By Kyrylo STADNYCHENKO, The Day, Andriy
BILEICHUK
There was a press conference by the Dynamo Kyiv chief coach at the Koncha-Zaspa
training center. Although the ostensible aim was to sum up the Kyivans'
performance in the Champions League, many more subjects were touched upon.
At first it was Valery Lobanovsky's monologue.
"What is going on in this country is called propaganda against its
own championship"
"We should perhaps speak primarily about Dynamo's performance in the
current Champions' League tournament. But in my opinion, it would not be
wholly correct to exclusively sum up the team's performance based on this
event: we did not carry out target-oriented training specially for the
Champions' cup. The national championship of Ukraine is a no less important
and demanding competition than the Champions' League, so we are doing our
utmost to raise standards and continue our national championship. What
is going on in this country is called propaganda against its own championship:
an idea is being imposed on us that there is one superclub, Kyiv Dynamo,
there is no competition, and that the only serious rival is Donetsk Shakhtar.
The national championship is the top event in the leading European soccer
states. If you ask such clubs as Juventus, Milan, and Inter, what is better,
to win the Champions' League or the scudetto, they will choose the latter.
"In my experience, there have been no cases when players had to withstand
such loads in the spring, playing on several fronts at the same time: for
example, in March we played at first the League of Champions quarterfinals
and then two crucial matches for the national team. Don't forget that the
championship only begins at this time, and, accordingly, we cannot be in
top shape. However, under the conditions when the Dynamo players shoulder
such a burden, some coaches and managers say that their boys arrived at
their clubs from the national team in a state of collapse. Such a position
is somewhat surprising, for the Dynamo players, for instance, did not complain
of psychological and physical fatigue and continued to train for matches
with Bayern even after a series of most critical games, while the coaches
of the national clubs insist that their players have to 'come to' for several
days. This stuns me, frankly speaking: and where then should players be
trained for play on the national team? There is no sense in talking about
high quality if a whole group of players have to 'come to' after playing
for the national squad!"
"The result is not always the main thing in soccer!"
"But let's return to summing up. However, I would not like to sum up
the team's performance from the angle of beating a certain rival or not.
I think we have to pay attention to the analytical aspect and the team's
quantity/quality indicators. Earlier, when I still played, a coach could
say to a player: 'You played badly.' The latter replied, 'No, I played
well.' How should they come to terms, how can they talk business? At first,
when I had just begun to run the team, some players called into question
the methods we use. Certainly, no perfect methods have yet been devised,
but there are methods that help assess effectively the actions of players
on the pitch. The players have absorbed these methods, and we manage to
conduct a sensible discussion in terms of real figures and indicators.
For example, why did we lose to Juventus last year? To say they are stronger
and we are weaker is unprofessional and incorrect furdamentally. There
were some objective indicators at the time: we lost out to the Italians
in field activity and effectiveness, we had not reached the necessary level
of model indicators by that time. What is the sense of saying that we beat
or lost to Barcelona, Juventus, or Bayern? It is important to know whether
we lost out to or outdid our rivals qualitatively. Let's take a showdown
with the national team of Iceland, for it was followed by wave of emotions
in the national press. But if we look at figures, an objective indicator,
we will see that the Icelanders did 522 tactical and technical actions
(TTA). Just to compare: we scored 985 TTAs in one of the most recent games.
Representatives of the geyser country showed 32% errors, but we maintain
a level of 20-22%. In the effectiveness of their play, the Islanders can
perhaps be comparable to Barry Town. So what conclusions should we draw
after this game? Our rivals showed not only unprofessional but outdated
soccer, the soccer of the day before yesterday. Suppose they will draw
some more games, suppose they make it and come third in the group if they
are lucky enough. And what then are their prospects? In such cases I often
repeat a phrase that the result is not always the main thing in soccer.
Take our recent match against Tavria, which ended in a 0:0 draw. I read
the match reports: good tactics, the Simferopol players made every effort.
I can still accept the latter, for even the Tavria coaches said that their
players had failed to regain their form for several days after the match
with Dynamo. A question arises again: what in this case is the level of
the team's preparedness? What kind of a team, if I may say so, is this
if it concentrates itself on one match and then tumbles down like a house
of cards?"
"We have reached a qualitatively new level of competitiveness"
"These problems make us think about modern soccer, over what direction
it is taking. Modern soccer cannot consist of tactics alone: there are
endless game patterns, and when a club has one or two patterns at its disposal,
it does not then have the faintest prospects. A good team must have a whole
range of tactical instruments. In the past Dynamo was often criticized
for using either an 'away' or a 'home' pattern. Now we do not confine ourselves
to these two models: if you closely follow our play, you must have noticed
that we utilize several tactics in one game. This is a new qualitative
level, for even Juventus used only one tactic in Kyiv: retreat, cut their
zones, and no pressure on our half-field. You may ask: 'At the expense
of what has Dynamo Kyiv raised its competitiveness?' I think at the expense
of our paying great attention to the analysis of our indices. We compare
them with those of our rivals and make the relevant conclusions afterwards.
