The Ukrainian national team failed to reach Division A of the League of Nations. From the group where the Ukrainian team was considered the favorite in absentia. Moreover, everything was decided in a face-to-face confrontation between the two contenders - Scotland turned out to be stronger than the team of Alexander Petrakov. Given the extreme argument, this outcome is logical, it should be taken for granted and no longer ask questions about what if yes if only.
Alexander Petrakov. Photo: gettyimages.comThe emotional component of this outcome gave a serious hole in the deck of the ship, which is controlled by a 65-year-old specialist. There were cracks on the ship even before that - Petrakov's conflict with Ruslan Malinovsky, tense relations between the coach and the press, the team's absence from the World Cup. But Malinovsky returned to the national team and continued to be the key performer of the Blue-Yellows, communication nuances overlapped with the results of the team, and the defeat against Wales is one of those after which it is difficult to find arguments for constructive criticism. Yet 0-0 with Scotland in Krakow gave fans good reason to criticize Petrakov - not so much because the task was not completed, but because of how it turned out to be a failure.
Could the coach of the Ukrainian national team have refreshed the game in attack with earlier substitutions, when the Scots began to sit deeper towards their goal? Could. Could he have gone for broke and given the order to play without looking back in the final moments of the duel, given that a draw was just as good as a defeat? Could. In the end, the rain and the wet lawn could play to the benefit of the Ukrainians in the guests' penalty area, because no one is immune from mistakes. It is not a fact that all these conventions would have led to a different result, but the attempt was never made, and we will never know what the reward for risk would be.
But I propose to stop shooting the entire quiver of critical arrows at Petrakov. In such cases, he is not accustomed to taking responsibility for himself and becoming the object of merciless criticism from outside. However, the pale finish of the national team and the second place in the group, disappointing for the initial goals and ambitions, has logical prerequisites in addition to the decisions of the head coach, which never materialized.
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Petrakov's campaign at the head of the national team did not start very promising: three draws in a row, and only away successes in confrontations with Finland and Bosnia and Herzegovina allowed Ukraine to take second place in the qualifying group.
The match with Scotland in the playoffs of the 2022 World Cup was the apogee for the Petrakov team, when all the mechanisms in the team worked smoothly: the team was well prepared functionally, emotions were running high, and the leaders made a decisive contribution to the victory. The result of that period of time should have been winning a ticket to Qatar, but then the villainous fate and all kinds of stars in the sky intervened, giving moments of triumph to the objectively weakest of the two teams.
In the Nations League, the national team was never able to show at least a level close to the games in the selection. Even taking into account both removals of the Armenian team and half of the matches won in the competition calendar. The reasons for the decline may be different, but I will focus on the key issue - personnel.
The previous rise of the Ukrainian national team, when the team achieved the greatest success in the international arena, was during the final part of the 2020 European Championship. Although the team led by Andriy Shevchenko did not shine at the European forum, by chance, the blue-yellows managed to literally slip into the 1/8 finals from third place. And then there was that most memorable game of recent years against Sweden and an unforgettable advance to the quarterfinals. The successful adventures of Ukrainians at the European forum in the form of being in the top 8 of the Old World became possible thanks to the good form of key performers - Andriy Yarmolenko and Roman Yaremchuk, Oleksandr Zinchenko also said a weighty word in the playoffs.
The same characters pulled the Ukrainian national team under the new coach at the final stage of the qualifying round for the 2022 World Cup. Although Petrakov invited a whole cohort of new players to the team, with most of whom he worked in the youth and youth teams of Ukraine, the performers of the first violins remained unchanged. When it came to the Nations League, and the team, for various reasons, could not count on important base players, problems began. Although we defeated Ireland on the road, three points in Dublin were more like a gift of fate for the defeat in Wales. The return match with the Irish was so nondescript on the part of the Ukrainians that the guys had to be thanked for the draw. Well, the beating without a chance from Scotland in Glasgow became the apotheosis of the helplessness of the Petrakov team.
Whatever the losses of the coaching staff before the key head-on skirmish with the Scots, it must be admitted that Yarmolenko, who has already overtaken Andriy Shevchenko in the number of matches for the national team, does not demonstrate the level of play according to his status after those same 3-1 at Hampden Park. The same applies to Yaremchuk, who, it seems, ran out of gas with the national team flying past the world championship. Of all the traditional leaders of the Ukrainian national team, only Malinovsky gave glimmers of hope in the League of Nations, but even at the decisive moment, Ruslan's abilities were not enough to score such a necessary goal for the Highlanders. Summary - those who had the highest expectations were unable to help the national team at the most necessary moment.
