The full-length documentary "Football Nation" produced by Teleprostir Studio is released in Ukraine. The producer and director of the film is Volodymyr Mula, the author of the script is Mykola Vasylkov. I believe that this tape is doomed to be a success for the audience - despite the war, the epidemic, the hardship due to which many people cannot buy tickets to the cinema, and even despite the destroyed cinema halls in many cities.
Why am I sure of this? First, in one and a half hours, the authors showed interviews with eighteen heroes of Ukrainian football — from Golden Ball winners Oleg Blokhin and Andriy Shevchenko to young national team players Oleksandr Zinchenko and Roman Yaremchuk. This constellation alone should attract the attention of viewers of all ages.
Secondly, the success of the film will ensure the high level of Volodymyr Mula as a producer. Suju and from his previous works, including Yuki. The history of the victories of free Ukrainians" - a film by the same authors, which became the highest-grossing picture of Ukrainian non-fiction cinema of the era of independence.
I confess: I myself did not accept "Yuki" until the end. The Mula-producer in this tape is much stronger than the Mula-director, so the tape is built according to the principle of a TV program: talker - chronicle - talker - chronicle. A feature-length television special is not bad, but it is not the same as a documentary. In such products, the main actor is a journalist, and the director is not the leader of the creative process. In real non-game cinematography, the director is the main one. He must come up with and implement the imaginative structure of the screen work.
The authors described the genre of the film "Football Nation" in the credits as a documentary film. They were modest, in my opinion, for nothing: this is a full-fledged docudrama that combines documentary and staged episodes. Volodymyr Mula organically combined classic documentary fragments, including interviews with stars, and production shots about the dream of a teenager Vitaly to get to the national team of Ukraine, his work on himself to realize this dream, and his parents who support him.
Moreover, the young hero Volodymyr Mula and Mykola Vasylkov were found in the football school of the American Chicago. Why not in Poltava, Cherkasy or Kropyvnytskyi? In my opinion, this is the right of the authors of the film. Moreover, our football could potentially attract to its ranks many players of Ukrainian origin, born outside of Ukraine. And if someone thinks that the authors are trying to conquer the American audience in this way, then it is in vain: the rights to the footage of Ukrainian football matches used in the film are too expensive, so the film will be released only in Ukraine for the time being.
Among the strengths of "Football Nation" is a high level of video sequences and music, dynamic editing and high-quality picture. The authors boldly and appropriately use drone footage. Here it is worth mentioning the cameramen Stanislav Tkachev, Oleg and Oleksandr Shevchyshyn, as well as the editing director Andrii Lunnik. The soundtrack to the film was the song of the group "Sky" "To the end".
Constructive criticism of the authors of the film, I am sure, will not hurt. I do not agree with counting the birth of the national team of Ukraine from 1992. Not because of the fact that in the USSR there was formally a national team of the Ukrainian SSR, which usually consisted of football players from the lower leagues and played at the Union Spartakiads and other secondary tournaments. But Ukrainian coaches and football players played a huge, and sometimes a key role in the life of the first, Olympic, youth and youth national teams of the USSR. In the mid-seventies and the second half of the eighties, Ukrainians made up the majority of the starting lineup of these teams. It is worth mentioning the coaches Valery Lobanovskyi and Oleg Bazilevich; Yuriy Voinov, the only European champion in Ukrainian football (1960); Golden Ball winners Oleh Blokhin and Igor Belanov; our top scorer at the 1970 World Cup and coach of the Olympic champions in Seoul in 1988, Anatoly Byshovets; the only Ukrainian football player awarded with a bronze medal at the World Cup (1966), Jozef Szabo; the best Soviet scorer of the same championship Valery Porkuyan, who did not get a medal. The Ukrainian football school was born earlier than three decades ago, and our national team did not emerge out of nowhere. Until 1991, there were many heroes in Ukrainian football. Wasn't it possible to carve out five minutes in the film and talk about them? It would be educational for the youngsters and enjoyable for the older fans who remember these heroes.
Also, in my opinion, the film lacks psychology, deep dramatic conflicts. First of all, this applies to the period of the birth of the national team. Formally, the film tells about the first match of the Ukrainian national team against the Hungarians, which took place in Uzhhorod on April 29, 1992. But this is not enough. The very first coach of our wife was Victor Prokopenko of bright memory. Do you know how many matches this cheerful and humorous Odessa native, born in Mariupol, managed the national team? Up to three! Then he was allegedly replaced by Anatoly Konkov. Allegedly, because he did not play a single match and was not approved by the federation's executive committee. Then the national team was led by Lobanovskyi's famous associate Oleg Bazilevich.
Oleg Bazilevich has not been with us for four years, but he managed to write a very interesting book "Football System". Here is what he wrote about the formation period and the first matches of the national team:
"The players did not receive money for being called up to the national team. We only played in friendly matches. Often there was no money to rent sports facilities - they changed clothes on the bus. Young footballers had no experience in international competitions. Clubs reluctantly let them go to participate in training and games of the national team. After all, the national team is a concentrated expression of the state and direction of football in the country.