Again take some examples: our efficiency factor was 0.38 in the match against
Munich Bayern, while a team should work in the 0.4-0.5 corridor. One can
say that the players did not rise to their abilities, for we have to take
into account what kind of a rival we played with and what their indices
are. Bayern's game efficiency was 0.33. It turns out both teams were approximately
equal, they successfully blocked each other's attacks. This is why both
clubs' effectiveness was lower than usual. We also assess the team's actions
by such parameters as field activity and reject rate. In Dynamo, these
indicators are 829 TTAs and 24% of rejects, in Bayern 670 and 30%, respectively.
After analyzing these data, we may ask ourselves a question whether we
have reached a qualitatively new level of competitiveness. We apparently
have: our indices, compared to last year's, have become higher and our
quality has risen. We are entering steadily, if gradually, step by step,
the European soccer elite and moving forward uninterruptedly. But this
does not give me good reason to say that Kyiv Dynamo is certain to win
the Champions League: it is difficult to forecast and make unequivocal
statements in soccer. But in any case, we will be trying to scale the highest
peaks. I think we are on the right track."
"Mr. Lobanovsky, if we analyze Dynamo Kyiv's matches with Panathenaikos
in Athens and the home match with Lens and pay special attention to those
time periods when the Kyivans opened the score and in fact immediately
conceded a goal, it will be easy to make a conclusion that the Dynamo players
were so euphoric that they allowed a moment's relaxation and loss of concentration,
which eventually leads to the loss of points that are worth their weight
in gold in the Champions League. Why did this happen, after all? And does
the club try to find an antidote to such moments?" (The Day)
"There is no team that never concedes goals. It is practically impossible
to keep opponents from shooting at least once at our goal during the whole
game. So goal-prone situations and, hence, conceded goals are inevitable.
Your question reminded me of a 1975 match with Pakhtakor, when our rivals
made three shots and we 46! Our players hit whatever you like: upright
posts, crossbars, the goalie... As a result, we lost 0:1. But this does
not mean we must play in the style Pakhtakor showed. Once they were lucky,
once we. This is soccer. As to an antidote, we of course work to this end.
I hope you will see the results shortly."
"Mr. Lobanovsky, there are so many rumors about a probable sale of some
Kyiv players to various Western clubs. Could you raise the veil of secrecy
over this matter and give us, so to speak, firsthand information ?" (Robitnycha
hazeta)
"As of now, we are about 90% sure of Oleh Luzhny's transfer. But not
to Newcastle, as originally planned, but to Arsenal: the gunners' coach
Arsen Venger showed great interest in the purchase of our fullback, so
active negotiations are underway to this effect. As to other players, I
do not have detailed information, so I can tell you nothing new."
"Mr. Lobanovsky, we face the close season, and in this connection,
do you intend to procure any European-scale stars or do you still keep
to the idea of making stars out of our players?" (Robitnycha hazeta)
"Firstly, what do you mean by 'stars'? We don't need Ronaldo. As long
as two years ago I said that our players greatly surpassed him in skills
and, what is more, in potential capacity. While the Brazilian, having stood
all the game in one place, at last gets a pass and scores a goal, Shevchenko
and Rebrov run all over the pitch and work in defense as much as in attack.
We do not need a player who doesn't understand the requirements of modern
world soccer. We are now watching a right fullback from the Hungarian Debrecen.
In all probability, he will replace Luzhny. These are all our gains so
far. And please note that two years ago we embarked on the course of creating
a star team. This team is now beginning to raise stars. So we are on the
right track."
"Don't you think we ourselves begin to create problems for our national
team? Several key places in Dynamo Kyiv are held by foreign players, and
now Shakhtar, too, is ready to acquire a group of players from Russia.
Besides, the Shakhtar coach, the former coach of the Russian national side,
our rivals, is apparently not interested in working for our team..." (Komanda)
"The Ukrainian national team is not Shakhtar and Kyiv Dynamo. There
are talented and promising players on many other teams, too. The point
is how they are being trained. Unfortunately, the proficiency of many Ukrainian
coaches and the conditions they work in leave much to be desired. How to
raise this level is our common concern. But I again want to point out that
Dynamo and Shakhtar are not the only homes of Ukrainian soccer."








