Getting ready like for a feast
Ukrainian journalists came to the stadium a little bit earlier than the team and witnessed last preparations for the debut of Rio Ave in the Europa League group stage.
It’s something new for employees of the club. They were preparing the arena for the game like for some feast. Kids worked on holding the big logo of the competition in the center circle. Additional seats and tables were installed in the press box.
Who says Rio Ave have no trophies?!
As you know, Rio Ave have never won the domestic league or national cup, but still there are a lot of cups in the conference hall of the stadium. They include the Segunda Liga trophy, different international friendly tournaments prizes and even fair play award.
Haven’t seen anything of a kind even in Ukrainian First League
At the pre-match press conference Olexandr Shovkovskyi was asked about the quality of Estadio do Rio AveFC turf, but at that moment Dynamo skipper didn’t know what was waiting for the team.
The first to see the pitch were the White-Blues administrators Pylyp Repetylo (pictured) and Anatoliy Pashkovskyi.
What they saw was even worse than in Ukrainian First League.
“Portugal, this is not turf, but…”
Dynamo executive director Rezo Chokhonelidze could hardly find proper words when he saw the pitch. “Portugal, this is not turf, but profanation”, - told he the arena staff.
After that the training session started. Journalists were allowed to follow it for 15 minutes.
Still Serhiy Rebrov let media to stay longer.
“You are lucky to be with Teodorczyk!”
Traditionally training session started with warm-up and passing in small groups. “It must be music”, “Feel the music”, - told players each other jokingly impersonating Raul Riancho in the group with Lukasz Teodorczyk.
By the way, it wasn’t the only thing that had to be explained to the newcomer. There was another exercise that really amused journalists. Players were divided into two teams. Representatives of each side faced in a kind of duels. They were running round until Raul raised a white or blue cone. After that performer from blue or white team ran to the “safe zone” while his opponent had to catch him.
Lukasz Teodorczyk ran in a wrong direction several times. Teammates were making fun of Roman Bezus, whose opponent was Polish striker: “You are lucky to be with Teo, he doesn’t know a lot yet!”.
That’s how FC Dynamo Kyiv were getting ready for the start in 2014/2015 Europa League.
Ihor Bondarenko from Vila do Conde
Copyright © 2014 FC Dynamo Kyiv
* photos by V. Rasner
