We managed to score two early goals
Thursday, April 25, 2024
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Commentary of head coach of Shakhtar U19 Oleksii Bielik after the away victory over LNZ U19 (4-1)
– It may seem that the victory was easy. It is important that we won and completed the main task. It is clear that air raid alerts made the game difficult, because we are a team that is constantly on the ball, trying to open the opponent's defence through ball control and attacking actions. When the team control the ball, they control the pace and the course of events on the field, meaning thay they can play faster or slower at the right moment. When we started to feel this pace, due to air raid alert, the team got distracted and started all over again. There is high-quality pitch, of course we would like it to be watered more, so that the ball moves faster, but the pitch is really great, we can only be grateful. It is good that we managed to score two early goals, that way we calmed down a bit, but I want more in attack, and we have opportunities to score more thanks to our technique. It does not matter which opponent we play against, we need to be more focused, and when we win 2-0 or 3-0, it is not a reason to stop, but on the contrary, we need to keep playing with combinations that will help in future games.
– Substitutions turned out to be effective. Did your intuition work?
– Harmash was injured, so we replaced him with Demchenko. In the second half, we started with the players who were tired. Oharkov was tired, Bashmarin came on. Regarding Vitalii Myts, I am sure that he could have continued the game, but we understand that he missed seven months due to an injury, and we did not see the point of keeping him on the field, we let him recover. Yes, after the substitutions we scored two more goals, but any footballer, regardless of position, must continue to attack if they manage to play. I will always emphasize this.
– Was Smetana's goal the result of set play?
– Of course, his goal is one of the variants of attack development. When we control the ball, the opponent moves and gets tired. We need to feel it and get the ball to the attacking players. We are looking for these performers, and if we see free space, it is not necessary to move the ball to the wing. We adapt, give the ball to a player who runs, pass to a free player and finish the attack with a shot, as it happened in this episode. All the goals we score are the result of set play, but I want to be a maximalist and score more, because it will bring results in the upcoming matches.
– Substitutions turned out to be effective. Did your intuition work?
– Harmash was injured, so we replaced him with Demchenko. In the second half, we started with the players who were tired. Oharkov was tired, Bashmarin came on. Regarding Vitalii Myts, I am sure that he could have continued the game, but we understand that he missed seven months due to an injury, and we did not see the point of keeping him on the field, we let him recover. Yes, after the substitutions we scored two more goals, but any footballer, regardless of position, must continue to attack if they manage to play. I will always emphasize this.
– Was Smetana's goal the result of set play?
– Of course, his goal is one of the variants of attack development. When we control the ball, the opponent moves and gets tired. We need to feel it and get the ball to the attacking players. We are looking for these performers, and if we see free space, it is not necessary to move the ball to the wing. We adapt, give the ball to a player who runs, pass to a free player and finish the attack with a shot, as it happened in this episode. All the goals we score are the result of set play, but I want to be a maximalist and score more, because it will bring results in the upcoming matches.