Midfielder of Kyiv’s “Dynamo” Vladislav Kabaev commented on his team’s victory over “Left Bank” (2:0) in today’s match of the 23rd round of the Ukrainian championship.
— For “Dynamo” this is the third consecutive game without conceding. How important is it to win and not concede in this context?
— I think there is more of a psychological aspect to it. When you don’t concede, you are more confident, and when you score, you become more relaxed. I think our coach Vladislavovich (Sergiy Fedorov — ed.) will be very happy and beaming with joy that we haven’t conceded for the third game — for him and the team as a whole, this is a very important moment. So great, three points are important against both “Shakhtar” and “Left Bank”, as well as any other team. We are happy and moving forward.
— “Oleksandriya” also won this round. Everyone talks about the competition with “Shakhtar”, but “Oleksandriya” is also gaining momentum, and they seem to be your competitors for the championship...
— I congratulate them, it would be great if they lost to “Shakhtar” and we won. But this is football, I think it makes it more interesting for the fans to watch. We feel that they are close, but we will focus on our game. I read that Vanя Kalyuzhny said that they only focus on their game. And that’s normal. They play good, quality football, but we are “Dynamo” (Kyiv), and our task is to take first place and win the Ukrainian Cup. Yes, there is a four-point difference between us, but if we do not drop points in the upcoming matches, it doesn’t matter that they are somewhere close.
— A tough away match in Kryvyi Rih is expected, considering the recent events in the city...
— I think you can’t prepare for this, as you never know what might happen in the next moment. We have seen all this, and now, talking about it, I even feel shivers crawling on my body... It will be a tough game, they have a good team, we know who their coach is and how he motivates the players. It is never easy to play against them. But now every game is worth its weight in gold — against “Left Bank”, “Veres”, and other teams. No matter who you play against, at this level, no one can be underestimated. So what will happen in Kryvyi Rih, we will talk about it after the game.
— You mentioned Yuriy Vernydub, but you also know his methods not just by hearsay...
— You know him through football, through the teams he has coached, and the teams are always fierce, hungry for football. I know this coach, I know how he will motivate his players, especially against a rival like “Dynamo” (Kyiv). It will undoubtedly be an interesting game, but we will see — right now I want to rest a bit, then we will look at the game against “Left Bank”, draw conclusions and prepare for “Kryvbas”.
— In the semifinals of the Ukrainian Cup, “Dynamo” will play against a representative of the first league — “Bukovyna”. Did you get lucky with the draw, or at this stage does it not matter who to play against?
— I can’t say that we were lucky. Honestly, I haven’t followed this team’s performance at all, but there have been many such examples — even in Germany, a team from the third league reached the final. So this is football, and it’s hard to say how it will be. But I’ll repeat once again — we are “Dynamo” (Kyiv), and in every game, we must play for victory only. However, we are far from that, we will prepare for the Cup, we don’t know who will be playing, who will be in what shape. The only thing I can say is that we have a task set at the beginning of the season, and it does not matter who the opponent is — “Bukovyna”, “Shakhtar” or “Polissya” — it doesn’t matter who we face.