On Monday, 25 March, the Ukrainian Olympic team will play a sparring match against the U-23 team of Japan in preparation for the 2024 Summer Games football tournament.
Photo: UAF press serviceAfter a four-day training camp in Szeged, Hungary, our team made a day trip to the island of Kyushu, to the city of Kitakyushu, in Fukuoka Prefecture. Unfortunately, not everyone flew to Japan - Karpaty defender Andriy Buleza injured his knee during one of the training sessions, so Ruslan Rotan had 19 players left.
Our delegation is accommodated at the Rihga Royal Hotel Kokura, with theoretical classes and training sessions scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. The match between Japan (U-23) and Ukraine (U-23) will take place on 25 March at the Kitakyushu Stadium and will start at 19:15 local time (12:15 Kyiv time).
Meanwhile, Japan, which is preparing for the 2024 AFC Asian Cup among U-23 teams (it will also be a qualifier for the Olympics), played a friendly match on Friday with the Mali national team, which, by the way, like Ukraine, already has a ticket to France. The Africans won a strong-willed victory - 3: 1 (Sangare, 34, Tounkara, 53, Traore, 90 - Hirakawa, 2).
The composition of the Ukrainian Olympic team
Goalkeepers: Kirill Fesyun (Kolos Kovalivka), Georgy Ermakov (Alexandria).
Defenders: Anton Bol (Zorya Luhansk), Marian Farina (Metalist 1925 Kharkiv), Roman Didyk (Rukh Lviv), Maksym Dyachuk (Dynamo Kyiv), Oleksandr Martyniuk (Oleksandriya), Yegor Matsenko (Schląsk, Poland).
Midfielders: Eldar Kuliyev (Zira, Azerbaijan), Ivan Zhelezko (Lechia, Poland), Artem Kulakovsky, Kyrylo Sigeev, Denys Shostak, Artem Shulyansky (all - Oleksandriya), Oleksandr Nazarenko (Polissya Zhytomyr), Oleksiy Sych, Oleh Fedor (both - Rukh Lviv), Oleksiy Kashchuk (Shakhtar Donetsk).
Forward: Mykola Kukharevych (Swansea, Wales).
As a reminder, on 20 March, Ukraine learned its rivals in the 2024 Olympic football tournament. Being in the fourth basket, it received Argentina, Morocco and the third Asian team as opponents in Group B. The blue and yellows will play their quartet matches on 24, 27 and 30 July.
