“I’m very pleased with the fact that United sent their scout to watch our game against Vorskla,” the Zorya Luhansk coach, Yuriy Vernydub, said this week, which makes a change from those managers who try desperately to hide themselves away from future opponents. “Before, they used to say that no one knew about Zorya, whereas now scouts are watching our boys. It means that the players deserve that.”
Zorya have particular reason to want to be known: their very existence in European competition feels like a triumph. In June 2014, the Ukrainian club were forced to flee Luhansk because of the conflict with pro-Russia separatists who founded the Luhansk People’s Republic. Zorya’s home ground, the Avangard Stadium, suffered heavy shelling.
They moved to Zaporizhzhya, 400km to the south-west, where they play home games at the Slavutych Arena. Its address, just over the road from the Museum of the History of Warfare on Bulvar Lobanovskoho, gives an indication of Zaporizhzhya’s main place in Ukrainian football history: it was there in May 2002, leading his Dynamo Kyiv side against Metalurh, that Valeriy Lobanovskyi collapsed in the dug-out, dying a few days later in hospital.
Vernydub’s spirit of openness also makes a significant change from how things used to be in Zaporizhzhya. In Soviet times it was closed down because of its role in the energy industry, the site of both Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and a huge hydroelectric dam (Zaporizhzhya means “beyond the rapids”).
Zorya have thrived in adversity. Their players have reportedly not been paid in six months – not an uncommon story in modern Ukraine – but despite that and despite playing away from home they finished fourth in the league last season, their highest placing since surprisingly lifting the Soviet title in 1972. They have continued their form this season, Saturday’s 2-1 win over Vorskla leaving them second in the table.
“I hope we will put on a decent performance in Manchester, although it will be very difficult,” said Vernydub. “It’s hard to compare our clubs in terms of anything, be it squads or finances. But that will make our match-up even more interesting. Am I nervous? Not yet.
“Nervousness comes on the day of the match and during the opening five to 10 minutes of the game. We respect our opponents a lot and understand that we will face a very strong club. But we are ready for that. United have weaknesses too. We must take to the pitch and fight.”
Nobody doubts that Vernydub is the real star of Zorya. The 50-year-old had a journeyman career in the 80s and 90s as a defender or midfielder, playing 112 games for Metalurh Zaporizhzhya and 76 for Torpedo, the other club in the city, before a late-career flourish at Zenit St Petersburg, with whom he won the Russian Cup in 1999.
He returned to Zaporizhzhya and worked as a coach at Metalurh before becoming the assistant manager of Zorya in 2009. When Anatoly Chantsev was sacked in 2011, Vernydub was placed in temporary control, taking the job permanently after a 0-0 draw with Dynamo.
His reputation has grown to the extent that when Mircea Lucescu left Shakhtar Donetsk last summer, he was considered a serious candidate before Paulo Fonseca got the job. Relations between the two displaced clubs remain strong, though, and at Old Trafford Zorya may feature as many as six players on loan from Shakhtar.
Verydub tends to prefer a 4-2-1-3 shape, with a gameplan based on diligence, teamwork and high tempo. They perhaps lack a little guile and can struggle against teams who set out to frustrate them, and are at their best when they can sit deep and attack the space behind an opponent.
They have pace in wide areas, with the rapid full-backs, Yevhen Opanasenko and Nikita Kamenyuka, always looking to get forward and join a counterattack. Recent results against Ukraine's big clubs suggest how dangerous they can be: in the past two years Zorya have beaten Shakhtar 1-0 away and 3-2 at home, as well as achieving a 2-2 draw and a 1-0 win at Dynamo.
Even after a 1-1 home draw against Fenerbahce in their opening Europa League group game, no one is thinking quite in those terms about the trip to Manchester. Most players, in fact, seem vaguely bewildered the match is happening at all. “United are not just serious opponents, but very serious ones,” said the midfielder Dmytro Hrechyshkin, one of those on loan from Shakhtar.
“As for them underestimating us, I doubt it will be the case. In light of our recent results, I think United will take us seriously. Every player dreams of playing against such clubs as United. Apart from on a computer game, it was difficult to envisage a game between United and Zorya a few years ago. To be honest, I haven’t even dreamt of playing at Old Trafford, but I hope that I will.”
(Guardian service)
