Last week was marked by national teams. The Ukrainian sports press was focused on the announcement of squads, press conferences, and the first official results. The UPL was also hot.
Serhii Rebrov. Photo — uaf.uaOpenness and accessibility
The Ukrainian national team's preparations for crucial matches are entering the home stretch. In less than two weeks, on 21 March, Serhii Rebrov's team will play away against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the semi-finals of the play-offs for the 2024 European Championship. As you know, it will be only one match, and its winner will play a duel with the strongest team in the Israel-Iceland pair in the final of the qualifying round.
On Friday, at a special press conference, the Blue and Yellows coach named 26 players (four in reserve) who will prepare for the decisive stage of qualification.
However, there was a somewhat strange story in the media surrounding the announcement of the squad. The fact is that at the beginning of the week, the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine published an order regarding the participation of the national team delegation in the play-off match with a list of players who will travel to Zenica after the training camp in Marbella. The list of performers surprised some media outlets, as it included Vitalii Buyalskyi and Taras Stepanenko, who are currently injured.
The UAF promptly reacted to the embarrassment and issued a statement the very next day, in which it dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's.
"Thelist of Ukrainian national team players called up for the 2024 European Championship play-offs was provided by the Ukrainian Football Association at the request of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine on 26 February to issue an order for the national team to participate in the March matches.
It was agreed with the Ministry of Youth and Sports that the list of players is preliminary and is not the official team for the meeting with Bosnia and Herzegovina, which will take place on 21 March in Zenica.
Thus, the list of players published the day before by the domestic media on the basis of a document posted on the official website of the Ministry of Youth and Sports is not the actual composition of the Ukrainian national team that will prepare for the upcoming matches." (Uaf.ua, 05.03.24).
The UAF promised to publish the list of players who will take part in the March training camp within the past seven days and kept its promise.
Such a reaction pleasantly surprised the press, which has already noted certain changes in the work of the governing bodies of domestic football. According to journalists, while the national team and the association used to be rather closed and weak in communication, now the Football House is starting from scratch.
"Itseems that for the first time the national team was presented in this format - with an official announcement online and a press conference. Serhii Rebrov answered all the questions of journalists - both on the composition and affairs of the national team, and on his work in the UAF and even, for example, the U-21 championship.
And this compares favourably with what we have seen before.The national team of Ukraine is approaching key matches much more openly - and this in itself sets up a more positive perception of it," Oleksandr Sazhko said on Ua.tribuna.com (08.03.24).
Counting on Dynamo players
The media and experts had virtually no questions about the choice of performers by the Dynamo head coach. They are in solidarity in their comments that the outlined squad of players can only be criticised in detail, but in general it is logical and balanced.
"To date,Serhii Rebrov has formed the most optimal squad, choosing from all possible candidates. It is a pitythat several key players of the national team, such as Yarmolenko and Stepanenko, will not be able to help it in the nearfuture," reminds former Oleksandriya coach Yuriy Gura (Sport.ua, 09.03.24).
Girona winger Viktor Tsygankov is also at risk of joining the national team's infirmary. The former Dynamo player will have to undergo a medical examination after suffering a knee injury in the last round of the Spanish La Liga. The Catalan club are optimistic, but are still cautious about the timing of the return of one of the team's leaders.
"We hope that nothing serious has happened to Victor. Thefirst scan looks good, but we'll have to wait," the Girona manager said. Sportarena.com (10.03.24).
However, despite the significant losses, the national team coaching staff will have two or even three players for all positions. The only exception, according to the media, is the left winger, where there is no one behind Mykhailo Mudryk. But even here, Rebrov played it safe by calling up four forwards at once, including Vladyslav Vanat, Roman Yaremchuk and Danylo Sikan, who have some experience on the left wing of the attack.
"It is important that the team has diverse players, even within the same position. Vanat is not a forward like Dovbyk or Yaremchuk, for example. He can do something else. That's why we called up so many players: you don't know in advance who you will need in a particular match against a particular opponent, you don't know in advance how you might have to change the game. I've seen Vanat both in training with Dynamo and in matches, and I'm sure he will help us," Serhiy Rebrov explained the call-up of the striker quartet (Dynamo.kiev.ua, 08.03.24).
Concerns also arise because of the absence of Oleksandr Zinchenko, who has just recovered from an injury, from the London Arsenal squad. Instead, Dynamo's Mykola Shaparenko is currently in excellent condition. The media note that in the absence of both Yarmolenko and Buyalsky, he is almost the only one who boldly assumes leadership roles.
