Dynamo Kyiv defender Vladyslav Dubinchak spoke about his impressions of the Ukrainian national team's matches against Georgia and the Czech Republic, Dynamo's current season in the Ukrainian league and European competitions, his personal life and the Vinnytsia mafia in football, and his passion for Counter-Strike and interest in e-sports.
Vladyslav Dubinchak. Photo by Yuriy Yuriev"Of course, I want to play for the Ukrainian national team"
- Vlad, we are talking after the matches of the Ukrainian national team in the League of Nations. A 1-0 win over Georgia and a 1-1 draw with the Czech Republic. What are your impressions?
- In general, my impressions are positive. It is clear that it was psychologically difficult, but in my opinion, the result of the October matches is good: a victory and a draw. The main thing is not to lose.
- How do you feel when you watch the national team's matches on TV? How great is the desire to be there, on the other side of the screen?
- Of course, everyone who plays football professionally wants to play for their national team. This is an indicator that you are a true professional and can represent your country at the international level. Of course, I want to play for the national team. But the head coach decides everything. I'm not angry, I'm not offended, I'm just worried about my national team.
- What do Dynamo players who are not called up to the national team usually do during international breaks? What do you do?
- After the games, we get a day off, 2-3 days. Mostly, we spend time with our families, because we need to mentally reboot. The road is very exhausting. We travel a lot now. You can't envy the guys from the national teams, because their schedule is very tight: immediately after the matches they get on the train and go on. And we had just returned from Germany two days before, where we played in the Europa League. In short, it's an exhausting process.
In general, we train, work in the gym. We get a little bit of a workload, play a control game. Recently, we played a friendly, after which we got one day off, and the next day the guys started to arrive and we started preparing for the next game.
"There is nothing surprising in the UPL's standings now"
- Today, Dynamo is the leader of the championship. How surprised are you by the competition for the leadership position not even from Shakhtar, but from Polissia and Oleksandriya?
- No, you know, it happens every championship. Even the previous one, even two years ago. There, Dnipro-1 fought for first place. Everyone understands that Shakhtar is Shakhtar, and they will get their points later anyway. Everyone always thinks that the fight is between Dynamo and Shakhtar.
As for these teams that impose competition, they are great. They have good squads - both Polissia and Oleksandriya. They also have quite qualified specialists at the head of the team, Imad Ashur and Ruslan Rotan. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the tournament position of these clubs now.
- How satisfied are you with your personal performance on a scale of one to ten?
- If we take the beginning of the season in general, then about 7 out of 10.
- Which match of this season was the most difficult and why?
- The most difficult are the matches in the European arena. We are greatly affected by the road, we travel to the venue for at least 20 hours. And we play every other day. That's why it's hard to play both physically and mentally in European competitions. But this is purely because of the exhaustion of the road. We leave immediately after the game and there is no recovery. Instead of getting a qualified recovery at the base, doing procedures, we travel in trains or buses. Or you fly by plane. And that's probably why European Cup matches are very difficult.
- After the match against LNZ, you said that you were not like yourself. Did you manage to find the reason?
- I explained right after the match that while everyone was calmly preparing for the championship and staying at home, we were traveling to the Champions League qualifiers. And we left a lot of emotions there, because we really wanted to get to the main stage, but we failed. It also hurts morally when you really want something, go for it, and it doesn't work out.
We returned and it was already the game after the match against Salzburg. We played 1:1, looked decent, and even had hopes that we could return to the game. But it didn't happen, and that's why I didn't look like myself in the next match. You know, there are games when you come out charged, when you want to give your all on the field, do your best and enjoy the match. And here was a moment when I just wanted to win and rest for a couple of days.
- After one of the matches against Salzburg, Oleh Salenko accused you of missing a goal. How do you generally react to public criticism? And is it worth taking the words of former players about your game to heart?
- Well... If I'm guilty, then I'm guilty, okay. When the criticism is justified, your coach has pointed it out to you, and you realize that it's your fault, it's okay. What experts and former players say is normal. They also tell people about football. There is nothing wrong with that.
- Kostyantyn Vivcharenko: Is he your competitor or friend?
- Kostiantyn and I have normal professional relations, we always support each other on and off the field.
- Everyone has heard the story that when the Ukrainian national team lost to Romania at Euro 2024, Andriy Yarmolenko addressed the team in the locker room with a motivational speech, urging them to prevent a shameful performance at that championship. After your defeats to Lazio and Hofenheim, was there anything similar in the Dynamo dressing room?
- Give or take, yes, but with your permission, I won't go into details.
- In the 1/8 finals of the Ukrainian Cup, you will play against Vorskla. You defeated this team in the league, but Vorskla is usually a completely different team in the Cup. Last year, they even reached the final. Don't you have an unpleasant suspicion that they can cause you moral damage in the Ukrainian Cup?
- If I'm not mistaken, there are three more matches before this match. Now we are thinking about the next game against Obolon. It will be very difficult there too. After I joined Dynamo, I realized that when you play here, it's not easy to play with all teams. The opponents come out as if it were their last match. Everyone wants to prove themselves against Dynamo.
And there's also this illusion: when you watch league matches where they play against each other, you think: "Oh, it would be easy for us with them". But when you meet a certain team in a face-to-face match, they give 100%. I don't remember a game when we won without any problems. It's always hard for us, the teams tune in to us seriously.
Now we have an away match with Obolon, which is also a tough game. That's why I'm not even thinking about Vorskla yet.
