With four Ukrainian teams vying in the Champions and European League’s tournaments this fall, the Ukrainian soccer calendar has a strong European component and Ukrainians will be able to watch the international matches live, in addition to those of Ukraine’s soccer championships.
This fact also has a psychological significance. No one can say now that their favorite team is “defending national interests on the international arena,” because there are four teams doing just that. Symbolically, these teams represent the Ukrainian cities scheduled to host the Euro-2012 meets one and a half years from now. Thus, soccer fans in Lviv, a city which (unlike Kyiv, Donetsk, and Kharkiv) hasn’t been “spoiled” by many soccer matches of international caliber, can also enjoy the singular atmosphere of European-level soccer.
Lviv hosted the most interesting soccer meet out of the four teams, as the local Karpaty team challenged Germany’s celebrated Borussia (Dortmund). The Lviv stadium was packed and the game proved something to remember for years to come. Karpaty, being inferior to Borussia on practically all counts. After the Germans scored two goals and started to relax, Karpaty did score three goals, even though some of them were accidental. No words could describe what was happening on the stadium tiers. Later Borussia once again showed its class, scoring the two goals it needed to win. However, this did nothing to dampen the Lviv fans’ festive spirit that night. The Leopolitans were thrilled about the spectacularly dramatic course the soccer meet took, rather than its outcome. Who is there to deprive Lviv of such happy occasions every week? Why was the audience of the Karpaty vs. Obolon Ukrainian Premier League match, held several days later, five time less than that of Karpaty vs. Borussia? Karpaty scored three goals in the other match as well.
Unlike Lviv, the European Cup start-up games of the Donetsk and Kyiv major teams proved to be no big deal. According to Shakhtar’s fans, this team should have had no problem defeating Serbia’s Partizan in the Champions League series, just as [Kyiv] Dynamo should have slaughtered Belarusia’s BATE.
As it was, the Ukrainian teams had a hard time coping in those matches. Shakhtar won by a superb free kick and Dynamo tied the game (2:2), much to the [Kyiv] fans’ chagrin, placing the coach Valerii Gazaiev on the verge of handing in his resignation. Outwardly, both games looked the same, with the host teams having done considerably less than they actually could, and with the guest teams being simply lucky on many occasions. In fact, the results could have been the exact opposite, with Shakhtar losing and Dynamo winning the game. But would this have changed the situation in principle? The answer is no, considering that the European soccer season is only starting, and there are enough unexpected results in September’s national championships, European club tournaments, and games played by national teams. Closer to the winter season, the favorites will be in shape and will have corrected their September mistakes. In the spring, we are likely to see basically the same teams taking leads in every tournament.
Likewise, we’ll be in a position to pass judgment on the Ukrainian soccer teams on the European soccer arena next spring only. What about a 5-0 victory of Metalist over the Hungarian host team Debrecen? This victory reveals the low ranking of the Hungarian team and not strength of Metalist Kharkiv. Metalist will have to cope with true European competition later, and the same is true of the other three Ukrainian teams slated to vie for the European Cups.
On the other hand, should we hope for positive results already? Even now it is clear that not all of the Ukrainian clubs will win the cups, simply because there are not enough cups for such many Ukrainian clubs. Moreover, the rival teams will do their utmost to win it. Another important point is that, for the first time in history, Ukrainian stadiums will host twelve games played in accordance with UEFA standards, each being a true festival for the fans. There is also the possibility of Ukrainian sports audiences getting used to watching such competitions, with some among them, the proverbial powers that be, taking up the challenge and supporting our small-time soccer teams and their small-scale competitions. Then there will be ample occasions to celebrate.
