Sergei Fedorov: “Brazhko is the future of Dynamo”

One of the coaches of the Dynamo Kiev youth team, Sergei Fedorov, talks about modern Dynamo youth, the mentality of football players, teamwork with Oleg Blokhin and Valery Lobanovsky and the most exciting matches in a Dynamo T-shirt.

“Dynamo U-19”: features of the generation, successes of Vanat and Brazhko

— Sergei Vladislavovich, your players recently beat their principal rival, Donetsk Shakhtar. Compared to the results of the first team, a certain contrast is felt. How are the guys from U-19 feeling?

– I’m in a fighting mood. We played against one of the leaders of our table, and matches with Shakhtar are always very tense. The guys tuned in well and followed all the instructions of the coaching staff. This gave a positive result.

— Which Dynamo U-19 players are currently candidates for promotion to the first team?

— There are candidates, I just wouldn’t like to voice them. Because as soon as this happens, the guys will think that they are already in the first team. But there are guys, 3-4 people can already approach the first team, even train with them and count on their chance. I can name names, but it’s too early to talk about it. Let them express themselves.

– IN In general, this is not the first generation of young players with whom you work. What is the main feature of these guys, if you compare them, for example, with your generation?

– We are completely different. Time passes, we had different values, we were brought up differently. Everything has changed except the requirements in football. If they fulfill the requirements for themselves and first of all ask themselves: “What did I do to make the team win? How could I play in this or that episode?”, then everything will be fine for them. Many still lack analysis of their actions.

Nowadays, we are used to earning money and working for it, rather than just receiving it. Yes, we all tried so that in the future our children would not stress, could do something and feel calm. But in order to achieve something, you need to make every effort. They must understand this.

And we are doing this, explaining to the players that without certain sacrifices on their part, and here we mean spending free time, health, and other factors, nothing will happen. The football field demonstrates everything at once: whoever puts in maximum effort achieves results. And here it makes no difference which team you will play for: Dynamo Kyiv or Barcelona. The most important thing is that they understand: if they make every effort, they will achieve positive results in their career. And not only in my career, but also in my personal life. Everything must be treated with great responsibility.

— Vladislav Vanat — a man who has proven himself in the first team is a product of the club’s academy. We see what he can do on the field, but how would you describe the psychological portrait of this guy? What kind of person is he?

— We are athletes, we are all a little neurotic, that’s 100%. Vanat is perhaps a little withdrawn in some places, and vulnerable to criticism in others. But all this will pass with time and age. Vanat is demanding of himself, persistent, hardworking. I am convinced that he still has his whole career ahead of him. He will make his presence known again.

— Vladimir Brazhko is another player that the club Academy can be proud of today, when he fully replaced Sergei Sidorchuk. What I like about this player in particular is his long shot. How much time did he spend in training to learn how to hit so hard and accurately from long range?

— We practice various components during training. For Brazhko, this was probably given by nature. In the training process, he simply completed this mastery. In my opinion, it is very good that he uses his strengths. This is an indicator that young players must understand well what strengths they have and what weaknesses they have. And how can these weak qualities be compensated for? How can you compensate for insufficient speed? Due to the choice of position, for example. That’s why we pay attention to this. As for Volodya, he will improve with every game, this is the future of Dynamo. He is mobile, fast, sees players well and manages the ball.

Coaching career: main challenges

— Lately, Dynamo’s first team has been criticized a lot for playing in the center of defense. As a rule, this position is also played by club graduates: Popov, Sirota, Bilovar, Dyachuk. At one time you also took this position. What, in your opinion, is the main problem of Dynamo’s central defenders?

“You see, there are also stones here somewhere, right up to my garden.” Because all these guys who are now in the first team went through me at one time. I also worked with them for some time. At some point, misunderstandings probably occurred, perhaps some episodes were not carefully explained to them, or perhaps some point was not explained enough. There are guys who are 18-20 years old, they need to be explained, shown, given the opportunity to analyze their actions and not repeat their mistakes.

Perhaps somewhere there was a certain nervousness in the sense that they had a lot of responsibility, they had to play reliably in defense. Somewhere, psychologically, we failed because we made mistakes, both individual and tactical. Therefore, I hope that the coaches in the first team will make their own adjustments and work on this.

— How difficult was it for you to reorient yourself to coaching after finishing your playing career? What knowledge did you feel you lacked when you started coaching?