However, we won a number of victories: we beat the USA national team twice, the national team of Lithuania and the then strong Belarus. The match against the "golden generation" of the Bulgarian team, the real stars of European football - Stoichkov, Kostadinov, Balakov, Lechkov, Sirakov - was especially important. They played on the road with a draw - 1:1.
When the time came for the official matches, I specially planned the gathering in the conditions of the middle mountains. But the leadership of the Federation did not allow us to hold it. And the coach of Kyiv "Dynamo" did not release his players for this gathering, referring to the preparation of white and blue for Champions League matches.
This overturned my two-year work: I trained some football players, and in an official match against Lithuania, whose team was objectively weaker than ours, I was forced to put completely different players on the field. We lost to Lithuania - 0:2. I was fired. Although the decision to fire the coach after the first defeat in two years does not stand any criticism.
Dynamo Kyiv, who were not released to the national team by their coach, took the last place in their group, losing five matches out of six. Then I don't understand what this mentor was fighting for".
Do you know the name of this Dynamo coach? Jozef Jozefovich Szabo. Well, how was it possible not to ask Szabo questions about this situation while making the film? And then ask his opponents. Bazilevich and Prokopenko are no longer there, but their associates Volodymyr Muntyan and Mykola Pavlov, who know all the nuances of those events, are nearby. This should have been done not because of the scandal, but to increase the dramatic conflict in the picture. After all, a sharp conflict is the basis of a high-quality plot of the film.
Another, in my opinion, important episode that is not sufficiently in-depth is the personal psychological drama of Valery Lobanovskyi. In my opinion, one of the most dramatic matches in the entire history of the national team of Ukraine was the guest playoff match for a ticket to the World Championship in Japan and South Korea in 2002 against one of the strongest teams in the world, the German national team. This game is mentioned in the picture, but no more.
In general, our national team is the unofficial "champion of the planet" in terms of the number of head-to-head matches played for tickets to the world and continental championships. We fought in six playoffs. Therefore, the match in Dortmund on November 14, 2001 was very important precisely from a psychological point of view. Then Lobanovskyi surprised the experts even before the referee's starting whistle. To see goalkeeper Maksym Levytskyi from Spartak Moscow instead of the proven, cold-blooded Dynamo Kyiv player Vitaly Reva in our goal; in the support zone - the then inexperienced Anatoly Tymoshchuk instead of the experienced Andrii Husin; and Serhiy Rebrov did not find a place in the starting line-up. And the Germans had the coolest footballers in the world at that time: Kahn in goal, Remer, Tsige, Ramelov, Ballak, Yanker and Birkhoff on the field. They organized a real blitzkrieg - in the fifteenth minute we were "on fire" 0:3. Lobanovsky immediately replaced Tymoshchuk, whose knees were literally shaking, with Husin. Then, already in the second half, Ballak scored his double, and Andrii Shevchenko in the 90th minute, scoring our only goal, only sweetened the bitterness of the defeat.
Despite the clear advantage in the class of German stars, it was primarily a coaching defeat of Lobanovskyi himself. Too boldly, he decided to experiment in the composition. And the Ukrainian football press did not regret the meter. I had to talk to him in those days. Valery Vasyliovych was very worried. He left the national team, remaining only in Dynamo. And, I dare to think, this match hastened the tragedy: half a year later - on May 13, 2002 - Lobanovskyi left us forever. He was relatively young, living only 63 years. Nowadays, journalists, who especially "suffocated" the meter in those days, regret it very much. I think their comments would have strengthened the film's composition.
And finally, about the name. "Soccer Nation" is a good title. But is it true?
I understand that I will provoke the anger of many, but I will express my position: unfortunately, it does not answer. Now, at the end of 2022, Ukraine ranks twenty-seventh out of 211 teams in the FIFA ranking. It is clear that objectively we are inferior to Brazil, Argentina, France, England, Italy, Spain, Germany. But to see higher than Ukraine in the ranking of the USA, Colombia, Iran, Morocco, Peru... And at the same time to assure that we are wow? In Europe, according to the UEFA rating, we are sixteenth out of fifty-five.
So the authors are lying? No. They do the important thing of articulating our dream.
While Mula, Vasylkov and their colleagues were creating this picture, domestic political scientists, cultural scientists and sociologists under the leadership of Oles Doniya wrote the book "Ukrainian Dream". It is presented on the same days as the pre-premiere screenings of "Football Nation". So, being a football nation is one of the components of the Ukrainian dream. Political scientists distinguish between "hard" and "soft" state power. Soccer is a form of soft power. And it is not for nothing that the level of development of the state and society is evaluated by the level of football development in the country.
This is a dream as a guide to action. For everyone — from the president of the state to every citizen; from a world football star, to a young man Vitaliy from Chicago, who dreams of playing in the national team of Ukraine. This is a dream that exists despite the war, despite the destruction inflicted by Russia on the neighborhood with which we are doomed. Despite all the bad things that happened to us and continue to happen. We have no other way but to punch our future through the rock.
Semyon SLUCHEVSKY