"Dynamo's midfielder will go to the training camp - and this is a great decision, as Mykola is in great form right now. Shaparenko had to be called up because of other problems in the midfield of the Ukrainian national team: Sudakov hasn't impressed in the spring, Zinchenko is still injured, although he has been called up, and his condition for the match is a big question mark, and Malinowski is playing less and less at Genoa.Itwill not be a sensation if Shaparenko eventually not only gets some minutes, but also starts," says the same Oleksandr Sazhko (Ua.tribuna.com, 08.03.24).
As for Zinchenko, Serhiy Rebrov said that they were counting on him.
"I am in touch with Oleksandr, I talk to him a lot and I am aware of his injury. We hope that he will be in the squad for Arsenal's next match. He has two more games, the Champions League and the Premier League, so we'll see. The main thing is that he is already working in the general group with the team.That'swhy he has been called up and I'm sure he will help the nationalteam." (Footballhub.ua, 08.03.24).
The coaching staff's hopes were justified on Saturday. Zinchenko was not only included in the Gunners' protocol, but also returned to the field. The Ukrainian came on as a substitute at the end of the victorious meeting with Brentford and helped his club lead the Premier League championship race, which also added positive emotions to the player and his coaches.
The only newcomer to the Ukrainian national team was Volodymyr Brazhko. But the media have been expecting his appearance for a long time - the 22-year-old midfielder's non-call surprised the press back in autumn. And this invitation was not so much due to Stepanenko's injury as to the midfielder's merit. This was confirmed by Rebrov himself at press conferences.
"Brazhko was called up to the national team not because Stepanenko was injured. Volodymyr deserves to be called up because of his play for the youth team, and he has regular practice at Dynamo now. We need to use young players. This is an important challenge for him and the players of the youth team. We see everything and we will continue to call up players from the youth team to the first team." (Football.ua, 08.03.24).
The Ukrainian trump card
By the way, in the context of the youth national team, the head of the main team of the country during communication with the media once again stressed the importance of returning the Ukrainian U-21 championship.
"When I talk to team coaches, they are almost all in favour.Because they understand that the U-21 is a team from which they can draw players who will help in the future. But on the other hand, there are a lot of teams that are already using even U-19 players, not U-21.
So, as I said, it's my wish, I want to bring back this championship, and I want us to have more young players who will get practice in the U-21. But how to do it? I'm talking to coaches and club managers. Now, I'm sure, it's impossible. But this is my opinion for the future. In the future, we will talk to the clubs and somehow resolve this issue. This is important to me. I think it is important for the youth national team of Ukraine," Rebrov said (Xsport.ua, 08.03.24).
The head coach of the Blue and Yellows also thanked the UPL clubs for their agreement to release their leading players to the national team earlier. According to Serhiy Stanislavovych, such a friendly pass should give the Ukrainians an additional trump card in the confrontation with the Bosnians.
"I am grateful to our clubs for giving us the opportunity to get together earlier. In this we will have a certain advantage over the national team of Bosnia and Herzegovina, because they have only one player from the national championship, and all the rest are legionnaires, and they do not have the opportunity to start training earlier.
Many of our players also play abroad. But, for example, in England, they postpone a lot of matches. Only Mudryk will come to us on the 17th, and all the others will arrive earlier. We have time to look at the condition of the players, decide who will play and make a decision on the squad for the match," Rebrov summed up (Ua-football.com, 08.03.24).
Meanwhile, the UAF announced that the Ukrainian national team will play three friendly matches in June. So far, one opponent and a date have been named - on 11 June in Chisinau, the Blue and Yellows will play against Moldova. The Football House has calculated that the sparring match will not overlap with the European Championship matches, whose calendar has already been determined. The Ukrainians will play their first match against Romania on 17 June, if they qualify, so almost a week should be enough time for the players to recover, and on the other hand, this meeting will keep the team in good shape.
"Why haven't the dates and opponents for the other two matchesbeen announced?Because everything will depend on whether we qualify for the European Championship. If we do, then it is quite obvious that it is no longer worth playing after 11 June, so the other two matches will have to take place before Moldova. In addition, it is quite possible that they will take place in Germany, where our team will probably live, so that we don't have to travel far. If misfortune strikes and we do not go to Germany, then we can play later.That'swhy today the UAF has provided a kind of backlash to change the schedule depending on the team's results," analyses Igor Tsvyk from Sportanalytic.com (07.03.24).
