The head coach of 'Shakhtar U-19' Oleksiy Bielik commented on the defeat by 'Dynamo U-19' (2:3) in the 11th round match of the youth championship.
Oleksiy Bielik (photo: shakhtar.com)— I can say that I am not ashamed. Yes, not everything worked out. In the first half, we were unable to fully implement our game in terms of ball control and attacking actions, perhaps some of the guys were nervous or afraid to take the initiative. We made a mistake in positional defense, understanding that the opponent needed to attack more, so we should not have met them high, but played in a mid or even low block. It happened that once we did not adhere to our principles, and the opponent took advantage of it. In the second half, despite being two goals behind, we relaxed somewhat since there was nothing left to lose, and then we started playing our football, scored twice, and leveled the situation. However, it must be understood: if we make individual mistakes, no tactic will work. Certainly, it is an unfortunate defeat; we aimed for more, but we understand that, despite this result, we are still at the top of the tournament table.
We were not playing to maintain the score but were trying to show our football. At the same time, it is necessary to understand that there is also the factor of the opponent, which makes adjustments to the game. After the 2:2 score, 'Dynamo U-19' began to use long passes more often, and to effectively counter this, Kostyuk sometimes became the fifth defender. In general, we coped with this task, and apart from the unfortunate conceded goal, there were no serious threats near our goal.
After the game, I emphasized to my charges that the defeat is unfortunate and there is no point in drawing conclusions on the spur of the moment. We lost to a direct competitor, but we remain at the top of the tournament table. There are still five matches of the championship this year, so if we lost to 'Dynamo U-19', we must definitely win the upcoming matches and not allow ourselves to lose points, — Bielik is quoted by the official site of Donetsk.
