Dynamo Kyiv won the U-19 Ukrainian Youth Championship. Of the 12 youth championships held, Dynamo won 6 of them. Two were not completed due to the war and Covid.
Photo by Yevhen KravsI understand that the result in youth football is not that important, but it was extremely important and necessary to win gold medals. Kyiv has already missed two UEFA Youth Leagues. This tournament is very important in terms of the development of young players and gives them great international experience. We have not won for 5 years. Therefore, it is no less important for the prestige of the Academy.
Two components of Kyiv's success are the strongest coach and the strongest generation of players. Ihor Kostiuk has been in his current position since 2017. He already has a huge amount of experience behind him. The work of Shakhtar's coach Oleksiy Belik has not yet looked entirely convincing. After Vitaliy Ponomaryov joined the first team, Rukh is looking for a coach for the youth team. Denys Kolchyn became the fourth coach of the Lviv team's youth team this season. Dnipro-1, Oleksandriya, Kolos (before Oleksandr Pozdeyev joined the first team), and Veres (before Oleh Shandruk joined the first team) all had interesting specialists, but they are inferior to Kostiuk in many respects. First of all, in experience.
Dynamo has the strongest generation of players born in 2005-2006. A lot depends on it. While 2003-2004 were Rukh's strongest years, they finished first in the last two seasons. Rukh and Shakhtar's 2005-2006 teams are very weak. There are few teams of these age groups. Dynamo had a strong year in 2005, and in 2006 they may have 4-6 players for the first team.
There are all the prerequisites to believe that next season Dynamo will again be the favourites of the youth championship, because 2005 will be the base year.
The depth of the squad is equally important. There are almost two players at each position. Injuries (and you can't do without them among young men), downturns in form (the same), the opportunity to strengthen the game - Kostiuk had the opportunity to choose, to compete. Someone dropped out, someone opened up.
There is no need to think that everything was easy. Dynamo were losing to themselves, losing points on their own rather than thanks to the opposition. It was not easy to glue together 2005 and 2006. There was no gradual transition and no experience of youth football for the younger players, because they all played on loan for Zorya. We had to build a team on the fly. Playmateship is very important. Step by step, 2006 began to replace 2005. All this takes time and patience.
The players' performances for Zorya in 2006 were a very important experience. They gained experience and started to progress faster. It was already easier to work with such a year. I believe that the creation of a second youth team this season was a great advantage, where players who did not play could get game practice.
Kostiuk's main achievement is not gold medals or the UEFA Youth League, but the preparation of players for the first team. I think that Taras Mikhavko is a full-fledged first-team player. He may not be good at everything, but he has a huge potential. Matvey Ponomarenko is taking his first steps in adult football. I believe that Oleksii Husiev, Viacheslav Surkis, Oleh Salenko, David Bilyi and Kyrylo Osypenko will have their chances in the near future.
Serhii Tyshchenko
