This is a first in the history of the national soccer team: never before had our players won an away-cup match with a three-point advantage. Even in their match against tiny Andorra they contented themselves with a two-point win. The 3:0 defeat of Turkey’s team on its home turf in Istanbul has propelled the Ukrainian team to the top spot in their qualifying group, with a fair chance of making it to their first-ever World Cup finals.
BATTLE-TESTED TACTICS
After experimenting with the lineup and tactics, Ukraine national team coach Oleh Blokhin returned to the tried and tested playing technique that proved effective in the 1990s. The Ukrainians developed this peculiar style by force of circumstances. Given the limited choice of top class players, in their matches against star-studded teams the Ukrainian team of the 1990s used the only possible tactic of selflessly defending their goal and hoping for a chance to counterattack. This is the way they defeated the Portuguese virtuosos in 1996 and put up a good fight against Germany and France. This tactic worked, and with a little more luck our team would have made it to the 1998 World Cup finals. It was in a 2000 match against the Norwegians that our team played this kind of soccer for the last time. Shevchenko scored the winning goal in a single counterattack from the Ukrainians, while the remaining ten players and goalkeeper Shovkovsky effectively repelled all the Norwegians’ attacks.
Both Shevchenko and Shovkovsky played in the main lineup on that fateful Wednesday of November 17. Everything recalled the old days: a barrage of attacks from the host team, a selfless performance by the defenders, a confident Shovkovsky, and swift counterattacks by Shevchenko. Granted, fortune was on our side in some episodes. Had the two Turkish forwards managed to connect their passes in the early minutes of the match, everything would have turned out differently for Ukraine. But it happened as it did, and the Ukrainians scored three times in counterattacks, but could have scored as many more times. Meanwhile, the Turks did not score even once, even though their relentless attacks continued throughout the match.
Why hasn’t our team been playing like this in the past several years? Why did they return to the winning and arguably the only possible tactic only now? There are several reasons. Perhaps one of them is the playing form of Andriy Shevchenko, who did not put on his best performance in the matches he played for our national team in recent years. The other reason is the absence of a player who would be able to send a bullet pass to Shevchenko. After Kalytvyntsev, Maksymov, and Kardash left the team, while Rebrov irretrievably lost his former prowess, clean forward passes became a problem. Today the national team has Andriy Voronin, a forward who can dribble, score, and pass the ball effectively, and winger Andriy Husev, who tirelessly works the right flank and is always there to pick up the ball. Last but not least, Andriy Shevchenko is once again his former self, as we knew him in 1999.
WHOM DID WE DEFEAT?
The logical conclusion is that after taking third place in the last World Cup, the Turks are resting on their laurels, and to defeat them does not pose too great a problem. Yet this is not absolutely true. The Turkish soccer school, which has groomed some of the world’s best players, remains at a very high level. Turkey has enough talented young players and experienced virtuosos. The Turks are a strong team to beat.
At the same time, the Turks are beginning to remind people more and more of Ararat from Yerevan and Tbilisi Dynamo of the 1970s and 80s. These two teams always had top class players capable of building a virtuoso combination, who were also strong on technique and speed. But this didn’t help them defeat teams by adopting rational (!) tactics. A single interception or long pass could render such teams helpless.
What good did it do the Turks to attack Shovkovsky’s goal ninety minutes running, while the halfbacks led by Emre were overtaking our players every possible way? After passing one Ukrainian defender, every Turkish forward was tackled by a succession of defenders, and when the exhausted Turk finally struck at the goal, goalkeeper Shovkovsky, steady as a rock, was already prepared to parry the shot.
The Turkish team failed to find a remedy against the Ukrainians’ trademark trick of whole-team defense. Spectators, who would rather watch swift attacks from our team, do not favor this kind of playing style. But was this possible, considering the current level of our halfbacks? Therefore, we spent the whole game clutching our hearts in suspense, expecting our defense to make a fatal mistake at any moment.
This time they didn’t make a mistake, while spectacular counterattacks, masterly dribbling, accurate passes, and bullet shots by the Ukrainians brought the Turks to their knees. Taking for granted that Shevchenko was the Ukrainian team’s only trump card, the Turks followed him closely. Meanwhile, the first scoring shot came from Husev, who caught the host team by surprise, appearing right in Rushtu’s goalmouth.
The Turks were strong and remain so. But they will not play Ukraine for at least another year. It’s not likely that our team will lose its advantage of five points, because aside from the tournament points, our team has regained a sense of strength. Now let the rivals think of a way to defeat us.
TO BERLIN!
Ukraine has never had such a standing in any World Cup qualifying group. To its points from two victories and two draws Ukraine can add the losses of its rivals in matches against one another. On the day that Ukraine defeated Turkey, the Georgian team tied 2:2 with Denmark, depriving the latter of two points. Now Ukraine is the undisputed leader of the group in terms of points won and lost. Most importantly, no one can really challenge Ukraine’s standing. With the exception of Kazakhstan, all the other contenders in the group are almost equally strong and will not let each other catch up with Ukraine. Now it only remains for Ukraine not to lose, to put up a spirited defense, and to look for chances to score on counterattacks. Germany, which will host the world’s best soccer teams eighteen months from now, is already looming large for Ukraine. Everything will turn out well for Ukraine as long as the team preserves its winning attitude and the winds of fortune are at our backs.
UEFA World Cup Qualifying Group 2
Turkey — Ukraine — 0:3,
Georgia — Denmark — 2:2,
Greece — Kazakhstan — 3:1
P W D L F A Pts
1. Ukraine 5 3 2 0 9 3 11
2. Denmark 4 1 3 0 6 4 6
3. Turkey 5 1 3 1 6 5 6
4. Albania 4 2 0 2 3 5 6
5. Greece 4 1 2 1 5 4 5
6. Georgia 4 1 2 1 5 5 5
7. Kazakhstan 4 0 0 4 2 10 0
