The legendary coach of «Volyn» Vitaliy Kvartsyany shared his impressions of yesterday’s Ukrainian Cup 1/8 final match between Kyiv «Dynamo» and Donetsk «Shakhtar» (2:1).
Vitaliy Kvartsyany— The first half was definitely dominated by «Shakhtar». The «miners» had the advantage, they created quite a few scoring chances, during which Ruslan Nescheret played above all praise. And in the attacking actions, «Dynamo» looked cautious, I would even say pale.
After the break, the picture changed. The Kyivans began to act more lively, perhaps the conceded goal at the start of the half had an impact, but the fact remains, Oleksandr Shovkovskyi’s men were stronger than their rivals. The only question is why «Shakhtar» fell back to their goal. Although in a cup game, football aggression should last 90 minutes, as everything is decided here and now. But we didn’t see anything like that.
Shakhtar’s Brazilians have a very low level of play. I liked Kevin, but he was sold. This season, Alisson drew attention to himself, but now he is injured. The rest? There are a thousand of them per square meter in Brazil. The coach counts on them, but they evidently cannot perform 100 percent of the football actions the coach demands of them.
Dario Srna, perhaps, wanted to smile when he was shown, but he couldn’t, because he probably understood and remembered which Brazilian partners played with him at «Shakhtar» at the time.
— Winners aren’t judged?
— I don’t want to praise «Dynamo». Both teams showed weak football. The players lay on the field for a long time, the spectators waited for action, but there was none. A lot of positional play from both sides, but it was all for nothing. For example, «Dynamo» played like this in the first half: goalkeeper — defense — midfield — defense — goalkeeper. Wherever the ball was intercepted, there was an immediate pass back. No one thought about constructive actions ahead. The game was boring, but after the final whistle, the Dynamo players had emotions as if they had won the Champions League. But if it weren’t for Nescheret, Kyiv wouldn’t have won.
We expect a slightly different game from our best teams. In such a match, they are obliged to put on a show, but that was not even close. I can only congratulate «Dynamo» on the victory, they, if you take the whole match, apparently wanted to win more.
— «Dynamo» played effectively. Did they convert, in essence, the first scoring chance?
— The Kyivans went forward. They began to show themselves somehow. Which was not the case before the break. For example, Shola. He is talented, but it seemed to me that in the first half, the Nigerian did everything not to take the initiative on himself. Having such good natural data and not going into dribbling means there will be no development. Players like him need to be forbidden to pass and forced to express themselves individually to learn to create scoring chances. Otherwise, he ran 30 meters with the ball, turned around, and passed back.
Yamal from «Barcelona» is worth 300 million, and his release clause is a billion. He always wants to beat opponents, and they allow him to. But he got involved with the girls, and this diamond isn’t performing like last season. You can’t relax, otherwise, there will be no progress.
— Let’s return to our realities. After «Dynamo» took the lead, «Shakhtar» couldn’t create anything in the attack. Why, in your view?
— Because the players are not physically ready. A losing team must go forward «to the last,» take risks, get into the penalty box, and shoot at the goal. But the «miners» did absolutely nothing to save themselves. What, we don’t know how «Shakhtar» can play. Yesterday there was no «Shakhtar». Confidence may have been lost after Nescheret saved nearly everything.
— Is «Dynamo’s» goalkeeper the first star of the match?
— Yes.
— Yarmolenko in second place?
— Possibly. He turned the game around, scored an important goal, and tried hard. He led the team. Despite his age, Andriy is a valuable player for this «Dynamo.»
Serhiy Boychenko
