Midfielder of Shakhtar Donetsk and the youth national team of Ukraine Artem Bondarenko in an interview "TEAM1" shared his emotions and memories about the performance of the Ukrainian "youth" team in the Euro-2023 (U-21) selection cycle. We will remind, based on the results of this performance, the "blue-yellow" won a ticket to the final part of the European Championship.
Artem Bondarenko"It all started with Milevskiy's penalty..."
— I am sure that playing for the national team of the country is the dream of everyone involved in football, - said Artem Bondarenko. — Of course, I was not an exception, and from a very young age I imagined the first time I would wear a national team shirt. Together with my father, who is a children's coach, we watched all the matches of the main team of Ukraine.
The first mention of the national team? Apparently, it was the 2006 World Cup Round of 16 match between Ukraine and Switzerland. I was not yet six years old, but this game remained in my memory, perhaps because it was the first time I saw such a penalty shot by Artem Milevskii. It was very emotional.
It is not necessary, I think, to emphasize once more that the national team is a team in which you defend the colors of the entire country. But nowadays, these words acquire even more meaning. The second half of our journey to the Euro was spent during the war, and we, being in our youth, constantly remembered this and thanked our Armed Forces. If it weren't for them, we definitely wouldn't have seen this Euro.
"He made his debut so that he was substituted in the first half"
— At the end of 2016, I moved from Cherkasy to Kyiv — I entered the Shakhtar academy. After that, the first call to the youth national team (U-17) took place. I remember that Serhiy Popov was the coach, and we went, I think, to Minsk for some tournament. To say that I made an unsuccessful debut in the team is an understatement. In the match against Israel, he played in the main team, but went to rest in the 25th minute. I did not cope with my task, and my personal file was written in bold letters: "Does not meet the level of the national team..."
I was very sad, but today I remember those events with a smile. It was a lesson, it was an experience. Then it was very difficult to play in the national team, and the team was completely new. Half of it may have already finished football altogether.
Then I was called to the U-19 national team, and I remember the elite round of selection for the European Championship. We had a tough but interesting group - Italy, Belgium and Serbia. Unfortunately, we did not complete the task, but even then we got to know the Serbs, who became our rivals in the selection for the current youth Euro. We drew 2:2, and the current "Juventus" striker Dushan Vlahovych scored a double in the opponent's team.
"I didn't play in the UPL, but I was noticed"
— After the first call to the young woman, I never got there. At the beginning of March 2020, I saw in the media a list of players that Ruslan Rotan was collecting for matches with Malta and Northern Ireland. I admit, I was a little surprised, because at that time I had not yet played a single minute in the UPL. However, this did not come as a surprise to me either - Shakhtar captain Andriy Pyatov warned me of interest in him. By the way, I often saw representatives of the coaching staff of the youth team even at U-19 matches - it seems that we were being followed, as they say, from a long distance. And they collected a complete dossier.
Unfortunately, this gathering did not take place due to the fact that football stopped - covid intervened. I was a little upset, but in six months I got to the youth center. Already with minimal experience of performances in the UPL, but as a player of Mariupol. In September 2020, we had two difficult away matches - against Denmark and Finland.
"It was very interesting to meet Ruslan Rotan"
— The first impressions of the team turned out to be positive, I liked the atmosphere of mutual respect in the team from the very beginning. Its leader was the captain - defender Evgeny Cheberko. On the field, he suggested and directed the team's play, so to speak.
What was the first acquaintance with Ruslan Rotan? I knew him as a great player and I was very interested to see what kind of coach he was. We played that football even then, which, as my friend remarked, seemed to be created especially for me (smiles), but in two years they significantly improved it.
The debut fell on a game in Denmark. There was a very strong team, which in the first match, in my opinion, rinked our youth. The Danes featured footballers from the top championships, and as a team they were subjected to modern requirements from the Spanish coach, who headed the Barcelona academy for a long time. However, we played very decently. In some places, they even outplayed the opponent, but they did not hold on to the victory, conceding a ball in stoppage time (with a violation of the rules, but that is already history).
