Oleksandr Petrakov: “It is nice to have representatives of both national grands in our line-up”

20.09.2019 15:20

Photo by Pavlo Kubanov

Head coach of the U-17 U-XNUMX national team Oleksandr Petrakov is grateful to all the clubs who have released their players to his team.

Today the youth national team of Ukraine (footballers not older than 2003 born) flies to Latvia. There she is will participate in an international tournament, in which, in addition to the hosts, the teams of Turkey and Northern Macedonia will play.

The day before, the head coach of the blue-yellows Oleksandr Petrakov answered questions from the official UAF website.

- Alexander Vasilyevich, unlike the last training camp, now your team, in fact, will not have time for training ...

- Such is the fate of national team mentors. We must get out of any situation and be ready for anything. This is not UEFA's date, there are internal competitions, so there can be no question of the strongest team. However, I am grateful to the UAF management for the opportunity to take part in this tournament and to all the clubs that released their players. It is nice that we have representatives of both domestic grandees.

- Do the current personnel changes speak about the ongoing selection, or are some players still unable to compete?

- Mostly castling is caused by injuries of guys. Although we continue to look for talent. However, I have repeatedly said that the year of birth 2003 is not the best in terms of choosing players at the national team level. And with the central attackers and especially a serious problem. I had to call Igor Gorbach, one year younger, from Dynamo Kyiv.

- A football player from the European Championship has appeared at your disposal…

- So. Finally, I will see in the case of Bohdan Shubin from the German Schalke. We have called this central midfielder five times already, but the club did not let him go. Now everything has worked out. I know Bohdan, he is a pupil of Shakhtar Donetsk. In 2014, his family emigrated to Germany. At first he played for a small local club, but soon went on to raise ...

- At the upcoming tournament you will meet the national teams of Latvia and Turkey, which are well known in the Victor Bannikov Tournament. What about the team of Northern Macedonia?

- It will be nice and interesting to play with all rivals in the group. We are gaining experience that should help our guys in qualifying round of the European Championship. At this age, the main thing is not skill, but a psychological factor. Many cannot withstand the pressure. Let's hope that they will find themselves soon, and we will try to help them in this.