Matviy Ponomarenko: 'No need to stop and hang your head: after a black streak, a white one always follows'

Forward of Kyiv «Dynamo» Matviy Ponomarenko commented on his team’s defeat against Kovalivka «Kolos» (1:2) in yesterday’s match of the 13th round of the Ukrainian championship on the «UPL TV» YouTube channel.

Matviy Ponomarenko. Photo — Y. Yuryev

— Your team finished the first half with a 0:2 score. What did the coach say during the break?

— I don’t know what the coach said because we were warming up. There was a conversation in the locker room among the 11 players and the entire coaching staff, so I don’t know what the talk was about.

— Today is already Dynamo’s third consecutive defeat in the championship. What is the mood like? I understand it’s gloomy, but can you share more details?

— There’s no mood at all. What can the mood be if the team loses three games in a row? Of course, everyone is sad, everyone is disappointed, but I believe there’s no need to stop, no need to hang your head. Sure, there’s a black streak, but after it, a white one always comes. I hope it will come soon, and we will get back on the winning track. God willing, we’ll achieve positive results in each game — win. I think we’ll work on our mistakes, and everything will be fine.

— In the second half, the substitutions strengthened Dynamo’s game, and you recovered one goal. What do you think was missing to score another goal?

— Honestly, I don’t even know. Yes, we scored one, but maybe some luck was missing because we had a few good moments where we could score. There was a post, and at the end of the match, there were a couple of moments when Kolos’s goalkeeper saved. Maybe it was luck, I don’t know, maybe there was some lack of focus because we couldn’t score. I don’t know, honestly.

— Can you say that Kolos surprised you in any way today, because in fact, the first half was very, very difficult for Dynamo?

— No, Kolos has been playing great since the start of the season. The team has already achieved many victories in this championship, so we knew it would be a very tough game and prepared for it. Kolos is currently on a roll, it’s a good team, and we prepared accordingly, but probably our first half was bad. In the second half, the guys pulled together, but it was already late, you could say, because there were only 45 minutes left to come back from 0:2 — it’s tough.