First thoughts after such a disappointing draw - all is gone. Someone was guilty, someone didn't make it, and so on. It was thought that now the flights will be sorted. But where is there! The entire coaching staff thanked us for a good game, supported us, did a good analysis, and we flew to Finland on a positive note, which we seem to have beaten very confidently. He returned to the club in a good mood. I really liked it in my youth.
"The coach said that you should fight to the end"
— Then, against the Danes, many young players made their debut in the youth national team. In addition to me, they were Ilya Zabarnyi, Arseniy Batagov, Oleksandr Nazarenko and Oleksandr Syrota, and Georgy Sudakov and Mykola Kukharevych came to one of the next meetings. Of course, someone thought that the coach decided to work for the prospect, but this was not the case. He kept telling us that as long as there was a chance, we would fight for him.
Could the "youngster" have pulled off that selection? In the fall of 2020, it would take almost a miracle, and we weren't that far from it. Won a crucial match in Romania, convincingly defeated Malta and Northern Ireland at home, but failed to travel to Britain. There, the game immediately did not go according to our script. I have never seen anything like this: already in the first minute of the match, the opponent threw a throw-out almost from the center of the field into our penalty area, where the tall defenders came. Plus the turf was simply terrible quality - I would forbid playing on such fields.
You know, I don't agree with those who say that the field is the same for everyone. For us, when we operate through a short pass, play in the third, we need a good pitch, and for those who just hit forward, relying solely on the individual qualities of the football players, there is really no difference...
"Andriy Shevchenko's team had the same football"
— The new "youth", the current team, gathered in the spring of 2021 — the Antalya Cup tournament was waiting for us in Turkey. I can't say that it was a completely new team, because 50 percent of the guys have already been called up. However, it was then that the construction of a new team began. Yes, we failed the tournament, drawing with Uzbekistan and losing to Bulgaria and Slovakia, but Ruslan Rotan was already focused on one thing - to give us his game. Even in the lost matches we played quite well, but our pundits and fans probably didn't see (or didn't understand) this game, so the coaching staff was under a lot of pressure again...
There, in Antalya, we had a new captain for every match, but after the last game, after the unfortunate defeat against Slovakia, Ruslan Petrovych took the armband, came to me and said: "Hold on. Now I will ask you about the full program. Of course, I was inspired by such trust, and like a real captain, I just... didn't come to the next youth gathering (smiles).
In May, I was called to the ranks of the national team, which was preparing for Euro-2020. I have already told many times that I was very surprised - I did not believe that a player from Mariupol could get there. Of course, it was a great experience for me: even just to train there. I immediately drew attention to the fact that football in the first national team is almost the same as in the youth team, so it did not take long to adjust. While training in the national team, we, of course, followed the performances of the youth team at the Valery Lobanovskyi Tournament, where... another failure awaited them.
"The victory in Serbia gave us confidence"
— The first match of the qualifying tournament is a trip to Serbia. Before the start of the group round, everyone wrote that we had few chances against this team. Several players who were under contract with Manchester City, footballers from Serie A, stars of Partizan and Crvena Zvezda played there. Who are you? You are a loser. Such sentiments prevailed in the domestic mass media, but we had our own point of view, our own truth and our own faith.
Yes, the defeats in the first half of the year did not improve our mood, but everyone perfectly understood that in the spring we were only building our game, and in the summer almost half of the team was not there. The positive tone with which we gathered before the start of qualification was important. The coaches, as always, analyzed the opponent perfectly, we knew what we wanted from the first minutes and achieved a winning result.
Such a start was extremely important. We knew that the last time the young woman started the selection with a victory was 12 years ago - and after that she finally got to the Euros. We remembered that as you name a ship, so it will sail. And it was a good swim...
We gained confidence, with each match we became more and more like a united fist. How did the crushing defeat in France affect the team? Not at all. Everyone supported each other and focused on the next game. We understood that this is a very strong team. Very. But we managed to hold off their initial pressure, calm down the game, and then an unfortunate withdrawal happened. Who knows how everything would be in equal parts.
