From 10 to 15 October, a friendly tournament will take place in Korea, where the Ukrainian national team born in 2005 will participate. The participants include South Korea, Vietnam, Morocco and Ukraine. The teams will play against each other. For Oleg Kuznetsov's team, it will be a preparation for the U-19 Euro qualifiers, which will start in November.
Photo - uaf.uaThe list of players who travelled to Seoul does not include any Shakhtar players. The media reported that the Donetsk club did not release its players to the youth team. On 8 October, Shakhtar played a Ukrainian youth championship match against Zorya, and on 4 October, they played a UEFA Youth League game against Antwerp in Belgium. The national team left for Korea on 6 June (the Polissia vs Dynamo youth championship match was moved to Kyiv for greater convenience).
It was impossible for the Miners to physically unite the club and the national team. The tournament in Korea is not official, so Shakhtar are not obliged to release their players. At first glance, the Shakhtar players are not to blame. But in reality, things are a little more complicated.
The match between Shakhtar and Zorya's senior teams was postponed. Due to the difficult flight of the Luhansk team to Iceland. If the first-team match was postponed, why couldn't the boys' match be postponed? Is it such a problem to play before the adult match? The U-19 teams would have travelled from Antwerp to Warsaw, from where the national team would fly to Korea.
Secondly, Shakhtar have very few players from the 2005 national team. The backbone of the team is Dynamo. In the U-17 Euro qualifiers, only two players were part of the first team - goalkeeper Vladyslav Kravets and full-back Yevhen Yanovych. Now we could add left-back Mykola Ogarkov (who can play in the centre and on the wing), as this position is a bit of a problem for the national team. Without three players, we could have played Zorya in case of emergency (we still did not win 1-1).
I understand that Shakhtar are now the leaders of the U-19 championship. Oleksiy Belik's team has tough matches ahead against Barcelona in the UEFA Youth League. A long flight, difficult adaptation, a different climate zone are not easy things for young players. And then there will be an opportunity to train with the first team during the international break, when the national teams have left. But you need a visa to Korea. The player lists were formed in the summer. You cannot replace one player with another in a short time. We should have refused to take part in the tournament from the start, not at the very last moment.
The presence of Shakhtar players was very important. The 2005 national team last met in... April 2022 during the elite round in Italy. A year and a half has passed since then. The qualification for the Euro (U-19) is already ahead. Where chemistry will be very important, as well as the coach's ability to assess physical and game form. In November, Shakhtar's players will come off the ship for the ball. Then there will be other complaints - why they are not included in the squad...
The 2005 national team is in the opposite situation to Shakhtar's players. Hajduk goalkeeper David Fesiuk was supposed to play in the Croatian U-19 Championship against Varazdin on 7 October. The club from Split postponed the game to 6 October so that Fesiuk could go to the national team. "Hajduk did not want to let the Ukrainian goalkeeper play a difficult match (they had every right to do so), but went along with the request by postponing the game for one day. The national team flew to Seoul on the 6th. Thanks to the UAF, Fesyuk and another Haiduk player, Stepan Lysenko (not a main player), bought individual tickets from Budapest, from where they flew to Korea on their own. Immediately after the game against Varazdin, they got in the car and drove from Split to Budapest (the distance between the cities is 909 km), where they had a 10-hour flight ahead of them. The boys were on the road for almost a day for the opportunity to play for the national team in a friendly tournament. Although the same Fesyuk could have rested, trained with the first team under the guidance of Tomislav Rogic (former goalkeeping coach at Lucescu's staff and now in charge of goalkeeping at Haiduk) during the international break with the first team. But the country's honour comes first...
Serhii Tyshchenko
