Vitaliy Odegov: "UEFA together with football associations went to meet us and made a compromise decision"

10.06.2022 13:08

Photo of FAU press service

The head coach of the Ukrainian youth futsal team Vitaliy Odegov spoke about the team's preparations for the matches of the main round of Euro-2022 (U-19).

In preparation for the matches of the main qualifying round of Euro-2022 (U-19) in futsal, the youth national team of Ukraine will play at the Futsal Week U-19 international tournament, which will take place in Poreč, Croatia, on June 21-26.

After the competition in Croatia, the blue and yellows will go to the Moldovan Corescu, which on July 7-10 will hold Group 6 matches of the main qualifying round of the European Championship. The rivals of our team will be the national teams of Andorra, Belgium and Moldova.

The head coach of the Ukrainian youth futsal team Vitaliy Odegov spoke about the team's plans in a comment for press service of the Futsal Association of Ukraine.

- Vitaly Alekseevich, tell us, where did you find yourself on February 24 during the beginning of a full-scale Russian invasion?

- I spent most of my time in Kharkiv. For a long time, my thoughts were not futsal, so I did not coach and did not maintain my form on my own.

- How did you keep in touch with the team's players during this period?

- During the first month we didn't have to talk about futsal, because there was an ambiguity about the future. After the matches of the main round, which Lviv was to host, failed, I thought that Ukraine would not participate in the qualification for the final part. However, AFU President Serhiy Vladyko later informed me that the matches of our group would be moved to another country at a later date. This was solved thanks to UEFA's communication with representatives of the associations of the four countries participating in the selection in our group. What we will play in July became known in late April. From that time on, we started working on our training plan. Most of the guys are in Ukraine, and several players played in the Polish championship. Of course, the collections that remained in Ukraine did not have proper game practice and the usual training process. We were gradually preparing for the matches on these dates. A remote training was held to improve the condition of the boys to a better level.

- The composition of the team has hardly changed compared to friendly matches in Portugal. Can you say that you are satisfied with their content?

- Indeed, the composition is almost unchanged. Only Sava Lutai from the Polish Gurnik and Dmytro Rybitsky, who trained and played a little for Vidzev, were added. Dmytro is a very young guy, we see in him the prospect of helping the team at the next youth Euro. Now we are also giving him the opportunity to express himself. In addition, Mykola Guivan returns after the injury.

- Probably, the team really wanted to hold the first official home matches on their own floor, because in Lviv everything was ready for this…

- Yes, I wanted to. However, you can't call it an annoyance, considering the events that started on February 24. They are much more global than canceling our fights.

- Nevertheless, we will hold the matches of the main round. How important is this for the current composition of the youth team?

- We are very grateful that UEFA still gave us such an opportunity. Moldova, Belgium and Andorra are not to blame for the war in Ukraine. So, UEFA together with the football associations of these countries went to meet us and made a compromise decision - to hold these matches in Moldova from 7 to 10 July. We will decide in a fair fight on the floor, which of these four countries is worthy to become the last participant in the final part of the European Championship.

- Before leaving for Croatia, the youth team played twice with Energia. How would you describe these matches?

- The guys missed futsal. Everyone has a great desire to play. Various tactical moments were practiced. Everything was quite useful and informative. We lost and drew, but the result was not decisive. We are grateful to the opponent for sparring.

- The main stage of preparation for the matches of the main round of Euro-2022 will be the Croatian Futsal Week tournament, in which our team will take part for the second time in a row. How do you assess future rivals?

- For us, this tournament is extremely important. There is less than a month left before the start of the main round, so friendly matches are necessary for us. I would like to emphasize this. We do not set a goal to win in Futsal Week, we need to benefit from all the matches of the tournament. This will help improve the game tone. It is great that there is an opportunity to take part in this tournament. Special thanks to Miko Martic and the entire Croatian Football Federation. We also thank the President of the Football Federation of Moldova Leonid Oleynichenko. We will go to this country immediately after the Futsal Week tournament.

The roster of Ukraine U-19 futsal team

Goalkeepers: Mykola Khomyak, Mykola Guyvan, Dmytro Dyachenko; outfield players: Andriy Brytan, Oleksandr Dychuk, Andriy Tkachuk, Oleksandr Smetanenko, Rostyslav Semenchenko, Vladyslav Syzyk, Artem Shchur, Yaroslav Kvasniy, Dmytro Skybchyk, David Kalashnyk, Dmytro Rybitskyi, Maksym Malynovskyi, Sava Lutai.

We will remind, August 30 last year took place of the draw the main qualifying round of the second European Futsal Championship (U-19). As a result, Vitaly Odegov's wards were included in group 6, where they will meet with Belgium, Moldova and the winner Group A of the previous round - Andorra.

The Ukrainian team was determined to host one of the mini-tournaments, which was to take place at Lviv's Bosco Arena on March 16-19. However, due to the Russian military invasion, the fight was postponed to July 7-10 this year. The games will be hosted by Moldovan Corescu.

Futsal Euro-2022 (U-19). Main qualifying round. Group 6

07.07.2022

Belgium - Moldova 15.00

Ukraine - Andorra 18.00

08.07.2022

Belgium - Ukraine 15.00

Moldova - Andorra 18.00

10.07.2022

Andorra - Belgium 15.00

Moldova - Ukraine  18.00

The time coincides with Kyiv.

It will be recalled that following the results of the matches of the main qualifying round, seven participants of the final tournament of the European Futsal Championship 2022 among youth teams are already known. The company of the Spanish national team, which will host the championship, made up Italy, Portugal, France, Poland, Romania and Croatia. The last participant of Euro-2022 will be determined by the results of Group 6 matches.

The final part of Euro-2022 (U-19) in futsal will take place on September 3-10 in Jaen, Spain at the Olivio Arena, which seats 6500 spectators. According to the draw, eight participants of the tournament will be divided into two groups of four teams, the two best of which will reach the semifinals.

We will remind that at the first in the history of Euro on futsal among young men which took place in 2019, the national team of Ukraine made the way to the final tournament where took in the group third place. And the champion was one of the offenders of the blue-yellow - .