Leonid BURIAK: “Ukraine Should Be Among the World Championship Finalists”
There has been confusion in the headquarters of this country’s national team for two months now concerning coaches. After Jozsef Szabo’s resignation, all Ukraine is looking forward to a new mentor. Valery Lobanovsky is most likely to take the post. The maitre of Ukrainian soccer has already given his preliminary consent to coaching the team. However, the chief coach needs assistants. Everyone else remains outside the public view. Those who will be appointing the assistant coaches will, no doubt, take into account many factors, including experience working with the national team. Unrivaled here is former national team coach Jozsef Szabo and his assistant Leonid Buriak, who bore the main brunt of the two latest qualification cycles. But soccer has a logic of its own, so we can easily understand Szabo’s complex of guilt, which he developed after the illogical defeat in the group matches versus Slovenia. The 60 year-old expert is now hardly capable of a new assault after stumbling at the threshold of the European championship finals. Judging by his own words, he needs a rest, which he could get only in the role of consultant and link between the national team and Dynamo.
Moreover, the slender and fit Buriak is still in ideal shape, as saw the thousands of spectators who had gathered to watch the match of Dynamo Kyiv and Spartak Moscow veterans. He still has something that even candidates for the national team could learn. Buriak’s authority is unquestionable for such current Ukrainian stars as Shevchenko, Rebrov, Luzhny and Shovkovsky.
“WE ARE A STEP AWAY FROM THE GOAL”
“Why did Ukraine’s national team fail to qualify for the Euro- 2000,” Leonid Buriak was asked.
“We had every chance to end first in the group. Nobody denies we were leading, quite deservedly and unconditionally. We are ourselves to blame for procrastinating until the last match, instead of doing our best in the home game against Iceland and the away match with Armenia. Perhaps we should have counseled our players differently, for they already took victory for granted. We made a save in Moscow, but we could have taken the Russians in the final match, having already qualified for the finals. The present team line-up should be commended for driving up the Ukrainian national team’s rating. Alas, having lost not a single match in the group, even to the world champions, we unexpectedly gave in to the lower-class Slovenian team. Shovkovsky’s ill-fated mistake in Ljubljana and the unexpected snowfall in Kyiv, which brought our superiority to naught, largely thwarted our efforts. But this cannot diminish the tremendous work our team has done. For the newly- appointed coaches will not have to start from scratch.”
“And what will you, if confirmed as the national team’s top coach, start with?”
“I personally think there is room for improving the team performance. There are players on the Ukrainian clubs, especially Kyiv Dynamo, capable of maintaining a high tempo throughout the match. Following European and world teams, we must strive to intensify our teamwork. We must search for like-minded people not only among the Kyiv Dynamo coaches. The coaches of all clubs delegating their players to the national team should update their skills. We must remember we are in a group with serious rivals. So we have to treat every game seriously and try to persuade each player to do so. Ukraine has no right to make mistakes. Being an optimist, I still think our national team is capable of getting to the top. We must take part in the world championship finals.”
“A HIGH-CLASS SOCCER PLAYER MAKES A DECISION WELL BEFORE HANDLING THE BALL”
“Do you think, on the basis of your experience, that the national team is making progress?”
“One can only answer positively. We have taken a big step forward. I have always thought the national team of any country reflects, to a large extent, the sociopolitical, economic, and psychological aspects of its life. Compared to other developments in this country, soccer stands out against the general background. In spite of the ruined infrastructure of Ukraine’s children’s and teenagers’ soccer and economic problems of the top-league clubs, we managed to form an action- ready squad. Ukraine, as a soccer power, is respected in Europe. This can be proved by the invitation to play a friendly match versus the national team of England at Wembley on May 31.”
“And what have been the results of Valery Lobanovsky return to Ukrainian soccer?”
“Lobanovsky is not only an outstanding personality. He is a phenomenon. I spent fourteen years with Dynamo under his guidance. And when I began to work as a coach, I professed the principles of play he had instilled in me. I felt the effectiveness of Lobanovsky’s system when I worked in Ternopil and Odesa. But this became especially evident with our national team. The only trouble was that when we invited players from other clubs we saw the archaic work of their coaches. During the last cycle alone, we tested about sixty players and finally came to the conclusion: we can only rely on the Dynamo boys. But last fall was very turbulent for the white and blue: the tightly-packed calendar of the Champions League and the national championship claimed a lot of effort. I will never dare accuse any of my boys of unwillingness to play at the top of their own capabilities.”
“In what respects do you think the performance of our national team should be improved?”
“First of all, in intensity. The leading European clubs keep the atmosphere of game tense throughout the whole ninety minutes. I admit this is also helped by such an important factor as their proverbially long string of substitutes on the bench. Fourteen, not eleven, players follow the coach’s tactical instructions. As to technical mastery, it’s practically impossible to upgrade it at a mature age. A high- class soccer player differs from an ordinary one according to his ability to make a decision in every specific moment well before he starts to handle the ball. Just to quote a song: ‘Don’t look down upon seconds...’”
“DON’T GIVE UP A DREAM...”
“What kind of chances does the national team of Ukraine have make it to the world championship?”
“Our qualification group consists of strong and stable teams. It is perhaps the most unpredictable one. Who can claim today that the Norwegians are weaker than the Germans or English? Poland’s national team is capable of rebuffing any European team. The Welsh have a dozen or so boys in their ranks, who have gone through the mill of the English premier league. The Belarus national team can be judged by its representatives in Dynamo — Valentin Bialkevich and Aleksandr Khatskevich, both high-class players. We already saw how difficult it is to outplay the team of Armenia on its own pitch. I would compare the situation in our group with a competition of experienced athletes. Each of them has his own chance for victory. Each knows the price of an accidental slip.”
“In a recent poll of European journalists, Andriy Shevchenko was named Europe’s third after Brazil’s Rivaldo and England’s Beckham. It is noteworthy that our ‘adepts’ gave him the fourth place. And the Slovenes named their Zahovic the best in Europe.”
“I could answer you with a phrase from the Holy Scriptures: ‘There is no prophet in his own country.’ The question is not, of course, in who came out on top in the poll, but in patriotism. Shevchenko made a good show throughout the last year, playing for Kyiv Dynamo, Milan, and Ukraine’s national team. And if I were a journalist, I would undoubtedly place him higher than fourth. He was an indisputable leader on the national team. If we had at our disposal at least one or two players with a winner’s mentality like Shevchenko’s our team would have surely won more points.”
“What do you expect from the year 2000?”
“A great deal. No matter who will head the national team of Ukraine, I wish success to the next attempt to make our way to the world championship finals. The two previous campaigns of our national team stopped at the playoffs. This resembles the ascent of mountaineers who have set up a base camp at the foot of a still-unconquered peak. It is beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ukrainian soccer will scale this peak quite soon. We won’t give up our dream.”
