By Olga Sellars ⋅ June 21, 2006 ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

World Cup Analysis

Olga Sellars analyses the reaction in Ukraine to the 4-0 romp against Saudi Arabia.

During the five days between Ukraine’s World Cup debut and their second game against Saudi Arabia, all of the country’s “footballing” population spent time trying to solve a puzzle named “WHAT WAS THAT?!” and to answer the question “Will we see some kind of football from Ukraine next Monday?”

There is still no definitive explanation of what Ukraine’s players were doing on the pitch against Spain, but the most acceptable excuse for the poor performance was the psychological state of the debutants. The depression, initially caused by the shock of conceding two goals in the first seventeen minutes, lasted the whole match.

While the nation was anticipating a resurrection, at the same time it was too scared to contemplate another shocking surprise from its team. Saudi Arabia was hardly taken seriously by Ukrainian fans before the tournament, but it was now a frightening cause of nightmares. Nevertheless, the first game against Spain was like a cold shower for Ukraine, one that forced the team to forget about slightest underestimation of any opponent at the World Cup.

We can only guess what Oleg Blokhin, the manager, said to his players to repair the psychological damage of the Spanish knockout. To his credit the team came out against Saudi Arabia determined to win, and to win with quality. Importantly, the players started with the right attitude pressing their opponents, leaving the Saudis with little space and time to develop any attacking threats.

Marcus Paqueta, the Saudi manager, made only one change to his starting line-up from their first game, Mohammed Ameen replacing Al-Temiat and they lined-up with the same formation that did so well in their opening 2 – 2 draw with Tunisia. In contrast, the Ukrainian manager changed four players as well as the team’s formation. Blokhin was forced to significantly shuffle his defence to fill the gaps left by the suspended Vashchuk and the injured Yezerskiy. Sviderskiy came in to the centre of defence and Gusev was moved back to the right-back position, therefore giving some space for Rebrov who was brought in on the right wing. Shelayev replaced Gusin and Kalinichenko appeared on the left wing in place of the dropped Rotan.

It is worth mentioning that Kalinichenko, who did not play for the team during the preliminary qualification campaign, received the FIFA Man of the Match award. He was excellent throughout, making thoughtful and precise passes, contributing assists for two of the goals and deservedly scoring a brilliant goal that capped not only a fine Ukrainian victory, but also his superb display. The only downside was his unnecessary booking, earned with the game already won. Similarly Sviderskiy was equally guilty of unnecessary challenge that brought him a yellow, but this is how Ukraine play.

Another common feature of Ukraine is to waste plenty of scoring chances, sending the ball wide when it would be easier to score. Voronin was one of those who had at least three good opportunities to open his account, but it was just not to be his day. In spite of his bad luck in front of goal, the striker worked tremendously hard for the team.

Ukraine outplayed their opponents in all aspects of the game, and an early goal helped calm the team’s nerves as they quickly assumed total control of the game, something they were not to relinquish throughout the whole ninety minutes.

The improved Ukrainian display ensured a quiet game for the lone Saudi striker, Al-Kahtani, and even the greatest player in the history of Saudi Arabian football, Al-Jaber, who came on as a substitute for the last fifteen minutes of the game, couldn’t help his team with a goal as he did against Tunisia. One of the most memorable episodes from the Arabian team featured Dokhi in the first half when he made a good slalom run through midfield that ended with a shot just wide. Although Malek refreshed the performance of Saudi Arabia in the second half after he came on as a substitute for Ameen, it was to no avail.

Andriy Rusol made history in the 4th minute scoring Ukraine’s first ever World Cup goal, kneeing the ball home through the keeper’s legs from Kalinichenko’s corner. For Rusol, this was compensation for his “assist” in David Villa’s goal for Spain. Surprisingly, Ukraine had to wait until the 36th minute for the second goal. It was a fantastic goal from thirty yards out by Rebrov. The Saudis were shocked and Ukraine settled comfortably in midfield, passing the ball around in all directions. That is not to say Ukraine stopped thinking of scoring more goals, but that the team could play more at ease in possession of the ball.

Ukraine’s star captain, Andriy Shevchenko, seemed to be still in search of his top form after his return from a knee injury, and in the first half he didn’t show what was expected of him. At half time the blue-and-yellow army of fans was enjoying the 2-0 lead, but their happiness would not be complete unless Sheva scored. They didn’t have to wait long. For Sheva’s own relief and to the relief of millions of fans he opened his personal account at the World Cup in the first minute of the second half to make it 3-0. Sheva scored with a brilliant header from a Kalinichenko free kick. Near the end of the game Shevchenko returned his “debt” to Kalinichenko making a perfect pass into the path of his team mate who fired the ball into the roof of the net. This fourth and final goal was the icing on the cake.

Although defeating the Saudis 4-0, we still didn’t see a perfect Ukrainian display, but it was, in fact, the traditional style the fans are used to watching: building up their attacks thoroughly, though sometimes not as fast as we’d like them to be; making mistakes; getting unnecessary bookings; wasting clear chances; but also showing quality in controlling the ball with self-assurance, and, importantly, scoring goals.

The score and timing of the goals brought back memories of the Spanish game, but with absolutely opposite emotions. The memories about the refereeing are also opposite to how we felt after that game. Against Saudi Arabia, it seemed Ukraine were being compensated for the appalling sending off of Vashchuk against Spain. Graeme Poll inadvertently made a perfect pass to a Ukrainian player that almost resulted in a perfect scoring chance for Shevchenko. Fortunately for the referee, the striker failed to read the through ball. A goal then would have been totally unfair towards Saudi Arabia, but they can have no complaints with any of the four goals scored.

A real mistake by the referee occurred when he didn’t show a yellow card to Milevskiy for his blatant dive in the penalty box, while, in contrast, Omar Al Ghamdi was booked several minutes earlier for the same unsporting behaviour. Artem Milevskiy is a young skilful scoring talent to keep an eye on as he proved at the UEFA Under-21 Championship. He sometimes plays as an actor. Somebody, tell him it’s a serious competition! He surely can’t be so lucky to escape a booking with a similar dive in the future!

Remarkably, after two games Ukraine has equaled two of its own records – equaling its biggest ever defeat and its biggest ever victory. Ukraine has at least one more chance to beat its biggest ever victory margin, but surely Tunisia will be stronger opposition than the Saudis. Ukraine only need to avoid defeat to secure a place in the Second Round. But God forbid if the players going to the game think of only needing a draw.

Tags: Ukraine

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