Results of 2023 for the youth national team of Ukraine U-19/20

In 2023, the youth national team of Ukraine, made up of players born in 2004, finished their performances. This generation of footballers was very unlucky, as adjustments were constantly made to the process of their development and gaining international experience. First, there were quarantine covid restrictions, then the war with all its consequences.

Photo: uaf.ua

Sergiy Nagornyak first assembled the team in the spring of 2019. By the end of the calendar year, his team had played nine matches. Then - four more at an international tournament in Turkey in January 2020. And after that, the blue and yellows completely missed the Euro-2021 (U-17) cycle and the next time they were able to gather only in November 2022, before the start of the Euro-2023 (U-19) selection.

It is clear that with such a background, it was unrealistic for the coaching staff to prepare for official matches and create a monolithic team. Therefore, it hardly makes sense to make claims against Sergiy Nagornyak.

At the same time, his team played convincingly in the first qualifying round in November 2022 (Kosovo - 1: 0, Cyprus - 4: 1, Sweden - 2: 0), but lost three times in the elite round in March 2023.

All matches of the youth national team of Ukraine U-19/20 2023

Given that after January 2020, this national team has played only two cycles of matches (immediately - official ones), it is difficult to say anything about the selection. The coaches could only conduct personnel work in theory, without practical testing.

In five years (2019-2023), Sergiy Nagornyak's team played 19 matches, in which 52 players played. The largest number of games was played by: Bohdan Slyubyk - 18, Oleg Pushkarev - 15, Ivan Losenko, Yegor Yarmolyuk - 14 each, Yuriy-Volodymyr Hereta, Denys Pochapsky, Nazar Rusyak - 13 each, Andriy Kitela - 12, Oleg Fedor, Anton Tsarenko - 11 each, Andriy Buleza, Danylo Udod - 10 each.

In 2023, three players made their debuts in this youth team - Nikita Alexandrov, Kirill Sigeev and Dmitry Chernysh.

After March 2023, the players born in 2004 turned into full-fledged candidates for the youth national team of Ukraine. In which, by the way, two of this generation made their debuts even earlier: in November 2020 - Yegor Yarmolyuk, in November 2022 - Kirill Sigeev. Yarmolyuk, who has already become a player in the youth team, has played 10 matches, while Sigeev has played four.

In September 2023, Andriy Buleza, Ivan Losenko and Bohdan Slyubyk also played their debut games for the U-21 team under the leadership of Unai Melhosa. But they have not yet continued. Another representative of the 2004 generation, Ivan Varfolomeiev, remained in reserve for the November match.

All players of the youth national team of Ukraine U-19/20 2023