Ukraine played Latvia in the April 2 friendly meet quite routinely. Such matches are best played before and not after important official matches. Aside from the status of the match, the atmosphere of the half-empty Dynamo stadium proved uninspiring. There remained no trace of the national unification around our team that certain trumpeters of Ukraine’s soccer feats noticed last Wednesday. Nobody handed out pennants, and singer Ponomariov proved not patriotic enough to sing the national anthem at the Dynamo stadium. But since the match was planned beforehand and the Latvian team arrived, our team had no choice than to play.
Ukraine and Latvia met in a return match after a friendly game played two years before in Riga. Our team won, albeit with difficulty. This time Maksym Kalynychenko saved the day with his penalty kick minutes before the final whistle blew. Andriy Shevchenko did not play this time. According to national team coach Leonid Buriak, the Milan player was dying to play for his team, but the decision was made to save his precious health, and he was almost forcefully flown to Italy. Thus, this time the team consisted of players whose health is not all that precious health for the nation’s soccer. For the first time, Moscow Spartak player Kalinichenko played full time. Former Dynamo Kyiv player Venhlynsky was also fielded. Both proved that they are at least no worse than those considered regular players for the national team. Tymoshchuk, Husyn, Radchenko, Nesmachny, Fedorov, Dmytrulin, and Vorobei also played to the mark. Some believe that there are eighty or so of their class in Ukraine. Unfortunately, there are hardly any stars of the European level. The match with our Latvian former comp atriots was not very interesting. Both teams strictly followed their coaches’ instructions and did not improvise too much. The only exception was Andriy Voronin, who seems to have grown used to the role of Ukraine’s team leader. Our team managed to outrun the guests and eventually scored a goal.
Even before the match there was talk of the exhausting match with Spain, after which the Ukrainian team found it hard to play fast with Latvia. I do not know about Ukrainians, but the exhaustion from their match in Kyiv did not prevent the Spanish from winning their three points playing Armenia and end the first elimination round in first place. Greece defeated Northern Ireland in an away match thereby catching up with Ukraine. Thus the three contenders for Euro Cup ’04 are Ukraine, Greece, and Spain. Unlike out team, these teams did not lose points to outsiders. The next matches are slated for June 7 and 11. Our team will play Armenia in Lviv and then go to Greece. The chances of second place in the group are not bad, first place, however, is out of the question. I wish the match with Latvia and another rehearsal with Denmark planned for April 30 would suggest to the coaches of our team the best plan for the decisive matches of the elimination rounds.
Ranking of the teams after the first round: Spain - 10 Ukraine - 6 Greece - 6 Armenia - 4 Northern Ireland - 1
