Yuriy Vernydub: Congrats to Shakhtar on the well-deserved win

30-10-15 22:28:29

Text SizePrintSend

Mentor of Zorya reflects on the game against Donetsk.

- What can I comment on here?! We played the first half pretty well, but when the opponent takes a shot – not a shot really, but just an inside footer ... While we make an error. What else can you do not to give one away? It seems I said during the break: the crucial thing is starting to run, to try to chase the score straight away, because it will be pathetic against Shakhtar, because they convert blistering counterattacks ... And so it happened: we conceded the second goal, the third one, and then, we kind of scored one ... The will to win must have tipped the balance. We have not fulfilled what we wanted to do. But that’s not the worst thing. I want to extend my congrats to Shakhtar on their well-deserved win, I wish them every success in the Champions League. At the Donetsk club, they talk a lot about the weak league. Let them forbid everyone else from playing, let them play against the youth: against Chornomorets, Metalurh Zaporizhya. And then indeed those teams will be very strong and will be claiming top results on European stage.

- You normally never discuss the referee’s actions, though you’ve flown off the handle today. Didn’t you fear it?
- I don’t fear it. That’s another preamble that our referees are very fond of our giants and always want to help them. And then, when our big-name sides play on European stage, everything turns just the other way around. And then just their coaches  get indignant about it. That’s our Ukrainian football is all about. And I don’t fear those words. No matter what one might say. I'm ready for anything. Just once over again: to make a really strong league, one needs to invent neither formats, nor any preambles whatsoever, but just to allow to play primarily the young footballers who become true professionals and the national team players at other clubs. Their level would reveal the level of our championship and each individual team. Otherwise, I find it difficult to comment on, not really willing to do so. It's a shame that it happened.

- After the game against Helios you promised that Mykyta Kamenyuka would score. Is his goal any consolation to you?
- Definitely. I am happy for him. I have no criticism towards the guys. The fact that we lost is, first of all, my defeat. I might have missed certain details. Let's move on. It’s a pity that after maintaining a good goal difference we’ve spoiled our stats in a single encounter. But it's better to have one match like that than to suffer seven 0-1 defeats.

- In the next round you are taking on Zaporizhya-based Metalurh ...
- They do well staying afloat. I hope this team will be able to survive. I wish them every success and finding an individual who can make of Metalurh the team they used to be. It will be disappointing, should the club disappear after 80 years of existence. I cannot understand the owner of the Zaporizhya club Oleksandr Boguslayev. He is not the one to have formed the club, to have given it the name - so he has no right to liquidate it. If he's strong spiritually and grit wise, then it would be better for him to pass it to those who need it without tormenting the people in Zaporizhya. This major industrial city had, has and should have a top-flight side. In general, they shouldn’t have taken over the club given their desire to destroy it now.