The legendary Ukrainian coach Vitaliy Kvartsiany spoke about his trip to Euro 2024 as part of the UAF delegation.
Vitalii Kvartsianyi- Vitaliy Volodymyrovych, what are your impressions of Germany? We are talking about big football, first of all...
- Normal impressions(laughs). Of course, I wanted our team to go further... Something didn't work. Let's just say that we tried, but... Everyone expected that, based on the powerful potential that probably existed and exists, the team would leave the group in the top eight. But it didn't work out. The worst thing was that we played badly against the Romanians at the start. Journalists asked me about it, and I said: the first match will be the most important! If we win, we will go further. Even a draw would give us a great chance. But 0-3 is very difficult... So in the end, it didn't work out. Unfortunately. Because many people, including me, thought that the national team had a chance to perform at Euro 2024 more positively... Let's believe that in the next championships the Blue and Yellows will reach the final as close as possible.
- It is known that you have the talent to find football talents... You can list a huge number of players whom you, as you figuratively put it, "bought for a bowl of soup", and they grew to the level of national team players! Who would you invite to the main football team of the country for the next matches of the Blue and Yellows, besides those who played in Germany?
- It's hard to answer right away (pause)... Apparently, head coach Serhii Rebrov has selected the best of those who are available now. Perhaps we should pay attention to Danylo Bezkorovainyi, but he does not yet have the appropriate experience of playing at such a serious international level, and he was injured and "dropped out" for almost a year. Therefore, I do not think that Serhii Rebrov did not take any of the players who would have played better than the current national teams... Perhaps he made a mistake with the starting lineup or substitutions, perhaps his intuition failed somewhere, perhaps the last control match with the Moldovan national team cooled everyone down? By the way, the Moldovans allowed the Ukrainians to do whatever they wanted on the field. On the one hand, this match gave all the players a chance to prove themselves on the field, and that's good. On the other hand, it played a cruel joke: we lost concentration for the next match. Therefore, the harmony of determining the tactics for the match with the Romanians did not work... Now, I am convinced, Serhii Rebrov would do everything differently, but you can't take anything back... You know, when you have 25 players, it is not so easy to choose 11 of them. And when you have only 11 main players and a very short bench, you concentrate only on them and stimulate the best qualities of each and all together... Anyway, I don't see who could have strengthened the current Ukrainian national team. There was no one else to take to Germany. No defenders, no midfielders, no strikers. And our goalkeeping position is almost without complaint.
- Even Andriy Lunin, who conceded three times against the Romanians?
- He is a skilled footballer, but he just didn't get into the game, as they say. He is a very talented goalkeeper, he plays at a serious level, but that match was not his.
- And the match with the Belgians? How do you explain such a large number of defenders, the presence of two forwards and very few people in the midfield?
- The head coach decided so. Although, of course, from the experience of the result of that game, we could have acted differently. We obviously lacked a qualified player in the midfield, so the strikers were sometimes on a "starvation diet". And we had to win, a draw was not acceptable! Maybe three defenders, four at most, would have been enough! Yes, they were afraid of the fat Lukaku. But our Oleksandr Svatok completely "turned him off"! And he ran near our goal like an orphan "in the wild north"... So we had to take risks, not be afraid to concede first. It was not only with the Slovaks that it happened, not only did we win, but we won! Although, if Fortune had been on our side, we would have won against the Belgians!
- Fresh Ruslan Malinowski scored with a direct shot from a corner!
- And Heorhii Sudakov at the end of the match? You are a player of the national team, look where you hit! In such moments, concentration on the result should be maximized! 5 minutes before the end of regular time, everything can be decided... Look where you are hitting: the left corner, the right, or best of all - under the crossbar! Why have not only players of the national team, but also of other clubs, forgotten how to hit the crossbar? I can't remember which players hit the target in this way. I can only recall Roman Yaremchuk, who, after a defender's mistake, scored with his left foot. So if Heorhiy Sudakov had shot under the crossbar, no Belgian goalkeeper would have gotten the ball... Well, it is what it is. You can't change anything. We need to work on increasing the concentration of each player.
- And what do you think of the long passes in the center of the field, rolling the ball to the defenders and goalkeeper?
