Oleg Gusev: "Girls' progress is the most valuable"

— In an interview after the final match of the season with CSKA, you said: "As the season progressed, we made a team." Can you open this phrase and tell us how it was done?

— When we first started working with this team, for one reason or another there was no team as such. I think and always say: in working with girls, it is very important to create a microclimate in which they will be interested in working, to interest them.

Of course, at first it was hard to do, but we immediately brought them to the fact that we are in the Moscow Dynamo, our tasks are the highest, ambitious. And they are the best here, this should also be understood.

It is necessary to go to the game so that everyone is afraid of them – this is very important. Well, plus the microclimate itself: support, help your partner with something, both in everyday life and on the football field. These are the principles that we laid down at the beginning of the season.

And I give credit to the girls. I don't like to single out anyone, but I'll mention Dana Petrova separately, who helped me with this. You've seen it all for yourself. There is a microclimate and a team on the field – this is the most important thing.

— You can talk endlessly about numbers, statistics, but from the point of view of psychology, what was the biggest success for the team?

— It seems to me that the coaching staff infected the team with the idea – we are Dynamo, we want to go up, we should be at the top. And they felt it themselves during the season, accepted it.

There were stretches when the matches started, where we didn't get the game at all at some moments. Especially at the end, when we realized that the result was already pressing on us, that we should not lose, that everything was already very close. It was the most difficult time when we realized that she was a troika, next to her, but the games didn't work out.

And thanks to this attitude, the girls pulled out such games, even those that did not work out. We still achieved a positive result, especially it was important at the end of the season, when there were a lot of emotions.

— This raises the question of the girls' resilience – how did they manage to maintain it from game to game throughout the season and not lose it at the finish line?

— Of course, there were certain nervous situations. But it seems to me that both in such matches and in training, the girls hardened up and transferred everything to the game, where they were angry in a sporty way. I really liked it.

From this point of view, everything is perfect in the team right now. It may not be necessary anymore, because you can burn out emotionally in some situations, which will also not be very good.

But what was happening on the field from the point of view of sports anger is what was needed!

— How do you assess the quality of the Youth League during this season and do you expect its level to increase next year?

— Every year the level of the Youth League is growing, because women's football is actively developing. Now girls are already being recruited, and there are top academies in which very young, medium, and large ones train. Of course, thanks to this, the level is growing.

Even if you watch the matches this season, there were practically no easy games, especially with direct competitors. I'm not taking teams like Lokomotiv and Krasnodar out of the top three of this championship right now. But even if we take, conditionally, Zenit or Spartak, all these games were from the knife, for three results, it was not clear how it would end. And this is despite the places they occupied.

That is, the selection of football players is very high-quality by the standards of the women's Youth league. As well as the high level of the entire youth championship.

— Is there an understanding of what will happen next season?

— The main thing now is to make a team for next season. There will be training camps, a pre-season, where it is important to convey to the new girls what we want, to infect them with the same idea that we had in the team this year.

But now, I think it should be a little easier, because I know some of the girls from work last year. They are coming up to me from the U-18 team, so it should be a little easier.

— What was the most valuable thing for you personally this season?

— The progress of girls is the most valuable thing for me. There are already several girls training with the main team now, and I sincerely want them to succeed.

But I always repeat: their progress is related to the result. First of all, you need to understand that they have to make a very difficult step from youth football to adult. So we hold our fists for them.

And, of course, silver medals. Something I can be proud of.