Champions League Thoughts, Etc.

By: Yevy | October 4th, 2008

Roman Eremenko Poor Luis Aragones. You would think that after winning Euro 2008 the old man could nap comfortably in the coach’s box and not worry about criticism of his team’s performance. As it turns out Fenerbahce fans don’t really care that Spain won the European Championship, and don’t think that managing their club is a retirement gig. With a poor start to the domestic campaign exacerbated by sitting bottom of Group G, how will Aragones handle the pressure? Not to worry, says Luis, “I know exactly what to do in order to overcome it. I have been in this situation before.” And the solution is, apparently, to pretend his team played better than it really did.

We played attacking football, but we weren’t able to score. Sometimes you need luck. Of course, I’m not satisfied with the result. I think we deserved to win this game, everybody could see that. Dynamo defended the whole game.

I guess when you can’t write Fernando Torres and David Villa on your lineup sheet, attacking football means sitting on the ball in your own half while mixing in an occasional hopeless route one hoof. Did I mention they were the home team? To be fair to Aragones, he probably still thinks his Atletico Madrid side deserved the win against Dynamo in the 1986 Cup Winner’s Cup Final, 0-3 scoreline be damned! But enough about grandpa Luis, what did that whippersnapper Yuri Semin (at 61, he’s 9 years Aragones’s junior) think about the match?

We had difficulties in the first half. I had to make changes in order to quicken the tempo in the second half. The players were really tired in the final 20 minutes because they have played a lot of games and have travelled a lot. Today we gained one point, we didn’t lose two.

Milos Ninkovic While it’s hard to comment on Semin’s tactical tinkering, since Dynamo stuck to the 4-5-1 the whole match, the decision to sub Ismael Bangoura for Maksim Shatskikh was perplexing to say the least. While Semin insists that “the situation begged for Bangoura to be replaced,” it is hard to see how removing your only legitimately mobile striker helps raise the tempo. I can only guess that Ismael got yanked for pulling away from a challenge with keeper Volkan Demirel around the half hour mark, leaving Semin visibly exasperated on the touchline. Whatever the real reason, introducing the very static and clearly rusty Shatskikh pretty much ended Dynamo’s chances of scoring from the run of play.

While the results of Dynamo’s first two Champions League encounters can be considered acceptable, the matches themselves have exposed the team’s flaws. With Artem Milevskiy sidelined, Semin has only one forward that he trusts against stiff European competition. I have to assume that Semin resorted to the 4-5-1 out of necessity, but it’s clear that Dynamo does not have the proper personnel to counterattack effectively out of the formation. Besides the obvious lack of a forward who can play alone up top, Dynamo is missing a top quality two-way center midfielder. Tiberiu Ghioane was handed the assignment against Fenerbahce, and spent most of the match chasing the ball. Ognjen Vukojevic was asked to do the same job against Arsenal, but does not yet have the offensive instincts for the position. There’s hope in the Dynamo camp that Carlos Correa can fill the role eventually when he’s fit, but the time line for his return is still cloudy.

On the bright side, the Dynamo defense has been up to challenge so far in the Champions League, and should improve with every 90 minutes. Taras Mykhalyk wore the armband with pride on Wednedsday, and was probably the best player on the field. Betao has looked like a gem of a summer purchase, and I anticipate him getting more involved with the offense as he gets comfortable. Stanyslav Bohush has had some shaky moments in net, but has made the stops when it counts, and was recently rewarded with his first national team call-up.

Defending a corner
GRADES:
Bohush, 6.5: Came up huge in the goalmouth flurry to start the second half.
Betao, 6.5: Impenetrable wall on the right flank, as Roberto Carlos found out on several occasions.
Mykhalyk, 7.0: Player of the match for Dynamo. Was Daniel Guiza supposed to be a threat?
Pape Diakhate, 6.5: Dynamo’s own aerial defense system.
Badr El Kaddouri, 6.5: Solid end-to-end play, a real shame about the injury.
Vukojevic, 6.5: Seems to really relish playing the destroyer role. Left a trail of bodies in his wake.
Ghioane, 5.5: Not suited for the center mid role at this level.
Roman Eremenko, 6.0: Started slowly, eventually found his rhythm and created a couple chances.
Oleksandr Aliyev, 5.5: A forgettable performance, down to the comical slip when attempting to take a corner kick.
Milos Ninkovic, 6.0: Nothing spectacular, but mistake-free football away from home at this level is still valuable.
Bangoura, 6.0: Probably deserved at least 15 second half minutes.
Shatskikh, 5.0: Worked hard, but that just isn’t enough.
Andriy Nesmachniy, 6.0: If there’s one position where Dynamo has depth, it’s left back.

Dynamo will look to get back in the goals column when they travel to face UPL bottom-dwelling FC Kharkiv on Saturday. It should be a nice change of pace from the rigors of Champions League play.