The championship of Europe has pushed to the background the end of the Ukrainian soccer season. The more so that the last leg was only to identify those who would leave the top league. But even the soccer performed by Europe’s best teams is hardly a reason why we should postpone for July the assessment of the past soccer year which left us so much embittered by losses but still hopeful of future victories.
The season has ended. Our national team has already played two friendly matches; the Eurocups have already been played off, the Ukraine Cup and national championship winners have been identified. Rebrov has been sold, and Ukraine has “happily” missed a chance to take part in the UEFA Cup after the Fair Play series for the second year in a row. The following can still happen before the spiral of soccer evolution takes a new turn: transfer of Husin, sensational (God willing, in the good sense) performance of our junior national team in the European championship finals in July, and the election of the president of the Ukrainian Soccer Federation in August. Each of these can have a serious impact on our soccer. However, it seems to be the most suitable moment now to try to look at what has happened to our soccer in the past six months.
KYIV DYNAMO
By popular tradition, Dynamo began to make up for what they lost during the winter break in the first games of the Champions League second group tournament. They were close to leaving the group. However, Bayern was unreachable, and the second place in the group went to a team later destined to become Europe’s best. The play shown by the Kyiv club, which can rise in critical moments like a phoenix, may not have pleased us with the overall result but still inspired in us a hope that the result could come in due time. With practically no major changes in the team lineup compared to last fall (except for Demetradze), we can say that the lack of character and willpower Dynamo displayed in the autumn matches against Real and Bayern is a result of our national team’s fiasco in the Euro 2000 campaign. It is the Kyiv-based players of the national team who never managed to come to after the Slovenia nightmare. As to Demetradze, Dynamo’s latest and most expensive acquisition, he seems to be a promising and skillful player gradually winning the enthusiasm of Ukrainian audiences, but he still has to forget many things inherent in Georgian soccer. Not because Georgian soccer is bad but because serving such a muse as Dynamo “does not admit of vanity,” as a poet said. And the role of a “freelance artist and cold philosopher” only belongs here to one person who has repeatedly proved his exclusive right to this role since 1974. In a word, today’s Dynamo is a team that has won no resounding titles in the past three years (excluding those at home) but still has not gone dropped below a certain level, one quite high at that. What are the prospects? Should Husin be sold, I think his place will be taken by Mykhailenko who seems to have already matured for this. A good left flank is also discernible, provided Nesmachny and Maksymiuk work a little to improve themselves. As to the right flank, it will be assigned to the newly-acquired Hungarian, Laszlo Bodnar. There may be changes in tactical patterns, depending on the team composition. Let us remember: at first, immediately after Valery Lobanovsky came back, Dynamo emphasized counterattacks. A year later, having gained some experience in the league, the Kyivans even began to resort to positional attacks, of course, still showing uneven pace and rhythm. We also saw attempts to play with two liberos . In all probability, we will see something new in the coming fall, too, for Lobanovsky differs from most coaches just in never stopping even for a while. On the contrary, he tries to go beyond today and look to the future. Thus even if there are no new acquisitions (Dynamo is known to make its major purchases during the winter break), we will still see something new in our champion’s tactical patterns.
CHAMPIONSHIP OF UKRAINE
As to the Ukrainian championship as a whole, we can note a more acute struggle of teams other than Dynamo to make their way to the Champions League. This applies, first of all, to the newly-emerged Kryvbas, a fine club indeed, and, of course, the revived Donetsk team. The latter looked more deserving to play in the League: hence the result. Also more acute became the struggle in the lower part of the tournament chart, perhaps somewhat artificially because of the reduced number of teams in the top league. Yet, this absolutely progressive step on the part of the top soccer league has long been imminent. We can feel pity for some original teams, but the top league must be a true elite of the national championship. There still are some doubts about the participation of Poltava Vorskla in the UEFA Cup, for Konkov’s team has not been striking us with success lately. Let us hope the Poltavans will gain ample ground, well before the Eurocup campaign, to be able to put on a decent show in Europe or, to be more exact, to get at least four points (two wins) in the tournament’s main fixtures. For, as is known, Ukraine is now delegating four teams to the Eurocup competitions. Therefore, the total points gained by the Ukrainian clubs in this season will be divided by four. Hence the four points gained give Ukraine one point in the UEFA league table. This is, so to speak, the indispensable minimum. Of course, there will be an ideal situation if Kryvbas and Vorskla also gain at least four points for Ukraine. And then we again have to pin hopes on the harvest reaped by Dynamo and, God willing, Shakhtar in the Champions League. But this means each of our teams must gain 16 points (8 wins). Which is doubtful, to put it mildly, especially taking into account that Dynamo won 17.5 points last season, having played 16 matches. But Vorskla, for example, will be able to play not more than 15 matches, even with due account of the qualification round and going through to the UEFA Cup finals. There also are bonus points for qualifying for each next leg. But even a victory in the qualifying round will bring one, not two, points.
In general, one can calculate as much as one pleases, but one must assess his chances realistically. In this connection, I felt relieved (let the Crimean team forgive me) when we failed to field a second team for the UEFA Cup as a result of the Fair Play. We can only guess what kind of performance Simferopol Tavriya would have shown there, but the total points gained would have had to be divided by five, not four.
TEAMS
Now about the teams. There is no sense so far to speak about the women’s team of Ukraine because it is simply unrealistic to have one without a normal national championship. Some positive changes have been outlined in this respect in the past few days. God help us. However, I will remain a pessimist unless I see real and consistent(!) steps in this direction. On the other hand, I was pleased by the juniors who qualified for the European finals. Our boys faced a tough competition but still managed to break through! The under-21 team came unstuck in Lithuania after a generally not bad game in Bulgaria. I cannot give an unbiased judgment about the Lithuanian match, for I saw neither the match itself nor the statistics, but the result is shameful. As to the Sofia match, which I saw personally, the boys showed character. Playing in the minority, they snatched a win.
And, finally, a few words about this country’s top team. You know perfectly well the results of the two friendly matches our national team played. Very many objective and subjective factors influenced the result in London. You could read about most of them in special sports publications. If you find these factors too scanty or unconvincing, please look for some on your own. I will only express my personal point of view: the defeat on Wembley gave me much more cause for optimism than the victory in the mire of Levski Spartak stadium. It is more difficult today to speak about the prospects of the national team than about those of any other Ukrainian squad. We shall see what Norway will show at Euro 2000. It would be a good idea to play at last one more test game before the match against the Poles. Frankly, I think this is unlikely because there will be the election of the president of the Soccer Federation of Ukraine in August. The soccer chiefs have now to do things other than organize test matches. Incidentally, the future of our national team depends first of all on who will come to power in Ukrainian soccer. So I would like to wish this to all of us: whoever heads the federation, God grant that this will be good for Ukrainian soccer.
Finishing the theme of our nation’s soccer, I would like to note that attention has at last been paid to children. Those training in soccer schools, especially of the Dynamo type, have never been robbed of care. But what pleasantly surprised me was the street-soccer tournament held on Easter in Kyiv’s Independence Square, in which all those who wished could take part. The main thing in such children-oriented functions is that they must be lighthearted, which the organizers achieved. The federation and UFI, its exclusive agent, managed to find well-established sponsors, and, as a result, nobody, even those who lost at the first stage, was left unattended. All I can wish is that such tournaments become a tradition.
