The head coach of “Dynamo U-19” Ihor Kostiuk shared his impressions from the away match of the youth championship against Lviv’s “Rukh”, in which his team won with a score of 2:1.
— It was important to earn three points today. After the national team matches, the players were somewhat unbalanced, everyone in different condition, as they spent different time with their national teams. For example, Lusin and Peikrishvili played full three matches, so today they played less. And Salenko, Ponomarenko, and Zakharchenko had less workload in the national team, so they played from the first minutes. Only three people trained with us — the rest were with the national teams or training with the first team. So it was important to balance the players in the match against “Rukh” and earn three points. We managed to win — that is the most important thing today.
The second point is the quality of the field. I believe that one cannot play on such fields now, because it turns into anti-football — grass with patches, bald spots, sometimes with soil, concrete. It is unacceptable to play on such surfaces in the Premier League, in U-19; such fields do not exist anymore. Especially, this is unacceptable for the “Rukh” academy. Such fields should not be allowed for matches.
We understood how the opponent would play — through long passes, forcing a fight. Unfortunately, in the first half, we didn’t realize our moments, slightly didn’t execute what we agreed upon, played slowly, poorly controlled the ball, took too long to process it, which didn’t allow us to quickly transition from defense to attack and turn our moments into goals. Although we created a lot. We needed to act with quick ball movement, quick passes, but, unfortunately, there were many errors in receiving, dribbling, and controlling the ball; we needed to get rid of it faster, but we didn’t do that in the first half.
In the second half, we made adjustments, began to play faster and more aggressively with the ball through quick movements, passes, opening up zones, not holding onto it. Therefore, we scored two goals and brought the game to a logical victory. The opponent created only one opportunity near our goal, after which they scored. And the second moment was when the ball hit the crossbar after a set piece. They didn’t reach our goal more than that.
—The home match against “Rukh” in the first round ended with a score of 10:0 in favor of “Dynamo”, was it not worth expecting the same result on the road?
— As I already said, the field didn’t allow for quality football.
—“Rukh” is in fifth place in the standings, they have won four of their last five matches, does this fact speak to the strength of the opponent?
— We prepare seriously and responsibly for each match, because all teams want to beat “Dynamo”, to overcome the champion and create a sensation. So it is never easy for us, with any opponent.
—Because of conceding a goal in the 87th minute, did the end of the match become somewhat nervous?
— There was no nervousness, just primitive football, which the opponent played,—through long passes—always leads to a fabricated excitement near the opponent's goal. The team takes shots, there is a struggle, it seems that there is a nervous tension.
