Oleksiy Mykhaylichenko: We will be responsible for the result together!

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Ukraine national team head coach Oleksiy Mykhaylichenko officially introduced his assistants and commented on the WC-2010 qualifiers schedule at his press conference.

- Finally I can introduce the coaching staff of the national team of Ukraine, - Mykhaylichenko said.

- Hennadiy Lytovchenko. I don’t think I should introduce him in details. We worked together in the U-21 national team and I know his qualification very good. He will combine his work in the national team and in Dynamo-2. We think it is reasonable because he will always have all information about candidates to the national team that play in Dynamo.

Vadym Yevtushenko. He spent most of his coaching career in Sweden. I think it is also positive for us because he can see our football from a fresh point of view, give his assessment of players and break some stereotypes. He is an accomplished coach.

Mykhaylo Mykhaylov. He will be focused mainly on goalkeeping coaching but not limited to it. His football experience and vision will help him to broaden his field of activity.

And finally Volodymyr Veremeev. He has experience of work in clubs and the national team. He will not only be responsible for gathering of information but also become a full-fledged team member.

I hope that our coaching staff will be able to work fruitfully because we know each other for a long time and cohesion of the coaches is vital for the success.

Now let’s talk about the match schedule. We had our plans for the schedule prepared before coming to Zagreb and tried to defend them. Of course we cannot calculate the form of our and opponents’ players beforehand.

The negotiations were difficult and took about 7 hours. Sometimes it seemed we had come to a dead end but finally we managed to agree on some key points. We had to reach compromises to avoid the blind draw that would hardly be satisfactory for us.

Croats and English offered to reach an agreement between the three strongest teams first to get the negotiations moving. I don’t think there are strong and weak teams but we used FIFA ratings.

Now let’s turn to our priorities. First of all we didn’t want to play England this year and we managed to achieve this. We also wanted to play Croatia as early as possible and also succeeded. The English wanted us to play the first game in Ukraine but we managed to reach the compromise and avoid it.

To sum it up, we got a good schedule but everything will depend on our play. Kazakhstan and Belarus also seriously prepared their schedules and let their ambitions show. Nobody doubts that they will fight in every match. Belarus proved many times that they can battle against any opponent. Kazakhstan are not easy to beat at home.

By the way we thought that it would be easier to deal with the representatives of the countries where people talk Russian. However Kazakhstan team is coached by the Dutchman and Belarus by the German who firmly defended their position.

- What did you fail to achieve?

- Some nuances. For example, we wanted to play on September 5 but it didn’t work. We also wanted to play with Kazakhstan on October 15 but they refused. We had to agree to play them on June 10.

We wanted to play Croatia in the beginning and managed to achieve it. The response match will be played in June. We think it is OK, we will be in equal conditions with them. By the way, we have already defeated Croatia in June.

- Which team should be the most happy with this schedule?

- I can answer this question only on October 15, 2009. It is impossible to calculate all nuances.

-What was Croatia and England reaction on the schedule?

- They had no objections. At the same time England wanted to play us this year and play the second game on March 28. We managed to make the schedule more equal for all teams. By the way we were the last to sign the schedule. Perhaps our opponents were too tired to understand our profits from it though we were no less tired. I am a novice in this but I had tremendous help from Oleksandr Bandurko and Volodymyr Lashkul.

- Where will Ukraine play its home matches?

- That’s an interesting question. Not on Olimpiyskiy, for sure. We haven’t discussed it yet but we hope that by the start of the qualifying cycle stadiums in Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk will have been built. The national team can also play in Odesa, Lviv, Zaporizhya. Some matches can be played at Dynamo stadium.

It is for the better that the national team will have to play outside Kyiv. I supported that in the U-21 team. We only need to create the infrastructure so we won’t feel as guests in these cities.

- A question to Vadym Yevtushenko. We are very glad to see you in Ukraine again and on such high position. What were Mykhaylichenko’s arguments to make you accept the offer?

V. Y.- Thank you. I needed no arguments because any coach dreams to work in a national team. I lived outside my country for 19 years and that also motivated me. It all happened very fast, I only had time to pack my things. My family stays in Sweden for now. My sons have contracts with their clubs but my wife will settle her work problems and come to Kyiv.

- What will happen to the team you coached?

V.Y.- They already have a new coach. He was hard to find because all good specialists are already employed. The club management didn’t expect my leave but they supported me because it is the kind of offer you cannot put down.

- A question to Volodymyr Veremeev. You are the most experienced coach in the team. How do you assess the potential of Mykhaylichenko’s team? Can this coaching staff be compared with their predecessors?

V.V.- I don’t think they can be compared. Blokhin and Mykhaylichenko have different views although their direction of work is the same.

- Have you started working in the national team already? Do you have the list of candidates?

- I started working immediately after the session of the executive committee that appointed me. Soon we will play a friendly match so I started to make the list of candidates and call them immediately. After this press conference we will study the potential candidates in details.

- Do you plan to invite new players?

- I am not ready to answer yet. We have to get information on all players to be sure none of them are injured.

- A question to Vadym Yevtushenko. Usually Swedish clubs are slightly weaker than Ukrainian ones but their national team is much more stable than ours. Why is that?

V.Y.- You noticed correctly. The reason is that all young Swedish players who demonstrate some skill in the local championship immediately go to foreign clubs. Their national team mostly includes players who play abroad. Only veterans return to Sweden. They are always well motivated to play for their national team so they get good results.

- You said that your players would fight for the honor of the anthem on their jerseys. How do you plan to inspire them with that feeling?

- It cannot be inspired but I am sure each of them has that feeling and I only have to make them understand the importance of this moment.

- From which place in the group will Ukraine qualify for the WC-2010?

- It is not important. The main thing is that we have all chances to achieve this goal.

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