March lottery
However, the greatest burden on the national federation will be in March, when virtually all Ukrainian national teams will be solving their tasks.
So, on the 26th, the "youth" will play their next match in the Euro 2025 (U-21) qualifying tournament. Unai Melgosa's wards, who confidently lead the Group F table with five wins in five matches, will face their peers from Azerbaijan away.
Last week, the Blue and Yellows coach called up 24 players to the team's location, who will try to continue their successful run at the Azersun Arena in Baku. And four days before that, they will play a friendly match with the Morocco U-23 team in Antalya, Turkey.
The new coach of the Ukrainian national team, Dmytro Mykhailenko, has also decided on the squad for the matches of the elite qualifying round of Euro 2024 (U-19). In this position, he replaced Oleg Kuznetsov, under whose leadership the Ukrainians took first place in their qualifying round group.
"According to the results of the elite round draw, the blue and yellows are in Group 7, where they will play against the teams of Switzerland, Northern Macedonia and Latvia. Thehost of the mini-tournament will be Northern Macedonia, the quartet's matches will take place on March 20-26 in Skopje at the Makedonija Gjorce Petrov and FFM Training Centre stadiums, "the UAF official website reminds.
Instead, the U-17 national team is already fighting in the elite round of the Euro 2024 qualifying round, which started in Greece on 6 March and will end this Tuesday.
It is interesting that in the first stage of qualification, our boys finished third in the group along with Germany, Finland and Liechtenstein, and in the third-place standings were able to qualify for the decisive stage thanks to the best goal difference.
After that, the coaching staff was reshuffled. Volodymyr Yezerskyi, who started his career with this team, was replaced by Yuriy Moroz. The new manager had previously worked in the Ukrainian youth national teams, leading the team born in 2006 and assisting Oleh Kuznetsov since 2005.
"In general, Moroz knows how to work with young players. His Dynamo youth team made a splash in the 2016/17 UEFA Youth League when they beat Napoli, Benfica and Besiktas. From that generation, Mykolenko, Tymchyk, Popov, Shaparenko, Buletsa, Lednev, Rusyn made a name for themselves in adult football. Yurii Leontiiovych worked for a long time at Dynamo with the youth and youth teams," Serhii Tyshchenko said on the eve of the mini-tournament on the pages of Football24.ua (05.03.24).
As it turned out, the reshuffle was not in vain. In the first match, Moroz's wards defeated the hosts from Greece (2: 0), and in the second defeated their peers from Switzerland (3: 0), thereby making a strong bid to reach the final pool.
The Blue and Yellows will play their final match in the group on 12 March against Slovakia.
Based on the results of the March matches, eight winners of the elite round groups and seven runners-up with the best results will advance to the final stage, which will take place from 20 May to 5 June 2024 in Cyprus. They will be joined by the host country.
Intrigues of the UPL
The Ukrainian Premier League is not losing momentum either, as it continues to treat fans to sensational results after the winter break.
In the 20th round, one of the outsiders of the current draw, Veres, became the creator of such a surprise. The Rivne team unexpectedly managed to hold on for a 1-1 draw against Dynamo. This game took place in Rivne, where the visitors were leading in stoppage time before the second half. However, in the 90+9th minute, referee Dmytro Panchyshyn awarded a penalty kick to Kyiv, which was converted by Montenegrin international Marko Mrvaljevic. Thus, Oleksandr Shovkovskyi's six-match winning streak at the helm of the White and Blues was interrupted.
"Thelegendary Dynamo coach Valerii Lobanovskyi managed to achieve a similar six out of six in his debut matches. Only two coaches in the history of the capital's team have a better record. Valeriy Gazzaev managed to win seven victories, while the record belongs to Jozsef Szabo, under whose leadership Kyiv won ten opening matches," Football.konkurent.ua shares interesting statistics (07.03.24).
By the way, the record holder himself is sure that there was no underestimation of Veres by Dynamo. Although this is how some media explained the loss of points by the grande dame of our football. Especially against the backdrop of two successful official games of the new year for Kyiv against Metalist 1925 (4:2) and Chornomorets (1:0).
"No. I don't think Shovkovskyi can have that. I know his psychology too well. He sets up the team in the most serious way. This is one hundred per cent," Sabo said in an interview with Sport.ua (08.03.24).