— Of course, it was difficult because my playing career was over. It passes so quickly that you don’t even notice it right away. It was difficult at first, but I managed to quickly adapt to the new role. The first coaching job was at Zirka from Kropyvnytskyi, together with Alexander Deriberin. We worked there for a short time, and then Alexander Ishchenko invited me to the Dynamo Academy. And there was a serious coaching team there – Sergei Bezhenar, Yura Dmitrulin, Alexey Protsenko, Igor Kostyuk, Oleg Venglinsky, Artem Yashkin. I worked there for 4 years, Sergei Bezhenar and I became champions of Ukraine, brought up 1997. And after that we were invited to the first team.

— In your coaching work, you also had to work with foreign players. Was it hard? Still, different mentality.

— It all depends on the guys themselves. It’s not even a matter of understanding the language; football language is the same everywhere. What is important here is the attitude towards the matter. Let’s take the same Domagoj Vida – an open person, it’s pleasant to communicate with him. Some people, on the contrary, are more closed. The same Lens, but on the field everyone was united by one goal: to play and win.

Lobanovsky, Blokhin and the Ukrainian team

— Throughout your playing career, you worked with different specialists: the great Valery Lobanovsky and Oleg Blokhin, as well as Leonid Buryak, Anatoly Demyanenko, Jozsef Szabo. Which of them were easier for you to get along with, and which were more difficult?

— These are completely different people in terms of their approach, their vision. In general, they all had high demands. Valery Vasilyevich Lobanovsky is a guru, I worked with him when I was 20 years old, maybe a little more. Naturally, we listened to his every word, we were even afraid. Of course, some time passed and we got used to it. I was very lucky in my life to be coached by such a person as Valery Lobanovsky. Because the further baggage on which I played in all subsequent years was given to me by this outstanding coach.

And when Oleg Vladimirovich Blokhin was in the national team, he had a slightly different approach to the players. The atmosphere was more relaxed. Leonid Iosifovich Buryak also had his own vision. But with each coach I fulfilled the requirements that they needed.

— You made your debut for the Ukrainian national team in the match against Slovenia on November 17, 1999. How did you feel when you entered the field in your first match for the national team?

– Of course, I was a little worried. Because, as far as I remember, it snowed that day, the weather was terrible. The night before we trained, it was dry and the weather was pleasant. And here it is. It was also a decisive game. We were worried, but I remembered this match for the rest of my life.

— But did you finally manage to cope with all the tasks that were set before you?

— In general, yes, but the result was not very comforting for us.

— While wearing the national team’s jersey, you scored one goal, but it was strategically important: the winning one in the Euro 2004 qualifying game against Armenia (4:3). Do you remember this moment?

– Yes, it was a tough game. We dominated, but missed some strange goals. The score was 3:3, the last minutes, the Armenians attacked the goal, I joined in. Flank serve, someone knocks the ball out, and I turn around near the goal line and push the ball into the far corner. Thus, he became victorious and these memories are always pleasant. I always liked playing in Lviv: there was such strong support from our stands!

I also remember that we played at the Ukraine stadium already under Oleg Vladimirovich’s tenure against Georgia, there were some other matches, but we always won.

— In the landmark qualifying round for the 2006 World Cup, you played in 8 out of 12 matches. Which of those matches in that qualifying round was the hardest for you?

— Possibly an away game against Georgia. This was the penultimate match. We had to win and then we would definitely get to the World Cup. But we drew and depended on another game. It was the toughest game since the match against Turkey, when we won 3:0. She was also remembered. And in that qualifying round, all the games were memorable. It’s not for nothing that Oleg Vladimirovich said that we would qualify for the World Cup in first place. And so it happened.

— You were part of a team that the whole of Ukraine was in love with in the late 90s: Dynamo amazed everyone far beyond the borders of our country. You reached the semi-finals of the Champions League of the 1998/99 season. What struck you more: the very fact of such a result or the quality of the game demonstrated by the team?

– Both. Because everyone was united by one goal. We went out onto the field and fought, fulfilling Valery Vasilyevich’s demands. There were 25 of us on the team and there was healthy competition. Everyone came out and worked, no matter if they started or came off the bench. Of course, we were unlucky somewhere with Bayern, because at home we could have won outright. But this remained for life, the team achieved great results. Of course, I would like more. But this is football.

— What did Valery Vasilyevich say in the locker room immediately after the second match against Bayern?

“I don’t remember exactly, but he definitely didn’t scold us, but praised us, because at that time we achieved great results and declared ourselves in Europe. And this is worth a lot.

Subscribe to Dynamo.kiev.ua on Telegram: @dynamo_kiev_ua! Only the hottest news