Oleg Kuznetsov: “For the first time in a year and a half we managed to gather all the best football players”

04.09.2019 17:01

Photo by Pavlo Kubanov

At the current meeting, the head coach of the U-19 U-XNUMX national team Oleg Kuznetsov in friendly matches with the Romanian team will check the case of all the performers.

The head coach of the team Oleg Kuznetsov told how the youth team of Ukraine (football players not older than 2001 born) is going.

- Judging by the list of called players, Olezhe Volodymyrovych, you managed to invite all the strongest.

- Exactly. This happened for the first time in the last year and a half. Now is UEFA's date, so we hoped to be able to see all the players our coaching staff wanted to call. Mykhailo Mudryk and Danylo Sikan have been invited to the youth team, but this is a normal practice. If the guys deserve it, let them prove themselves in Ruslan Rotan's team.

I hope that in October, at the last stage of preparation for the qualifying matches of the European Championship, we will gather in full, because it will also be a UEFA date.

- What tasks will you set for the wards at the current meeting?

- First of all - to remember all the developments that we had, because even in their clubs, some play for the U-21 team, others - for the U-19. It's time to warm up the lineup for official matches.

We have now called up 20 players, so in two friendly matches with the Romanian national team we plan to play with two different teams.

- Do all your wards get the necessary playing practice in their clubs?

- We can say that almost everyone is on the case, so the guys should be in shape.

- Do you know the Romanian national team well?

- Last year we met her at one of the tournaments. But now we will not give the guys a lot of information about the opponent, it's more for the coaching staff. Already at the pre-game setup we will tell the wards how to act. After all, we ourselves do not yet know in what composition the Romanians will come to Ukraine.

- Matches will be played at different stadiums ...

- So. On September 6, the match will take place in Bucha (beginning - at 16.00), and on the 8th - at the capital's STC. V. Bannikov (14.00).

- Are you already studying the Euro qualifiers?

- We collect information. And at the next meeting, in October, we will share it with the players, there we will have some time for theoretical classes.

We will remind that Oleg Kuznetsov's team of the Euro-2020 qualification match (U-19) holds November 13, 16, and 19. The rivals of the Ukrainians in the fight for the tickets to the elite round of competitions will be national teams of Sweden, Slovenia and Estonia.