Another factor in the negative result for the visitors at Rivne's Avangard is the problems Kyiv had with the squad. The loss of Ukraine's debutant Volodymyr Brazhko, who managed to become one of Dynamo's leaders in a short period of time, was particularly noticeable due to too many yellow cards.
Despite the fact that Dynamo lost precious points in the fight for the championship title, the press also found a positive aspect. The lost victory over Veres should be a painful, but definitely invaluable experience for the Kyiv coach.
"TheWhite and Blues manager has received a lot of food for thought, because the other teams now have a good video guide on how to successfully counter Dynamo. And now we must do everything to ensure that no one else has time to use this manual," sums up Footboom1.com (07.03.24).
Shovkovsky's team remained in fourth place, but still has three games in hand to take the lead in the table.
At the moment, there is a two-way tie at the top. Kryvbas once again took the lead, defeating Obolon 1-0 in a tough match. Shakhtar joined the Kryvyi Rih team, beating Kolos 3-2 and gaining a technical victory over Oleksandriya, whose match on the pitch ended in a goalless draw. According to the competition regulations, the UAF SCC awarded Oleksandriya a technical defeat with a score of 0: 3 due to the participation of Ivan Kalyuzhnyi, who was not declared at the time, in the match.
However, there might not have been a change of leader if Dnipro-1 had not lost their duel to Rukh (0-1). This is the second misfire for the Dnipro team in three opening matches of 2024. The first happened two weeks ago, when Yurii Maksymov's team escaped defeat to the main outsider Minaj thanks to a penalty kick (1-1)...
Dnipro-1 will start the next round of the UPL with a match against LNZ on Tuesday, 12 March. On this game day, Dynamo and Shakhtar will also play their matches in order to send their leading players to the national teams earlier.
Other issues of football life
Another help for the military from Dynamo and the Surkis Brothers Foundation. Last week, the Dynamo Stadium named after Valeriy Lobanovsky sent sweets to the servicemen of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine - 10,000 energy protein bars, which the soldiers can enjoy to keep their strength up while on duty.
The Kyiv club noted that this is only the first batch of sweets for our defenders. In total, more than 400,000 bars have been prepared for the border guards and will be sent to the frontline.
The military officer who represented the border guards during the delivery of the cargo (he did not disclose his name and rank for security reasons) thanked for the charitable assistance.
"I would like toexpress my gratitude to the Surkis Brothers Foundation for the humanitarian aid provided to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine. Tomorrow it will be sent to our soldiers who are defending Ukraine. It is very important now," the soldier said (Fcdynamo.com, 07.03.24).
"Leather Ball" in Kyiv. Despite the war, football continues to develop wherever possible, even at the grassroots level. Local football figures are trying to divert children's attention from the horrific moments of the present and direct it to a peaceful game process.
Thus, on 5 March, the Kyiv Football Association held a meeting of the city headquarters for the competitions for the prizes of the Leather Ball Club and the School Football League with the participation of the heads of district branches and the president of the organisation, Igor Kochetov.
"Theheads of the district branches reported on the progress of the first two stages of the (district) competitions, and each expressed their vision of the structure, possible dates and sports facilities for the final part ofthe competition," the association's official website Ffk.kiev.ua reported (05.03.24).
As a result of the discussion of organisational issues, a number of decisions were made regarding the format, venues, team composition, invitation of honoured guests, awarding of winners, etc.
Women's Euro 2025, the draw for Ukraine. On 5 March, the draw for the 2025 UEFA European Women's Championship qualifiers also took place. The Ukrainian national team will play in Group B4, where its rivals will be Wales, Croatia and Kosovo.
"Wegot into a group that is approximately equal in terms of participants. That's why it's hard to call anyone a favourite. And although a detailed study of the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors is still ahead, I can already say that the Ukrainians will be determined to win the right to play in the final part of the Euro. Since the first two rounds will take place in early April, we plan to gather for preparation at the end of March. Where exactly will depend on the calendar," said Volodymyr Pyatenko, head coach of the Ukrainian women's national team, sharing his impressions of the draw results (Uaf.ua, 05.03.24).
The distribution of tickets to Euro 2025 will take place following the results of the next league cycle. The eight best teams in League A (first and second places) will immediately qualify for the final tournament. There they will join the host country, Switzerland. The seven remaining passes will be drawn in two play-off rounds, where the Blue and Yellows will try to get through.
Orest LELEKA
