FC Dynamo Kyiv head coach Oleksandr Shovkovskyi had a chat with journalists after the win against FC Veres Rivne.
- First of all I’d like to thank our heroes – soldiers, people who do everything they can so that the life in our country continued, we had a chance to play football and share emotions. I wish those emotions were always positive, but unfortunately that’s impossible. Anyway I bow my head to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Thank you!
Secondly, congratulations to everyone on the end of the tough first part of the season! It can be divided into a few aspects. We still need to summarize our performance to draw conclusions, but as for the UPL, we did pretty well. Meanwhile our European campaign was a huge disappointment. We must improve both individually and as a team.
As for today’s game, we played on Monday so that the team had an extra day to recover. I tried to explain players that this is the last match of the year and the table doesn’t matter. The team that’s more motivated wins. I thanked the guys because despite the extremely tight schedule they played with dedication. This wasn’t perfect football, but we got ready and knew the match would be tough.
- What are the team’s play for the winter training camp?
- On January 4 we’ll have a medical examination while the following day we’ll go to Turkey to have the training camp.
- Oleksandr Pikhalionok is back to the squad. How difficult is it to return when the team’s almost on vacation?
- He had very tough recovery from injury, but he worked with great dedication. We’re satisfied with his attitude. We lacked him in many games, but his is football, players get injured. Today we couldn’t count on Taras Mykhavko, Volodymyr Brazhko and Mykola Shaparenko due to health issues.
Actually we had quite a lot of troubles before this match. In particular, Tymchyk, Popov, Bilovar, Buialskyi had issues due to significant exercise load.
- It seems like the previous game against Veres was much easier for Dynamo than this one. Did Veres get stronger or Dynamo got weaker?
- The fatigues we accumulated throughout the season has taken its toll. Of course Veres look much better than the previous season as well. The team did a good job against Shakhtar and Oleksandria. We knew the match would be difficult.
Facing Veres the previous time we were fresh, right after the pre-season period. Unfortunately we conceded back then although created a lot of opportunities.
Today a number of aspects impacted the game: weather, turf quality, fatigues. But anyway Dynamo Kyiv always aim to win.
- You worked the whole year as the head coach. How was this year for you?
- Back when I was a player, I always analyzed my performances throughout a year to see what I was doing and whether I got better. That’s what I always tell my players: don’t look at where you are, trace what you did to be where you are.
- Which positions are you going to enforce? They say Yatsyk will get back from Zoria…
- I won’t comment on rumors. We always aim to enforce the team. It’s too soon to tell something specific, but we’ve got some ideas. I hope those will be implemented.
Anyway, congratulations on this win. I wish all of you successful end of the year, victories in the new year, in big and small matters! And most importantly – the major Victory to all of us! Slava Ukraini!
