Source: youtube.com
Roman Morozov, forward for Prykarpattia-Hoverla, addressed the fans after the match:
“I want to welcome all the supporters to the start of the new season. I must apologize to our fans because the performance we showed at home was unacceptable. Nothing went according to plan. Our shots missed the mark, the defense was nonexistent, and we lost every rebound battle. We need to make radical changes, refocus for the upcoming matches, and forget this game as if it were a nightmare. We have to play better, improve, and progress. I hope we will find our form and everything will be fine, but there is still a lot of work ahead.”
Viktor Bugra, head coach of Prykarpattia-Hoverla, shared his thoughts:
“Of course, starting the season with a home defeat is not what we wanted. I want to thank all the fans who came out and supported us. There was a large crowd and passionate backing. I especially want to acknowledge those who stayed until the end and didn’t leave during halftime. Our performance was completely disappointing in every aspect—rebounding, defense. Zaporizhzhia shot well from beyond the arc today, but that was because we allowed them to do so. We failed to execute anything, both offensively and defensively.
We had studied them thoroughly with plenty of video analysis. The coaching staff prepared all the information, but we lacked focus in the first quarter, gave up easy points, and failed to score ourselves. Basketball is a game of mistakes, and we made 18 turnovers—that’s far too many. Zaporizhzhia capitalized on these mistakes and scored 20 points off our turnovers. It was a disastrous game for us. Now we must regroup and work hard—there’s no rest. We have training tomorrow. We will approach every game with the same mindset, regardless of the opponent—whether it’s Dnipro, Kharkiv Sokoly, or Kyiv-Basket. Basketball is about fight and the desire to win.
This league is unpredictable; any team can go through ups and downs. We will put in all our efforts to prepare well for the next game. Of course, we play at home. I told the players this was our first home game, and we must enter with maximum focus and do the work we practice in training. Therefore, I invite everyone to come and support us on Sunday. The stands are like our sixth player, so I look forward to seeing everyone at the game.”
Vladyslav Nikolaychuk, forward for Zaporizhzhia, commented:
“Greetings to everyone at the start of this season. We all waited a long time and are happy to be here. We won today because we acted as a single unit, supporting each other. Yes, we made many technical and tactical mistakes, but it’s only the first game, and we will correct those. It’s always nice to play when there are many fans. Unfortunately, Zaporizhzhia cannot host matches at the moment, but when the war ends, that will definitely happen. Our next match is against Khmelnytskyi, a newcomer to our league. Honestly, we don’t know what to expect, so we will adapt as we go.”
Yevhen Isakov, head coach of Zaporizhzhia, reflected on the game:
“I have mixed feelings. On one hand, we won and at times dominated confidently, but overall the quality of our play is far from what we aim for. It’s good to have the victory as a positive first step and start, but we still have a lot to work on. This is just the beginning of the season. I actually live here in Ivano-Frankivsk, so it feels like playing at home but for another, foreign team. That’s a strange feeling.
We weren’t quite sure what to expect from Prykarpattia-Hoverla’s new American player, but overall it’s a very familiar team and system. Not much has changed since last season, so everything was fairly predictable. Our American players performed well at times, but there were some puzzling mistakes. How can you do that? But it’s only the start. We will continue developing our schemes and defensive and offensive systems. This process will take some time.”
