Former midfielder of Chernomorets and the USSR national team Viktor Pasulko shared his impressions of the confrontation between the Ukrainian national team and the Belgian national team (3:1, 0:3) in the Nations League playoffs for the right to participate in Division “A” of this tournament.
— What are your impressions of the confrontation between the national teams of Ukraine and Belgium in the Nations League?
— The war has been ongoing in Ukraine for four years, and for me, the situation is not entirely clear when our guys are playing football. Yes, one can say that this is all for the people who are struggling right now, for the warriors, but it is very difficult when you have to switch your focus from how many peaceful people are dying in Ukraine.
As for the game itself, I liked our national team in the first match, but the game in Genk, to put it mildly, left many questions. Practically the entire game was played in one direction. The result speaks for itself.
I am watching the Ukrainian team, and I get the impression that we do not have a united collective. Yes, on paper, the team is good, but there is, it seems to me, a lack of cohesion, everyone is on their own, each with their own thoughts. I believe there are problems in the coaching staff: one player is taken, another is not taken, a third is put in. I might be wrong, but that is the impression from the outside.
And to be honest, I am not surprised that the Ukrainian team lost this match, although if we talk about the two-match confrontation, the “blue-and-yellow” could have achieved more.
— For many, it seemed incompatible to play football without sharp moments while hoping to preserve the score and statements before the match that everything is for the Ukrainians and the Armed Forces of Ukraine...
— This struck me personally. I am, of course, far from all the events, but again, it is all not easy, playing football and linking everything with the war. I really want this war to end and for a peaceful life to begin. In such a situation, it is hard to criticize the players themselves.
— Is it not the coach’s fault that, as you said, there is no unity in the team?
— This was purely my opinion, it may be incorrect, but that is how I see the situation. I have a good relationship with Serhiy Rebrov. We have known each other for a long time. Although the coach does bear some responsibility, more so it depends on the players. I did not see in the game against Belgium the need to come together, to play for one another. To win the first match 3:1 and then lose the return match so helplessly raises many thoughts.
— Can we say that it was Ukraine that lost, and not Belgium that won, given how the events unfolded on the field?
— Why demean the dignity of the Belgians? They have a strong national team, despite all the nuances they have faced lately...
— But the thing is that up to the 70th minute, the Belgians had one and a half chances, and after the first conceded goal, the Ukrainians “sank”.
— This speaks to the not-so-great psychological state of the collective. A great team has no right to fall apart like that. And this is not the first such case.
— Is it hard to recover from such defeats?
— Any defeat affects the mood in the team, but the national team is not a club; the guys will have time to recover from this defeat because the national team, if I am not mistaken, will gather only at the beginning of June. It is necessary to try to reset and perform better in the next official matches; the national team of Ukraine can do this if they set the process right.
— Can we say, as a consolation, that this is not the World Cup qualifying or, for example, the final part of the tournament?
— No. They should not have let the Belgians off easy after such a result in the first match. Well, let it be a secondary tournament, but this is the level of the national team, where you cannot play like this by definition. There is no stability. And a victory would have brought a bit of joy to those people who worry about the national team, to those who protect the Motherland. When you play like this, all the loud words have no value. The national team of Ukraine has let down its country.
Serhiy Dem’yanchuk