The amazing and largely unexpected success of the Ukrainian national soccer team in the World Cup 2006 qualifying round has prompted different explanations. Some say that our opponents have underestimated our team, while others speak about the incredible luck of Ukrainian coach Oleh Blokhin. There are plenty of other theories, including a lucky alignment of stars and planets. Nobody is trying to look for the reason behind the victorious streak in the Ukrainian team’s excellence because our players’ sheer desire to win seems to have eclipsed their mastery. It was superhuman exertion that helped the Ukrainians defeat objectively superior teams.
THE STRENGTH OF A NEW GENERATION
Among the players fielded on March 30 against the Danish national team at Kyiv’s Olympic Stadium were only two players from the Ukrainian team that in 1999 failed to make it to the Euro 2000 finals by a whisker. The Kyiv Dynamo of the late 20th century, which was almost entirely represented in the national team, has given way to a truly national team made up of players who have contracts with many international soccer clubs.
This team may not have all that much experience or skill. But if you recall the Ukrainian team of the 1990s, besides Kalytvyntsev and Shevchenko it didn’t have any outstanding soccer virtuosos either. I watched the match with Stefan Reshko, a legendary footballer of the 1970s. A player with Dynamo’s 1975 “golden” lineup, he sadly watched the new generation of players: there’s not much of the old skill left and no more players of the caliber of Muntian, Buriak, Veremeyev, or Blokhin.
This may be so. But soccer veterans always feel that the grass was greener and the ball rounder when they were young. The distinguished veteran must have forgotten that he didn’t become a master all at once, and that things initially did not go smoothly for him because of beginner’s anxiety and the burden of responsibility.
So, let us not be too critical of Svidersky and Kosyrin, who played their first official match for the national team. Let us forgive the mistakes of other players, who spent the first half of the game trying to keep the ball away from their goal, unable to mount a successful offensive. But our players pushed themselves to the limit and didn’t let up for a second, thus forcing the initially more relaxed Danes to make mistakes when they could have scored. In this situation the national team needed a leader who could take the game into his hands. And the Ukrainian team had one.
THE RAVEN’S POINTED BEAK
The Ukrainian press has officially dubbed Andriy Shevchenko, Europe’s best soccer player of 2004, Sheva. Almost every player on the national team has an unpretentious teenager’s nickname. Andriy Voronin, who has become a real leader of the Ukrainian national team, answers to the nickname Vorona [Raven]. This moniker came to mind when the forward of Germany’s Bayern was pecking relentlessly at the Danish defense, fighting for every ball and not stopping for breathers. Andriy emanated so much energy that you could feel it on the grandstands, where Andriy Shevchenko was sitting that night.
Comparing the two leading Ukrainian forwards is a thankless business. I can’t help pointing out, however, that at age 28 Shevchenko is a player from the former national team, where he didn’t accomplish anything. Voronin is only three years his junior, but he represents a new generation. This gifted native of Odesa can hardly be called a product of the Ukrainian or German schools of soccer. Andriy is a self-made player, who went abroad as a young man and worked his way into the European soccer elite. Much like millions of Ukrainian migrant workers who left their homeland to put their skills to good use abroad, Voronin, who is the star of Germany’s Bundesliga, is a dedicated player of his national team, who shows by his own example that genuine talent will always succeed.
When Voronin almost single-handedly defeated Kyiv Dynamo in the Champions League last December, he showed his tremendous potential. Today Andriy is in even better shape. The fact that he was the one who scored this wonderfully executed and much needed goal against Denmark is a reward for his dedication to soccer and desire to bring the Ukrainian team to the World Cup finals in Germany.
After Voronin put the ball into the back of Denmark’s net, it became clear that the Ukrainians would not lose their victory. Even though the guest team made two dangerous forays toward Shovkovsky’s goal, the Ukrainians dictated the general course of the game.
HEALTHY OPTIMISM
On March 30, Ukraine’s national team did not just defeat a strong opponent, earning three points to stay at the top of its qualifying round group. Our team has shown that it has what it takes to remain at the high level it has achieved. The main strength of Blokhin’s team is the desire to achieve success. You can be a virtuoso, possess tactical skills, and have all the soccer wisdom in the world. But when the whole team is not set to win at any cost, all this mastery may be useless. Suffice it to recall the French national team, which is second only to Brazil in terms of the number of stars and talented reserve players. It seems, however, that the French have grown tired of winning. Their leaders have earned every possible soccer title. As a result, now they can’t even beat the humble national team of Israel.
The players on our team, most of whom are only approaching the “golden” soccer age, have everything ahead of them. After scoring a large number of points in the tournament, the Ukrainian team is duty- bound not to lose their advantage and to bring what they set out to do to a victorious conclusion. Who knows, maybe one day this very generation of Ukrainian players will be called a golden one.