Perhaps Yarmolenko passed in physics after moving from a high-intensity nuclear submarine to a much more measured UAE championship. Maybe Yaremchuk's insecure play in the national team was influenced by his transfer saga from Benfica to Club Brugge, where the fans were not happy with the appearance of the Ukrainian. A banal misalignment should also not be discounted, because try to force yourself to give all your best after the first trip to the Mundial in 16 years, being at arm's length, will not take place in the end.
Under Petrakov, a certain stable backbone of the back line was formed in the national team. The right flank at the start of the League of Nations successfully plowed Karavaev (goal and assist with Armenia in Lodz), and Tymchik finished the competition in this position (goal and assist with Armenia in Yerevan). Mikolenko is a vivid example of how the changes in the club career helped Vitaliy move to a new level of play in the national team. Playing for Everton in a high-intensity competitive environment helped make a healthy Mikolenko the main option for Petrakov, who, ever since his days with the U-20 team, has relied on vertical football and energetic flank performers.
Matvienko played 13 matches and most minutes (1075) under Petrakov and, in addition to the ill-fated defeat from Scotland, closed the position in the center of defense at a consistently high level. Zabarny did not play in Glasgow in September, and the head coach complained about this loss before the starting whistle. And not in vain, because under the guidance of the current coach, Ilya continued to progress, and he received the two lowest scores from the games played (6.0 from Whoscored) in home matches with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Scotland, when ours most likely failed to crush their rivals.
It was the flank defenders who were among the most active in the draw game with the Scots. When there is no balance in the center of the field and confident control under pressure, you have to advance attacks through wide areas. The Ukrainian national team did not have many real scoring episodes at the opposite goal, but in one of the attacks, it was Mikolenko's pass that resulted in a cross to the near post - Malinovsky did not hit the target without handling the ball.
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The home match with Scotland was missed by Zinchenko and Shaparenko due to injuries. By a strange coincidence, it was this pair that made the difference for the Ukrainian national team in previous meetings when it came to moving the ball between the lines with the lowest possible percentage of defects.
The London Arsenal football player took the field eight times during Petrakov's tenure, and only in the home meeting with Ireland, after a series of grueling matches in the two-week June cycle, Zinchenko played below his capabilities. In the previous seven games, his average Whoscored game score was consistently high at 7.35. Like it or not, Zinchenko’s influence on the quality of the game in the current national team is great, and the loss of such a player has become irreparable for the Ukrainian team both in Glasgow and Krakow.
Shaparenko became an equally important figure for Petrakov in the center of the field. Nikolai played in all matches, except for the home match with Bulgaria in November last year. He scored his first and so far the only goal for the national team against the French in Kyiv, his vision of the field and the quality of the pass allowed Ukraine to beat Bosnia and Herzegovina away and stake out a place in the playoffs of the 2022 World Cup. But, in addition to the goal and the effective pass, Shaparenko was more responsible for moving the ball and made the attacks of the Ukrainian team unpredictable. Just what was needed in the playing conditions against the Scots, who closed the free spaces behind and coped with all the attempts of the hosts to organize at least something unconventional in front.
The absence of Zinchenko and Shaparenko in Krakow made the game of the Ukrainian national team less variable and more straightforward, and this also affected the final result.
Dovbik brilliantly parodied Inzaghi's best years in football, but if Artyom had scored from one situation, when he still held the line with the defenders, the mood of the Blue-and-Yellow fans would have been completely different. But there is less demand from Dovbik: the forward of Dnipro-1 became the top scorer of the Ukrainian national team in League B1, and yet he only claims the right to be considered the main striking force of this team.
The Ukrainian national team ends 2022 like a meme with the hero of Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie "Shutter Island". Everyone tried, it seems that the tragedy did not happen, but the mood is somehow not very good. What is even more depressing is the third pot instead of the second for our team during the Euro 2024 draw, which increases the strength of potential competitors for a ticket to the European forum and reduces our chances of finding ourselves there. But the Ukrainian team has not missed the European Championships for ten years...
But do not forget that even though the coach is responsible for the result, you should not hang all the dogs on emotions on the one who pulled out a losing qualification and almost brought the team to Qatar. It’s easier to use the terms “physical education teacher” or “children’s coach” than to delve into the essence and understand that, given all the circumstances, this result was natural for the Ukrainian national team in its current state.
Vadim ANDREEV