"Grey coaching hair is on our conscience"
— We beat the Faroe Islands, once again Serbia, we were a little unlucky in North Macedonia. In principle, everything was going well, but, as Ruslan Rotan repeatedly noted, we lacked only one thing - a sure win. One that would correspond to the course of events on the field, because it turned out that when we scored a goal, we did not just calm down - we started playing for our own pleasure. They forgot that they still need to score (smiles).
Penalty with the Faroese? I understand that Zhora Sudakov and I will remember him for a long time, but it's wonderful - it was a spectacular moment. Of course, one look from the head coach was enough for us to understand everything. However, do you know who Petrovych appointed to kick the penalty next time? Me and Zhora. Such trust motivated us even more.
Yes, in the home match against the Serbs, I again missed from the spot, but we won again. Yes, I am well aware that we were exactly two goals short of a direct ticket from the competition for second places. Yes, we were sorry. But a direct ticket to the Euro would not give us the opportunity to get that thrill from football in matches against Slovakia. For the sake of these emotions, it was necessary not to score those goals, although the coaches must have added gray hair...
"The tone was returned from the first minutes of the first match"
— War. This spring was a real horror, which, unfortunately, continues. I am sure that with such soldiers as in Ukraine, we will win, but at the beginning it was very worrying. We weren't into football, but we couldn't imagine our lives without it. At first I just wanted to practice, then we started playing, it got a little easier. We were worried about the youth, because our matches were immediately postponed indefinitely. I did not want to believe that our path to the Euro was over. Fortunately, in May we got together and brought the matter to a logical end.
The match in the Faroe Islands was simply incredible. Everyone was worried about the fact that we had no official matches for a long time, but we played as if the opponent had not seen the ball for a long time. They returned the tone of the game from the first minutes and won the same confident victory that the head coach emphasized, then beat North Macedonia with a big score, drew the game with France and put an end to Armenia. Yes, we did not get a direct ticket to the Euro, but according to statistics, it was the best group tournament of the youth national team of Ukraine in its entire history.
We were waiting for the draw for the playoffs, and I immediately said that I wanted to go to Slovakia. There was a desire to take revenge for that defeat in Turkey. Will anyone say that we got lucky with the draw? Then why in seven previous matches did the Ukrainian youth team never beat the Slovaks and scored only a few goals against them? We all understood that this was a very difficult opponent.
"Slovaks beat us a little and they made us a movie"
— I went to the playoffs with 99% confidence that we would pass. Do not confuse this with self-confidence. We believed in our strength, in our game, in each other, in our coaches and staff, who have come a very hard way and done a lot of work. Yes, the first match left a double impression. In terms of skill, in terms of the game, we were better, but we lost in some special spirit. Maybe quite a bit, but it was enough for the Slovaks who played at home.
We were assigned theory for the morning, although usually after the match it was not until the evening of the next day. I immediately remembered the scary stories about Rotan the captain, who could, on occasion, "shake" his partners so much that it almost seemed like it. However, a completely calm person entered the hall and asked to turn on the video. It collected moments when the Slovaks simply beat us, when we lose in martial arts, fall on the lawn. It was one of the most terrifying moments in my football life. And not only, apparently, in mine...
After the rhetorical question: "Do I need to add anything?" the coach showed us the game moments. There were fewer mistakes than successful actions. At the end of the theory, Petrovich noted: "Fix what we started with - it will be at least 3:0." And so it happened.
"Otherwise we could not, because we are a national team of outstanding people"
- This one-minute video made us so crazy - you just can't imagine! No one was offended by the coach - we were offended by ourselves. Yes, in the second match we were again hindered by the field, but we compensated for all this with a powerful return, not forgetting our football. Football with a cool and calm head.
Perhaps this moment in theory was the most vivid impression of our entire selection. Although, in fact, there were enough of them. I remember that video with words of support from our parents before the match with North Macedonia. I remember how Sanya Nazarenko, who was injured, motivated us before the French. We had a lot of positive emotions, we were never broken by any local failures, after them we only became stronger. We have an incredible team, because it is the national team of Ukraine. Countries of outstanding people whom we had no right to let down.
With this attitude, we will prepare for the Euro. I want to believe that we will go there with the main victory of our entire life.
Yuriy Denisenko
