On Monday, December 16, in the match of the 17th round of the Ukrainian championship, Kyiv’s “Dynamo” defeated Rivne’s “Veres” with a score of 1:0. The match took place in Kyiv at the “Dynamo” stadium named after Valery Lobanovsky. We present to your attention the post-match press conference of the head coach of the capital team, Oleksandr Shovkovsky.
— First of all, I want to thank our heroes, our military, who are doing everything possible to ensure that our life in Ukraine continues, that we have the opportunity to play football and bring emotions. You always want emotions to be positive. But that’s not always the case. Unfortunately. Or maybe it should be this way: everyone wants to be satisfied.
But it is all thanks to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the people who are doing everything possible to ensure that we continue to develop in Ukraine and our lives go on. A low bow to them and gratitude!
Secondly, I want to congratulate everyone on the end of a difficult first half of the season. Yes, everything needs to be analyzed, but I can already say that we played this segment of the season in the Ukrainian championship at a fairly high level, but our decent results in the UPL were overshadowed by a significant spoon of tar regarding our performance on the international stage. We need to analyze why it turned out this way. We need to increase confidence and skill. Yes, there are no teams that always win, that has been and will be, but I always say: in any situation, we will do our best to win; we will always play only for victory.
As for today’s match, we specially moved it to Monday so that the team has a day more for recovery. Of course, in light of the results of our competitors in this round, I tried to reach out to the players, to convey to them that in the context of the upcoming match, the tournament standings of the teams do not matter. The last round of the UPL this year showed that all teams want it, but those who are more focused, who have more desire, who are more motivated and disciplined, win.
I thanked the guys for approaching today’s match with the necessary level of desire and motivation in the schedule we had. Yes, things didn’t go perfectly. Yes, the quality of the field was a factor, the weather conditions, the attitude of the opponent, who wanted to rehabilitate after the disappointing defeat in the previous round (“Karpaty” — “Veres” — 5:0, — ed.). But we also wanted to rehabilitate: our results in the Europa League are extremely negative. We must recognize this. So that we can look each other straight in the eye, make conclusions, understand what needs to be fixed and how to do it, and move forward.
In short, we prepared for a very tough game. And it was tough.
Oleksandr Shovkovsky. Photo — Yu. Yuriev— Please share the plans of “Dynamo” for the inter-season break.
— The team will return from vacation on January 4, and on the same day a medical examination will take place. But we will not stay in Kyiv: we will leave for Turkey in the morning of January 5, where we will prepare during the training camp for the two remaining matches of the Europa League and the second half of the season in Ukraine. Of course, I would like us to depart for Europe, but we will go out.
— Evaluate the return of Pikhalyonok after injury.
— He had a very difficult rehabilitation after the injury. It wasn’t easy for him, but we saw the desire he worked with, and we were fully satisfied with his attitude. We missed Pikhalyonok. But in football, such things happen; injuries are inevitable.
Mikhavko also has an injury at the moment. And Brozhko had an injury in the last match. The examination showed that he will not be able to help us today. Shaparenko has complications after illness; we could not risk his health.
Now it can be said that before this match we had many problems. Tymchyk had certain difficulties, Popov, Bilovar, and Buyalsky also did. Therefore, the load that fell on the boys in these days was very heavy. Just the day before yesterday, I had only three central defenders at my disposal. And only yesterday did it become clear that we could count on Popov.
— You started this part of the season in Ukraine with a match against “Veres” and ended it with a match against them as well. However, the first match was easier for you than today’s. Did “Veres” improve, or has “Dynamo” become a bit weaker?
— The accumulated fatigue certainly had an impact. But “Veres” also looks much better than last year. Moreover, this team gained confidence throughout the autumn period. They played at a fairly high level and, let’s be honest, they performed quite confidently against “Shakhtar” and “Oleksandriya” and, as a result, took points from these teams.
So we understood that we were facing a very tough game, especially since this was the last match of the year in the UPL.
In the first match against “Veres”, we went out immediately after the inter-season training, we had freshness, strength, and the team looked quite good and created many scoring opportunities. True, we conceded an unnecessary goal, but we could have controlled the match more calmly until victory.
Today, weather conditions, the quality of the field, and the load and recovery have influenced. But, I repeat, “Dynamo” will always play only for victory. There may be changes in tactics, game schemes, and strategy, but we will always play solely for victory.
— This is your first year as the head coach. How do you evaluate it for yourself?
— Even when I was a player, after each year, I analyzed my actions, in order to start the new year or season not from the position I was in, but from an understanding of what I had done during this period to find myself in this position, and whether I had improved my condition compared to the previous segment.
The same I tell the players of our team now: don’t look at where you are now, but track what you did to find yourself at this peak, if we talk about the standings. You need to track your actions, analyze them, make conclusions, and progress, develop. Because in order to stay at a certain place, you just need to run very fast. And to develop, you need to move forward with maximum effort.
— Which positions in “Dynamo” require strengthening? There are many rumors about possible transfers for your team.
— I will not comment on rumors. I can say that we are always working to have the opportunity to strengthen the team. It’s early to talk about specifics, but we definitely have certain developments. I really hope that they will be realized.
Once again, I congratulate everyone on the victory, wish everyone a successful completion of this year, victories in the next year (both big and small), and, of course, the long-awaited main victory for all of us!
Post-match press conference of Veres head coach Oleg Shandruk >>>
Oleksandr POPOV from the Dynamo stadium named after Valery Lobanovsky
