Renowned Ukrainian coach and now expert Oleg Fedorchuk commented on the start of the Ukrainian U-20 national team at the 2025 World Cup (U-20). Recall that in the first match of the tournament, the «blue-yellow» team defeated South Korea (U-20) with a score of 2:1.
Oleg Fedorchuk
— Oleg Viktorovich, what is your summary of Ukraine’s victorious match against South Korea?
— No offense to the head coach or our fans, but I have the impression that our team is currently not very balanced. While several players are reasonably well-prepared, there are some weak positions, especially on the left flank with Vernattus and Shakh, who clearly didn’t perform well. And there’s no visible alternative for the forward position. Yes, Pishchur scored, but afterwards there was no mobility at the front, which made it easier for the opposing defense, hence more ball possession by the opponent.
— It’s quite possible that our coaching staff didn’t expect to score two quick goals. This automatically allowed the «blue-yellow» team to play based on the result.
— Young players always react emotionally to the result, which often leads to a lack of rationality. We saw that in the second half, the Koreans dominated. The opponent appeared technically superior, except perhaps for Sinchuk, Karaman, and Krevsun. By the way, these three players performed at a high level. All the others had a lot of technical flaws and lost many battles near their own goal.
I also expected more from our goalkeeper Krapivtsov. Recently, he has received a lot of flattering comments and advertisements. But the game against South Korea showed that this goalkeeper is not flawless.
— Let’s not underestimate the opponent, who has been among the top four national teams in this age category in the last two tournaments…
— I would never do that. They know how to prepare for major tournaments. And notice, when they tell us that if most players are playing in Europe, the stronger the team. However, all but one of the Koreans represent the local championship, which is far from top-level. Nevertheless, it is clear that they know how to develop young talent. Football may not be the main focus, but as we see, performing for the national team gives them motivation and a desire to win.
— Does the fact that our national team coaches have less preparation time for major tournaments affect the results, while other youth teams have plenty of it? And also, the «blue-yellow» team is not fielding its strongest lineup…
— I’m more than sure that in countries like South Korea, China… countries in that region, national prestige is higher than club interests. In Europe, commerce prevails and there are more national interests there. Therefore I’m more than sure that the Koreans had significantly more time to prepare for the World Cup. It is evident that this is an organized team, and functionally they are phenomenally prepared. It feels like in the second half they just warmed up. (Smiles). Koreans are tough, aggressive, and unyielding. By the way, for this reason, Ukrainian teams do not like to play with representatives of South Korea during training camps in Turkey.
— Nevertheless, we started our journey at the World Cup with a victory, and that’s already half the battle?
— Of course. That’s very good. Surely the coaching staff has a strategy. Let’s hope it works. And what I noticed, maybe this is related to the war, but often referees are on our side. I’m not talking about any global issues, but in the match against the Koreans, the referee was favorable to Ukraine in several controversial situations.
— In any case, are Ukrainian fans feeling positive?
— The first game is always an unknown. We won, and with a high probability, we can already say that under the guidance of Dmitry Mikhailyenko, they will advance from the group, which, in my opinion, would be considered a good result.
Sergey Demyanchuk
