— Oleksiy, is it important for you that you’ve set a new UPL record — saving penalties in three consecutive rounds?
— It turned out well, it’s nice. When I saved the last one, I even laughed. How is that even possible?
— How do your teammates react?
— They tease me. They say, “We’ll score ten out of ten against you in training.” And I joke back, “Just score more into the opponents' net.” We communicate with humor.
— In your match against LNZ (0:2), neither you were scored against nor did your team score a penalty. Didn’t you think about taking it yourself?
— I’ve already thought about it. (smiles) There was a competition for penalty takers in the team, won by Maksym Melnychuk. During the briefing, the coach said Melnychuk would take it.
— Oleksiy, share the secret of how to save penalties?
— I don’t know, it’s mostly intuition. First, I watch the ball, then the run-up of the kicker. If at the last moment they slow down, making a mini-stop (like Shota Nonikashvili from LNZ), it can change the direction of the shot.
Those who make a stop before the kick tend to shake themselves too much. They can be thrown off if the goalkeeper doesn’t react until the last moment.
Oleksandr Filippov from “Oleksandriya” (1:2) shot the same way, to the same corner as in a friendly match during the preseason. I reacted the same way — and saved it again. But I still consider intuition to be the most important factor.
— There’s a stereotype that tall goalkeepers don’t fold as quickly and don’t react as well to penalties. You are 195 cm tall. Is it hard for you?
— Since childhood, I’ve heard that it should be hard for us on low balls. But you see how many tall goalkeepers there are now. There’s no problem, it all depends on training.
— You do react not to the strike, but to the kick itself, right?
— I try to wait until the moment of impact. Some look at the goalkeeper until the last moment. Then they suddenly drop their heads to the ball. In those fractions of a second, you can do something, try to deceive them somehow.
Honestly, I’ve never specially practiced saving penalties. The guys ask after training, “Let’s take some penalties,” and I join them.
— Do you study penalty takers specifically?
— I watch via Wyscout to see who kicks and where.
— You have a match coming up against “Dynamo”, who takes penalties for them?
— We haven’t analyzed Dynamo players yet. But I’ve already looked at where Guerrero strikes (On October 30, in the match of the 1/8 finals of the Ukrainian Cup, “Vorskla” vs. “Dynamo” — 1:2, the Panamanian kicked the penalty accurately low into the left corner from himself, — ed. note).
— “Ingulec” has played all its away games for eleven rounds. Is it hard?
— We’ve gotten used to it. Though it’s mentally tough. It’s all on the bus, sometimes we don’t even have time to prepare properly for the next match. I would like the opponent to come to us as well.
— And what about the new stadium?
— From the outside it’s ready. A nice little stadium: stands, pitch, changing rooms. We have already tried the pitch, but we haven’t played any official games there yet. It seems there are some issues with the documentation. Nobody knows what the problem is. Honestly, we don’t have specifics either.
The stadium began to be built before the war, perhaps the issue is with the bomb shelter, I don’t know. We were concerned, but the head coach said we are preparing for our matches, and the club will solve the rest. It would be a pity if the team withdrew, so much work was done during the preseason.
— Ingulec is currently last in the table. Is it because you aren’t playing at home?
— Perhaps. On the bus, if there’s a chance to lie down and give my legs some rest, it’s a bit easier. But I think it affects no more than 20%. I have never heard of a team playing all of the first round away in any championship.
— Ingulec has had five draws without a single victory in eleven rounds. Four losses by a minimum score and just one thrashing by “Rukh” (0:5). Could the team have scored more than five points?
— Of course. Somewhere luck was lacking, somewhere — skill, audacity, confidence. We can’t win, it leaves a moral residue. Perhaps one or two victories — and we will break through. I have never had a season with 11 rounds without a win. Maybe we will finally win out of spite.
Anton Terekhov
Oleksiy Palamarchuk. Photo — FC “Ingulec”