"I am very pleased when I meet players from Vinnytsia region"
- Let's talk a little bit about your personal life. You are from the town of Tomashpil in Vinnytsia region. Who else from there, besides you, came to football? Are there any such people?
- It's not really a city, it's an urban-type settlement. As for who else came to football besides me, no, I don't know any such people. The closest person to me is Sashko Tymchyk, from the village of Kryklyvets, which is about 40 km from my Tomashpil. At least, I don't know anyone who plays professional football from our area.
- Dynamo has an interesting situation: in addition to you and Tymchyk, there is Buyalskyi from Vinnytsia region, and Tsygankov used to play there. Is there a Vinnytsia "mafia" in football?
- I wouldn't say it's exactly a "mafia" (laughs). I, for one, am very happy about this fact. When I find out that there is someone from Vinnytsia region in Dynamo, I am happy for my fellow countrymen. It's always nice to realize this, and somehow I feel warmer towards these guys knowing that they are my fellow countryman.
- Do you keep in touch with Andriy Boryachuk? He is also a famous football player from your region.
- We don't communicate personally, but we have crossed paths a couple of times. We know each other, of course.
- What does Oleksandr Shovkovskyi advise you in personal conversations, both in a working context and in a personal one?
- In conversations with me, the head coach insists on greater concentration when working in defense. I can't tell you all the nuances, but in a nutshell, it's more work in defense. We need to play more reliably. I have no complaints about the game forward, in attack.
- You played a lot for Dnipro-1 in your time, being in the same team as Artem Dovbyk, training under the guidance of Igor Jovicevic. Did you expect that their fate would turn out in such a way that Jovicevic would move to Shakhtar and become the champion of Ukraine, and Dovbyk would move to Girona, open up there and become a player for Roma?
- At that time, we had a good team. We can say that we grew up together. When we came there, none of us had any name in football. Basically, we were all normal guys, good footballers, but no one was very important for Ukrainian football. We grew up together and it worked out well. Everyone was pulling for each other, and if one player proved himself, the other wanted to prove his own level. Pikhalonok, Hutsulyak, and Ihnatenko were good guys. These guys were involved in the national teams. The same Dovbyk.
- By the way, when Pikhalenok joined Dynamo and you met for the first time at the training base, what did you say to him?
- When I saw that he had joined, I wrote to him to ask if he needed my help. It was still on vacation, I could show him the base where he could train, recover, and undergo pre-season training. That was the first thing I wrote to him. I congratulated Sashko and wrote that I could help him. He thanked me, and after a while we met at the base and started working in the same team again.
"It seemed to me that Marlos was on some kind of cosmic level"
- Last July, you became a father. How has fatherhood changed you?
- I think everyone who has children realizes that it is a responsibility. It motivates you more, you understand who you have to work for, provide for the future, and it keeps you on your toes. You don't make frivolous decisions and become more serious.
- You named your son Adonis. How did you choose the name?
- My wife said she wanted a rare name. We started looking at different options, there were a lot of them, about five. At first, we didn't really react to this name, and then we looked at it closely and made this decision.
- Which of the right wingers or defenders in the UPL or in European competitions bothered you the most? How hard was it to play, for example, against the prime Marlos?
- By the way, Marlos impressed me the most. I was still at Karpaty, on loan. And at Arsenal, too, Marlos was not so much in his prime then, but already a fairly experienced, skillful player. And for me, these were the first steps in adult, professional football. At the time, it seemed to me that he was on some kind of cosmic level.
- And in the European Cups, who?
- Well, I didn't think that someone was showing something unreal, or that it was very difficult for me to act against a particular player, it never happened. When I was younger and played against Marlos, I had such thoughts. That I shouldn't throw myself at him, shouldn't let him beat me, should be more crouching in front of him. I also used my speed, because when he threw the ball in front of me, I tried to level it out with my speed. And trying to take the ball away from him on the spot was unrealistic.
I wouldn't say that I played many matches in European competitions, there were only about 15 of them(20 at the adult level and 15 at the youth level - ed.), but I didn't have such thoughts in the international arena.
"I started playing Counter Strike about a year ago"
- Your first coaches told us that you and Shaparenko violated the regime in the youth team. They said that you were playing computer games until nightfall. What do you play now? Do you have a team of Dynamo players in CS?
- Well, Shaparenko is really into computer games, but I'm not so much. I started playing CS about a year ago. I wouldn't say I'm good at it. We have our own team where we can play. Me, Shaparenko, Bilovar, Popov. There is also Kirill Osipenko from the U-19, he plays with us. We get together from time to time.
- Are you the ones who play in CS-2?
- Yes, we do. We get together, sign up and go for a run.
- Do you follow esports?
- Well, I've started watching recently. I watched the last IEM RIO 2024 tournament, where NAVI won.
- If Dynamo is doing more or less well in the Ukrainian league, how can you improve the situation in the European competitions, where you have a meeting with Roma and your old friend Artem Dovbyk?
- When Roma became our opponents, I immediately wrote to him. And Artem said: "Get ready, the atmosphere will be crazy". I think it will be difficult for us. We'll see. You know, football is a thing where you think it will be easy with one team, but it turns out to be very difficult. And vice versa: it seems that there is a tough opponent ahead, but the game is easier.
I would not rush to conclusions. It all depends on our condition and how we play. The coaching staff knows how to prepare us properly and distribute our forces.
Daniil Vereitin
