Head coach of “Dynamo U-19” Igor Kostiuk commented on the confident victory over “Inhulets” (7:0) in the Ukrainian Championship among youth teams.
Igor Kostiuk (photo: fcdynamo.com)— After two matches without victories, a draw with “Maribor” and a defeat against “Shakhtar”, we finally have a win. How much confidence will it add before the return match in Slovenia?
— Of course, the emotions are positive right now — a big score, a lot of goals… With all this, there are certain problems that were visible, especially in the first half; we were not very satisfied with the quality of play. We played slowly, didn’t manage to reorganize, didn’t open up the zones, as we did in the second half, and didn’t convert our moments.
— Why did you have such different halves in terms of execution and in general play from your players?
— First of all, it’s due to the quality and interaction of the players. Some are playing after injuries, others are not getting enough playing time. Because of this, there was no dynamics and interaction, which we saw in the second half when players who usually play in the starting lineup came on. They added speed and quality to our play. Especially in the finishing zone, they played well, closed their zones, were there — and scored their goals.
— The first goal was scored by Salenko with a strike from medium distance. Were long shots practiced in training, considering it was challenging to enter the penalty area?
— We are working on this in training — quick transition of the ball from the flank to the center and a finishing shot. You saw that we managed to score two such goals today. Also, when we create a numerical advantage on the flank, with a player making a run to free up a zone, Redushko entered the free zone in the center and scored. This is also something we work on, but not always does the quality of execution allow us to score such goals.
— Vladislav Gerich was sitting in the stands. When will we see him on the field?
— While he is recovering, we cannot predict anything. He has an old injury, now a relapse.
— Ahead is the return match against “Maribor”. How ready is the team for it?
— Today we start recovery. We analyzed the opponent, looked at what they play on, what mistakes we made, and why we couldn't convert our moments. We will prepare and correct the moments that went wrong for us in the first match.
