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Sport
 Debut hat trick
New national team coach Myron Markevich starts Euro 2012 build-up with trio of impressive wins
Paul Johnson, Business Ukraine
Volume 4, issue 6 June 2010 Despite not making it to the World Cup Finals in 2010, Ukraine’s national side gave their fans some early summer cheer as they notched up three straight wins in their first competitive matches under new coach Myron Markevich. Thanks to their team’s elimination at the play-off stage against a lackluster Greece, Ukraine’s football followers have been forced to watch the South Africa World Cup with an agonizing sense of what might have been, but Markevich’s impressive international managerial debut would suggest that there is much for Ukraine fans to be optimistic about as they look ahead towards Euro 2012.
The mixed blessing of automatic qualification
As co-hosts of Euro 2012 Ukraine automatically qualifies for the finals along with Poland. This is something of a mixed blessing, removing the burden of a difficult qualification campaign while also denying the team the chance to hone their skills in a competitive environment. Instead, Ukraine’s preparations will revolve around a series of international friendly matches. This is a potentially problematic way to prepare for a major modern tournament given the somewhat half-hearted approach to international friendly matches which many star-studded international sides have adopted in recent years. With nothing at stake, highly paid professional footballers appear to be becoming increasingly adverse to the idea of injuring themselves via over-exertion in essentially meaningless international friendly matches: a development which could make it difficult for new Ukraine trainer Markevich to accurately assess the true strengths and weaknesses of his players in the run-up to Euro 2012. Ukraine’s first game at Euro 2012 is likely to be the first taste of competitive international football than many of the starting eleven will ever have experienced.
Markevich era off to a winning start
While friendly matches may offer far from ideal preparation for a major international tournament, there was little need to question the commitment of the first three opponents which Ukraine faced as the country entered the Markevich era. Like Ukraine, all three recent opponents were rebuilding following failure to qualify for the World Cup Finals and were thus eager to finish the season on a high note. Over eight days in late May and early June the Ukrainian national side faced Lithuania, Romania and Norway in quick succession in a series of ties that had more than a hint of World Cup flavour about them. With Kyiv’s Olympic Stadium still undergoing reconstruction ahead of Euro 2012, the Lithuania tie was held in Kharkiv at the home ground of Markevich’s club side Metalist Kharkiv. This emotional debut on the international stage ended with a crowd-pleasing 4-0 win including a brace from 25 year old Lokomotiv Moscow striker Oleksandr Oliyev (his first at international level) and 2 more goals from Ukraine’s ever-green captain Andriy Shevchenko, who now has a formidable career record of 45 goals from 96 international caps.
Victory in Kharkiv, Lviv and Olso
The Markevich bandwagon travelled next to the manager’s hometown Lviv and to victory number two against Romania in a match which proved a topsy-turvy affair before finally finishing 3-2 to Ukraine. The vibrant Aliyev chipped in with his third goal in two matches and 20 year old midfield schemer Yevhen Konoplyanka scored his first international goal despite having yet become a first team regular with his club side Dnipropetrovsk.
While the early summer atmosphere had been barmy and carnival-like in both Lviv and Kharkiv, we had to wait until the last game in the three-match series for perhaps the most impressive result – a 1-0 away win against Norway in Oslo in a match that featured few of Ukraine’s big name stars. Instead, a number of younger squad members managed to etch out an unlikely win that, while little heralded at the time, will have done wonders for the self-belief of these young professionals.
Ukraine’s unlikely victory brought to an end one of international football’s longest undefeated home streaks – until their recent 0-1 loss to Markevich’s experimental side, Norway had not lost an international at home for 34 matches in a run dating back to the early 1990s. This standout result was also the Ukrainian national team’s first away win over a major footballing nation since victory over European champions Greece in Athens in 2005. Such credible results achieved away from home will play a welcome role in Markevich’s preparations and may prove psychologically important for a side which is often accused of lacking mental toughness.
Zozulia: Debut goal and a burgeoning reputation
Despite the headline-grabbing role played by established names like Andriy Shevchenko and Aliyev in the three recent Markevich debut wins, the new trainer also found room in his first three national team selections for a number of emerging talents including exciting Dynamo Kyiv striker Roman Zozulia, who scored the winning goal on his debut in Oslo. Zozulia has long been talked up by knowledgeable Dynamo Kyiv fans as a potentially world class attacker in the making and his goal-scoring debut appearance (a feat only achieved by eleven other Ukrainians) will have been particularly well received by the Ukrainian football fraternity. Question marks remain over the fleet-footed Zozulia’s temperament (he was at the centre of ugly on-field scenes this spring after being sent off in a Ukrainian Premier League match in Lviv) but this impressive first international appearance will have done wonders for the young front man’s self belief. In his quest for superstardom Roman will certainly not be hindered by his distinctive surname, which appears tailor-made to be screamed loudly and at length by ecstatic commentators around the world.
Mediocre World Cup suggests Ukraine has nothing to fear
Nobody could have kidded themselves that these three friendly games would be enough to set the world alight, but whereas the Ukrainian national side may previously have been clad in asbestos, they are starting to look highly flammable. Certainly despite all the glamour and hype surrounding the World Cup Finals themselves, there has been little on display on the pitch itself in South Africa that would suggest the current Ukrainian side will find itself outclassed at Euro 2012. Markevich has already made clear his intention of blooding a new generation of Ukrainian players ahead of Euro 2012 and he has the luxury of being able to draw on the country’s Under 19 squad which won UEFA’s European U19 Championships in 2009. While the new coach brings the class of 2009 through to full international level, he will continue to build the team around a backbone of captain Andriy Shevchenko and midfield general Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, with much responsibility also falling on the broad shoulders of Barcelona defender and former Shakhtar Donetsk star Dmytro Chygrynskiy.
The perfect finale for crown prince turned elder statesman Shevchenko
Shevchenko will be almost 36 years old by the time Euro 2012 kicks off and is already well established in the role of Ukrainian football’s elder statesman but the clean-living family man remains physically in good shape and has modified his game in the past year or so to take into account the absence of that electric pace which marked his early years as a professional. The former Milan legend and Chelsea flop has spoken at length over the past year of his desire to bow out of international football at Euro 2012, stating that he see the championships as the perfect stage on which to draw the curtain down on what has been a glittering career.
By choosing to return to his native Kyiv last summer instead of accepting a number of rival offers from clubs elsewhere in Europe and North America, Shevchenko demonstrated a sense of poetry more commonly associated with his namesake Taras Shevchenko. It would certainly now be poetic if the man who has singlehandedly done so much to lift the shroud of obscurity from modern Ukraine and put the country on the map is on hand as the nation celebrates its greatest event since independence. Shevchenko’s role as an ambassador of modern Ukraine can hardly be overstated and he has clearly earned the right to look at Euro 2012 through the prism of his own fairytale story. However, if there is to be anything to cheer on the pitch itself, it is likely that Sheva will need all the support he can get from the country’s young guns. Luckily, the next generation of emerging Ukrainian footballers appears to be a bumper crop. The question now will be whether a series of friendly matches, albeit against world-class opposition, will be enough to turn Markevich’s talented squad into genuine contenders. So far the vuvuzela has dominated the 2010 World Cup – but can Ukraine’s Zozulia and Co. steal the headlines at the 2012 European Championships?
The road to Euro 2012
Ukraine’s forthcoming friendly matches:
11 August
Donbass Arena, Donetsk
Ukraine vs The Netherlands
3 September
Warsaw, Poland
Poland vs Ukraine
8 October
Stadium to be confirmed
Ukraine vs Canada
12 October
Stadium to be confirmed
Ukraine vs Argentina
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