Ukraine toasts its World Cup heroes

The victory over Switzerland was all the more sweet because it was largely unexpected from a team that is making its first-ever appearance at the World Cup.
"I don't think that anyone really believed in us," head coach Oleg Blokhin said in a post-match interview, according to the Interfax news agency. "Many had long ago written us off, thinking that debutants can't be competitive against experienced teams."

Now Ukraine will face Italy on Friday, while Gemany plays Argentina. If Ukraine and Germany meet, this will bring much inspiration to the Ukrainian side... especially if they recall that the last time Ukraine's Dynamo team played Germany was during WWII, when they won the game but lost their lives.

Recalling the Dynamo versus Germany: Soccer Match of Death would bring much attention to Ukraine's turbulent history, and hopefully undo many wrongs that have been put upon the Ukrainian nation.
Babi Yar “”Cossacks”

Good luck to Ukraine and see you in the finals!

hat-tip to CyberCossack http://www.cybercossack.com/

Shevchenko restores Ukraine’s equilibrium

When Shevchenko scored with a header in the first minute of the second half, it looked as though a rout of 2002 proportions, when the Germans put eight past them, might be on the cards for the outclassed Saudis. But they rolled up their sleeves, kept plugging away and even fashioned some half-chances of their own as the Ukrainians took their foot off the accelerator. Even so, Kalinichenko nearly added a fourth with an exquisite 66th-minute strike on to the top of the crossbar.
The good news for Ukraine was that Shevchenko, who played 85 minutes and eventually did lay on a fourth for man-of-the-match Kalinichenko, moved sweetly throughout and appears to be over his injury, as Ukraine football supremo Grygori Surkis said before the match that he was.
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UKRAINE: Coaches' Quotes

Oleg BLOKHIN (UKR) I’m extremely disappointed. We weren’t disciplined at all and the players failed to follow the instructions the coaching team gave them. We’ll have to analyse our mistakes very closely and lift the players for next game. We’ll also need to rebuild the defence completely. After all, though, this is our very first World Cup finals and we need to pick up some experience.
I’m not so much disappointed about the result as the attitude of the players. It’s embarrassing for all of us and I want to apologise to the Ukraine fans for the performance we put in. We can’t play like that again. We just crumbled.
Spain played a very complete game, they were solid and fully deserved to win. Xabi Alonso also had a terrific game. Sadly, we’ve been the worst European team in the competition so far.

Ukraine Out To Garner Respect In Its First Cup Appearance

Joanna Wypior - All Headline News Staff Reporter
Frankfurt, Germany (AHN) - Ukraine's Anatolii Tymoschuk reveals that his side will be able to garner well-deserved respect in his country's debut appearance at the World Cup tournament.
Ukraine face Spain, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia in the first round of matches, and are already predicted to be come out of the group with a strong effort.
"During the last qualifiers, we can make the conclusion that some of our rivals didn't expect our kind of style and level of playing football," Tymoschuk tells Sky Sports. "They didn't appreciate us.
"Since we won the group stage for the 2006 World Cup, the situation has changed. I think that now, every rival appreciates us as a very strong team.
"We have won a very strong group with Greece, Turkey and Denmark, so we are ready to fight during the World Cup.
"We have to prove to everybody our level of playing football. We are ready to fight in every match with every rival.
"Some people tell us that we don't play extra attractive football. They are right, we don't express 'show' on the field, but we can fight and compensate for it by our character and we have to prove our level of playing."
Ukraine face Spain in their first match on Wednesday, June 14th at Zentralstadion in Germany.

World-Shevchenko scores on Ukraine return

LUXEMBOURG, June 8 (Reuters) - Ukraine captain Andriy Shevchenko gave his side a huge World Cup boost on Thursday, scoring as a second-half substitute in his first game for a month out with a knee injury.
Shevchenko, the 2004 European Player of the Year, featured for 30 minutes as Ukraine defeated Luxembourg 3-0 in their final warm-up.
The 29-year-old, one of the most feared strikers in world football, appeared to show no ill effects from the injury, sustained while playing for AC Milan, which has forced him to miss friendlies against Costa Rica, Italy and Libya.
He tapped in the easiest of chances from a deflected pass as Ukraine scored twice in the final seven minutes for a somewhat flattering victory against a team ranked 152nd in the world.
Shevchenko entered the fray just minutes after pony-tailed striker Andriy Voronin, also a substitute, had broken the deadlock after an insipid first half at the Stade Jose Barthel.
Voronin despatched a clinical right-foot shot past Jonathan Joubert to cheer a 100-strong band of Ukraine fans who had grown frustrated by their side's lacklustre opening 45 minutes.
Another substitute, Maxim Kalinichenko, added a third goal as Luxembourg tired. World Cup debutants Ukraine open their Group H campaign on June 14 against Spain in Leipzig. Ukraine, the first European side to secure qualification for Germany, are based in Potsdam, near Berlin, for the opening stage of the month-long tournament. Tunisia and Saudi Arabia make up Group H.

Ukraine's Century-Long Quest

Ukraine will finally get the chance to appear in a World Cup for the first time, in Germany, despite a proud footballing history that stretches back over a century.The first documented evidence of introduction to the game comes from the western Ukrainian city Lviv, where the first football match between the hosts and the visitors Krakow was held on July 14, 1894.It was a sudden-death match, held at a newly built 7,000-seat stadium in Stryisky Park, which ended in the sixth minute when Wlodzimierz Gatynsky of the host team netted the winning goal.By the beginning of the 20th century, football was rapidly becoming popular in most regions of Ukraine, which was then part of the Russian empire.Dozens of teams and leagues were established in almost every Ukrainian city due in large part to the influence of the British companies which were doing business in the region and are credited with popularising the game.The visit of Turkish side Fenerbahce to Odessa just before the outbreak of World War I opened the international football era at Ukraine. Click here to read full story.

Ukraine have reached the UEFA European Under-21 Championship final after defeating Serbia and Montenegro 5-4 on penalties following a thrilling 0-0 draw. Milan Purović's miss proved costly as the shoot-out ended in a sudden-death situation. Olexiy Mykhaylychenko's men, whose national anthem translates as 'Ukraine is not yet dead', lived to fight another day. To read more click here.

Ukraine preparing to play in its first ever World Cup

A lack of World Cup experience isn't going to stop Ukraine from dreaming big.The former Soviet republic proved it was a threat to challenge for the title when it became the first European team to qualify for the final tournament. Ukraine beat out Turkey, which reached the semifinals at the last World Cup, European champion Greece and Denmark for the coveted slot.At the World Cup, the Ukrainian team will face Spain, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia in Group H.Led by one of the world's top strikers, AC Milan's Andriy Shevchenko, Ukraine also has a top-notch goalkeeper in Oleksandr Shovkovskiy and solid defenders. Click here to read more.