushchan and Donetsk's Riznyk make in this match? Almost nothing. The game itself was somewhere in the middle of the pitch, with interceptions and quick counterattacks. As they say, the game was played without a goal. This is confirmed by the statistics, which indicate a very low number of shots on goal. As for the penalty, yes, there was one - the Dynamo defender played with his hand. Although I can say that a defending player has no right to turn away from the ball. However, no matter how ambiguous the penalty may seem to some, the score is on the board. I remember Valery Lobanovsky once saying that the scoreboard is the most beautiful thing in football. It's nice that there were no scandals in the Ukrainian classic and everything ended well. Not like the game between these teams in the U-19 championship.
- Many experts believe that Dynamo lost the championship back in the autumn, when they did not get enough points. Do you agree?
- When Mircea Lucescu was in charge of the team, it was difficult for Dynamo to expect to fight for gold in most of the autumn season. If Dynamo's management had decided to replace the Romanian with Oleksandr Shovkovskyi earlier, the club would have had a better chance of winning first place. Although it's no secret that after the defeat to Polissia Lucescu talked to the management about his desire to leave. The way Dynamo started to play after Shovkovskyi took over, the team should have always played. Under him, Dynamo lost only twice in eighteen matches, once to Shakhtar. The psychology of the Kyiv team has changed, as everyone says, even the players themselves. Yes, they may not be playing as brightly as we would like, but the fact that they are gaining confidence with each match and are improving every round is visible to the naked eye.
- After the events of the last round, it became clear that despite the results of the final two matches, Kryvbas guaranteed themselves third place and therefore participation in the Europa League. Do you think the Kryvyi Rih team, who were in the lead for a long time in the autumn part of the championship, could have competed for the championship?
- I think not. Both in terms of the squad and the game. Yes, under Yuriy Vernydub, the Kryvyi Rih team made a big leap upwards, but it was immediately clear that Shakhtar would fight for the championship, with Dynamo in competition.
- To date, three teams are in the running for two European Cup tickets at once - Dnipro-1, Rukh and Polissia. Having played in different ways in the previous round, they sharpened the fight between them in absentia...
- In games for the European Cup zone, you need experience, and only Dnipro-1 has such experience, so in my opinion, Rukh failed to beat Obolon. Polissia has a slightly different story: the team has a lot of experienced players, but it lost a lot of points at the beginning of the spring season. It seems to me that at the end of the 2023/24 season, the sequence of the final places for the three teams will be as follows: "Dnipro-1, Polissia, Rukh.
- From year to year, Kolos has achieved good results in the UPL standings, but since March this year, it seems that the team has been jinxed and has come close to the transition zone. What do you think about this?
- Kolos has a pretty good team of players, but it hasn't worked out yet. But as we can see, the management has changed the head coach and this can give impetus to a good end to the season.
- What do you think about the future of Chornomorets, which, after five consecutive defeats, managed to beat the outsider Metalist 1925 in the majority?
"Chornomorets is a purely coaching team. Its manager Roman Hryhorchuk has tried different systems of play, but so far this search seems to have not been completed. Unfortunately, the players who have been talked about a lot lately - Saluk, Avagimyan, Bragaru, Stogrin - are not always stable. However, the fact that Chornomorets has more local players is certainly good news. As for the future, the head coach must clearly know with whom he will play in the future. As for Metalist 1925, it is a great disappointment. It's a shame that a team that is well-equipped has fallen so low. In the winter, the Kharkiv team held a good training camp, strengthened the squad, but apparently there was not enough communication between the sporting director and the head coach. Everyone knows that Viktor Skrypnyk, as a coach, plays a diamond formation. And the diamond requires other players, whom Metalist 1925 "extended" and only then signed a contract with the head coach. Something is not entirely clear here. Yes, Skrypnyk got Yurchenko, who was well known to him, for the diamond. But he is not enough, other players are needed. However, all this is speculation. To know what is going on in a team, you need to be inside it.
- The result of the Vorskla vs Minaj match was sensational in the last round . By the middle of the second half, the Poltava team were leading 2-0, but then conceded three goals and lost.
- "I am very impressed with Minaj in the spring part of the championship. The team has changed, they play with desire and enthusiasm, and it is noticeable. The team, which is led by a young coach with a European mentality, sets its sights on the game and proves it with results. Minaj is now played mainly by young guys who are not devoid of ambition and talent. Among them is a very promising goalkeeper, Kemkin, who impresses with his performance. Korablin, Remenyak and Semotiuk are also noteworthy. There are also experienced Vakula, Ustymenko, Petko. Speaking of the match in Poltava, Vorskla were subconsciously preparing themselves for the cup final with Shakhtar when they were 2-0 up. Perhaps this played a cruel joke on the Poltava team.
- In the games involving the other two competitors for the preservation of their elite registration, draws were recorded: "Obolon drew 0-0 with Rukh at home, while Veres drew 1-1 with Zorya away from home.
- Obolon played at their level. The capital's team is fighting to stay in the elite, so they tried to make every effort to achieve a positive result. Obolon had more chances in the game than Rukh. At least that's what I think from what I saw. As for the other match, given the score, Veres bounced back. The Rivne team has also changed. Now they are under pressure not only from their position in the standings, but also from a small scandal between their former head coach Serhii Lavrynenko and the club. I don't even know how everything will work out now.
- Can you predict who will leave the elite and who will play the transition games?
- It's very, very difficult to do. I looked at the calendar for the final two rounds of the championship and I can say that for each of the last four teams in the Premier League, nothing is clear at all. The situation may turn out in such a way that a lot will depend on the Metalist 1925 vs Veres match in the final round of the season. If before the winter break in the championship it was possible to say that Minaj was a definite loser of the championship, now no one can guarantee this. The Transcarpathian team had only 6 points then, and now they have 22. Football is a game in which it is difficult to predict anything. Only time will tell what will happen.
Viacheslav Kulchytskyi
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