World Cup Analysis

To the great relief of its supporters, Ukraine confirmed most people’s pre-World Cup predictions regarding the outcome of Group H.

Spain deservedly drifted into first place, winning all three games, with Ukraine going through in second place as the only East European team to have survived the group stage. It’s probably a part of the Ukrainian mentality that the team had to be thrashed and humiliated in its opening game in order to pull itself together and come back with an impressive display as they did against Saudi Arabia. But another side of that mentality is that neither the manager nor the players could force themselves to play decent football when they only needed a draw to qualify to the next stage.

Roger Lemerre, Tunisia’s manager, said before the game that his team would impress the nation and will return home as heroes. The date of return is not very clear to the author of this piece, but the team will surely have to book tickets back to their homeland soon. Another statement by Lemerre was that Tunisia’s coaching staff had studied Ukraine closely and knew all of its weak points. Lemerre’s main expectation was that Ukraine would relax, thinking of only needing a draw. In the other camp, the Ukrainian manager, Oleg Blokhin, announced that he was not going to change the attacking formation he’d used against Saudi Arabia, and that the team would play for a victory.

To tell the truth, neither of the managers succeeded in their pre-match promises, except that Blokhin achieved his much-wanted but hardly deserved three points. It turned out that Tunisia’s knowledge of Ukrainian weaknesses was not enough to get them the required winning result. And, although the game was won, the Ukrainian performance cannot be described as a result of beautiful attacking football. Sometimes it was hard to describe it as football at all!

While the football was poor, the game did produce a few talking points. One that comes into mind was the second yellow, and therefore sending off of Tunisia’s lone-striker Jaziri in the last minute of the first half. His first card was justifiable for a blatant dive in the Ukrainian penalty box, but the second one for a sliding tackle from behind seemed harsh. But in my opinion the refree, Amarilla (from Paraguay), missed a red card when a Tunisian player appeared to stamp on the leg of Tymoschuk.

Another mistake by the referee occured when he failed to award Tunisia a penalty for Voronin’s handball, and then he awarded a dubious penalty to Ukraine in the 70th minute which was converted by Shevchenko and put the nation into the knockout stages. It was Shevchenko’s second goal in three games. In spite of his good scoring rate, the performance of Ukraine’s captain was one of the more disappointing of all the players. He said himself before the match that he had not yet reached his top form after the knee injury he suffered in May this year.

The biggest threat from Tunisia was their full-back Trabelsi on the right wing who made the Ukrainian midfield and defence work extremely hard, while causing Ukrainian fans’ hearts to beat faster. Jaidi was potentially another real threat to Shovkovskiy’s goal, but he was successfully dealt with by the resolute defence.

Ukraine could have won by a more convincing margin if they were as creative in attack as they had been against Saudi Arabia. What few opportunities they did create against the Tunisians were wasted. Kalinichenko was not as influential in this match and on the other wing Rebrov was not so precise with his passes. Both were substituted during the second half. Voronin, who worked harder on the pitch than his team mates, again failed to score.

A fair result would have probably been a draw. But even that wouldn’t have helped Lemerre’s men go through to the Second Round.

The most unfortunate people on the day were the football gourmets or any third party that decided to watch this appalling game. Indeed, the match should be nominated for being one of the most boring matches of the tournament so far. With football experts discussing the quality of the game, and with Tunisian supporters complaining about their bad luck and the referee’s decisions, Ukraine are joining the ‘best’ sixteen and have prolonged their stay in Germany.

For millions of Ukrainian supporters it’s the result that matters most at the moment. We can only hope for the player’s to demonstrate a better attitude in their clash against Switzerland next Monday. But for now, the country is celebrating the team’s progress to the knockout stage in their first ever World Cup finals.

Tags: Tunisia, Ukraine

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