“The season ended without a Super League gold medal, but with three honorable trophies.” Interview with the CEO of Dynamo

Moscow volleyball players “Dynamo “In the 2023/24 season, they won three out of four trophies: the Russian Volleyball Centenary Cup, the Russian Super Cup and the National Cup. In the PARI Super League, the Blue and White took first place in the regular season, but then missed their shot in the semi-finals and ultimately finished fourth. If we summarize the achievements of Dynamo over the past two seasons, the team has won six Russian competitions in a row.

Managing Director of Dynamo Vladimir Zinichev in an interview with , he summed up the season, talked about newcomers and those leaving the team, announced a change of head coach, and also announced that Dynamo was returning to its old arena – the Druzhba sports center in Luzhniki.

— How do you assess the results of the season for Dynamo?

— Despite the large amount of negativity that has been dumped on our team, we do not consider the season a failure, much less a failure. Last season, Dynamo won three cups out of four played in Russia. To these titles are also added a victory in the regular championship, which in principle does not give anything, but shows the level of the teams over a long distance. Winning the regular season shows how hard the team worked and how many great matches and victories they had.

But we can only consider the playoffs a failure. The team failed to win either the semi-finals or the bronze medal series. And the quarterfinals with Uralochka raised many questions about the quality of the game, although they ended in our favor. Everyone is used to Dynamo victories. Last season we won three out of three competitions, this season we won three out of four. Additionally, they have won six trophies in a row. I think that in the Super League, only a few teams have been able or will be able to achieve the same result as Dynamo Moscow. For many, this is a pipe dream.

Such results testify above all to the strength of the team which was able to achieve these victories. We’ve done a lot of work, but every fairy tale must have an ending. We didn’t finish in the best way. This is what we objectively received. But I want to make one reservation: for our team, these playoffs turned out to be a disaster. It was important for us to play matches not two days in a row, as we had to, but every other day, as required by the regulations. But due to the tragic events in Crocus, the playoff schedule was redrawn. Additionally, due to the lack of a suitable venue at the new match date in Moscow, they were forced to play a home away match.

It happens that a series of random and seemingly inconspicuous and insignificant events line up in a tragic chain. This is what happened to us too. We lost home advantage due to force majeure, we had to play double matches without rest, Irina Kapustina was injured and we clearly missed her in the playoffs. These little unforeseen issues were enough to keep us off the pedestal. But that’s sport. When, for example, in the first semi-final of the Russian Cup we lost to Lokomotiv 0-3 away, no one believed that Dynamo would make a comeback in the second leg and then win in the final . There too, everything was rather thin.

We end the season without the gold of the Russian championship, but with three honorary trophies – the Centenary Cup of Russian Volleyball, the Super Cup and the Cup of Russia. Thank you very much to the team and staff for this!

— How will the Dynamo squad change next season?

— The team of the 2023/24 season was very experienced, incredibly talented, in a sense, a dream team. Perhaps this team is one of the best that Dynamo has had in the last 20 years. Moreover, in five days, it will be exactly 20 years since the Dynamo (Moscow) women’s volleyball club was recreated. The failure in the playoffs of the Russian Championship prompted us to actively engage in rejuvenating the squad and creating a new team. During the new season, almost half of our squad will be renewed.

Natalia Pereira, Evgenia Startseva, Ekaterina Pipunyrova, Margarita Kurilo, Ekaterina Evdokimova, Tatyana Dmitrieva leave Dynamo. I am incredibly grateful to Pereira and Startseva. We brought Zhenya back to volleyball when she found herself without a team. They helped her recover and she showed her fighting spirit and best leadership traits. Without Pereira and Startseva, our victories would have been impossible.

During the season, Anastasia Zhabrova contacted me. She said she wanted to train more and asked to be released to another team for that. We met the player halfway, so next season Zhabrova will play in Zarechye-Odintsovo, and a year later she will return to Dynamo – she will have a contract for another season.

— Who will join Dynamo?

— Our team is young and interesting. Two players come to us for the position of blocker: Angelina Lazarenko, Russian champion with Dynamo-Ak Bars, best blocker in the Super League, and Vasilisa Volodina, born in 2007. She is a volleyball player from our agricultural club MBA, in which she has proven herself very well. Young Volodina’s transition is the result of our cooperation with the Moscow Volleyball Academy, which, I am sure, will still bring many benefits. We hope that Vasilisa will gain a lot of experience training and playing with our volleyball players, and at the same time she will have the opportunity to train further in the Major League “A”, playing for the MBA. Victoria Pushina and Ekaterina Polyakova remain at Dynamo.

Elizaveta Sinitsyna will continue to play as a setter and Maria Smelenko will also join us from Proton. Next season, the team will continue to be led by permanent and legendary captain Natalia Goncharova. Olga Yuryeva from Tulitsa will also be diagonal.

Valeria Shevchuk, who previously played in the youth team of Dynamo, moves to the position of final player of Dynamo Krasnodar. The team was also replenished by Ksenia Kupryashkina from Uralochka, who played over the last two seasons. Irina Kapustina continues to play for Dynamo. In the libero position, we have two Ani left – Podkopaeva and Khabibrakhmanova.

Thus, a finalist player position is not filled in the team; we will discuss it with our new head coach. I’m not saying that we leave a place specifically for the legionnaire, we will think with him.

— Does this mean that Konstantin Ushakov is leaving the post of head coach of Dynamo?

– Yes. On Monday I met with Konstantin Anatolyevich. We summarized the results of the season and our joint work. I thanked him for his efforts and his work. He led Dynamo to six titles, these are his best achievements in his coaching career. I think that Konstantin Anatolyevich will remember his victorious years at Dynamo Moscow all his life. With us, he became a national champion for the first time as head coach and won several cups. In any case, he enriched his experience by working at Dynamo. And working with players of such quality, I think, was a great pleasure for Ushakov. Konstantin Anatolyevich’s contract expired and it was decided not to renew it.

— Who will be the new head coach?

— After meeting Ushakov, I signed a contract with Alexander Koshkin, who previously worked at Dynamo-Metar. The agreement is for a period of two years. We do not anticipate any further changes to the coaching staff in the coming year. Koshkin comes alone to our coaching staff. I had a long conversation with the general director of Dynamo-Metar Vitaly Evgenievich Nosov. We got along. Koshkin’s transfer to Dynamo Moscow is a personal choice of Alexander Yuryevich, a step forward in his coaching career.

— Why did you choose this particular trainer?

“I’ve been watching Koshkin for a long time. And when he worked in Sakhalin and Yenisei. What I like about him is that he is absolutely on the same wavelength as the players. I mean player interaction. I saw that he was friendly, caring and responsible. It seems to me that it is also important that he does not yet have the victories that Ushakov already has behind him. He is a coach hungry for victories. I don’t mean to say that Ushakov has calmed down, by any means. Ushakov is a great athlete, an honored master of sports and a good coach. Before Dynamo Moscow, he also sought victories, but he never won gold at the Russian championship. It was a dream come true for him. I think Koshkin will be able to find additional leverage to mobilize the team and incentives – both for himself and for the players.

— Is it true that Dynamo is returning to its former home ground, USZ Druzhba?

– That’s right. In connection with the completion of the reconstruction of the Druzhba sports complex, we sent a letter to the Deputy Mayor of Moscow with a request to return to the arena, which our fans loved, with which many victories are associated. Our request was supported, I met with the general director of Luzhniki, Andrei Evgenievich Verevko, and we agreed on everything. We will start playing the new season in “Friendship”. I invite our fans there, everyone who cares about the Moscow women’s volleyball club “Dynamo”.

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