- There were moments when it was simply not necessary to do this. Football is dynamic now, and at every opportunity you have to play forward, not across the field or backward. Otherwise, the midfielders pass the ball to each other, then to the defender, and then to the goalkeeper, and everything has to start from scratch... This arrhythmia for a break, which is used by all teams that play from the defense, does not lead to anything good. Why have they forgotten the basic axiom of success in football: every attack must end with a shot on the opponent's goal? Instead of turning your back on the goal and playing all the way to your goalkeeper... Yes, it reduces the risk of losing the ball, but you can't win that way. In football, you have to take risks. I recently watched a documentary about the older generation of "stars". Well, at the forefront of the attack, Jozsef Szabo did not pass the ball back to Valery Voronin, and he did not pass the ball to Albert Shesternyov... It was the other way around, and everything ended with a shot on goal. Or how sharply did the legendary Kyiv Dynamo play when Valerii Lobanovskyi was still in the attack? It's the same now: the focus is on attacking, on winning. The sequence should logically end with the implementation of tactical and technical actions. Arrhythmia, which does not add sharpness to the attack and does not force the opponent to make mistakes, will not work.
- It is clear in what mood you returned from Germany to your native Lutsk... And what were your emotions when you learned that you were included in the official delegation of the Football Association of Ukraine to the Euro 2024 final? Is this really a recognition of your great contribution to the development of Ukrainian football, which has trained a whole galaxy of national team players, or is it just a coincidence?
- It was announced to all members of the UAF Executive Committee that everyone who is allowed by law to travel abroad without hindrance has the right to be included in the delegation. Many, by the way, did not go. And it so happened that I, as a representative of Volyn football, had the right and desire to go to Germany. Which I realized.
- Did you travel at your own expense or did the UAF finance it?
- The entire delegation traveled at the expense of the Ukrainian Football Association, its head Andriy Shevchenko took care of this. Everything was organized to the smallest detail and at the highest level! Even the drivers were very professional! In general, I liked the composition of the delegation. We learned a lot about football-specific issues and just had a sincere conversation. This is very important!
- There were a lot of famous people in Germany, but the Volynians were most interested in Oleh Luzhnyi, who was your team captain at Torpedo Lutsk...
- Oleh Romanovych traveled as the chairman of the UAF Professional Football Committee. Of course, we often talked. After all, we are united by Volyn football! We talked especially actively when Andriy Shevchenko gathered us before the match with Belgium to discuss ways for our team to win over this difficult opponent...
- And you yourself have repeatedly mentioned Volyn football! So, I wonder when the Crusaders, as a professional club, will take to the field of Lutsk's Avangard Stadium for an official match again, having risen from the ashes?
- I hope that some unusual situation will arise and everything will change for the better... Now our initiative is very limited, because the authorities are, as we are told, only dealing with military issues. We appealed to the head of the regional military administration, Yuriy Pohulyayko, the head of the regional council, Hryhoriy Nedopad, and the mayor, Ihor Polishchuk, who is very positive about football... I will say this: we are looking for qualified investors. Currently, in Volyn, this issue is deeply closed for resolution due to martial law.
- But in other regions, including the neighboring Western Ukrainian ones, the teams have survived!
- They somehow managed to adapt quickly to the dramatic change in the situation. There were people who could and wanted to prove themselves in big football. And they did it with the permission of the state authorities. That's why we, a group of enthusiasts, are working tirelessly. I believe that sooner or later everything will change for the better. I do not think that the authorities will initiate the revival of professional football in the region. Rather, it will be done by the players themselves, coaches, football officials, representatives of serious business... We need to wait a little bit. We are aware of this, so we do not spoil the fine line of relations with the authorities and do not cross the line. The priority is to maximize Ukraine's defense capability!
- In general, it's good that professional football has been preserved in Ukraine, because our national team could have progressed due to this ...
- And the patriotic reaction of Ukrainians to the Blue and Yellows reaching the final of Euro 2024 has also strengthened the patriotic spirit of our people! Now we hope for successful performances of the Olympic team, new responsible and interesting tournaments are ahead, including at the club level.
- Perhaps Volyn should follow the example of the "people's club" Veres (Rivne)? Issue shares, and every patriot of Volyn football will contribute at least a thousand or several hundred hryvnias, and the club will have "people's" money?
- This is not the way to solve the problem now. This is not 1989, when we created the first self-supporting football club, and when all organizations, institutions and enterprises of the region sincerely supported it, and the party and trade unions controlled and provided it. And that we were exempt from paying taxes for 3 years, and the club created a lot of cooperatives that earned money for its benefit. The club successfully sold tickets to matches, held lotteries, sewed football uniforms for sale, and even had a video rental shop... The next step was the sale of players to other clubs. The team lived under Romuald Lysan for six months! Then Lyubomyr Vovchuk was sold to Lviv's Karpaty, and we got another resource...
It's a different time now. The war continues. And the priority is to work on providing the army with everything it needs. First of all, we all need victory over the Russian occupiers on the battlefield!
Olha Danyliuk
