EVENT

    Knocked out

Ukraine 0, Greece 1

Donetsk — It was clear even before the fixtures for the 2010 world soccer championship final in South Africa that we would not see a shower of goals scored in the two Ukraine vs. Greece matches. After quite an acceptable goalless draw in Greece, there were well-grounded expectations that the Ukrainian squad would strike a decisive blow.

Only in the first five minutes did the cautious Greeks focus on the defense, trying to understand the Ukrainians’ pattern of play. Seeing that all this setup boils down to passing to Andrii Shevchenko and Artem Milevsky in a hope that they will show their individual mastery, the Greek defenders cut our forwards off the halfbacks and managed to neutralize, without too much effort, the not-so-penetrating Ukrainian attacks. The visitors soon began gradually improving the midfield game and posing a threat to our goal. First there was a right-flank free kick which made it possible for two Greeks to easily score a goal, but they suddenly hampered each other. Then, after Anatolii Tymoshchuk had made a mistake, the intercepted ball swished between our central fullbacks to Dimitris Salpingidis who skillfully netted it into the corner of our goal.

It would be wrong to say that our players did not strive to win or spared effort. But when the players can only understand one another at the level of improvisation and every other pass hits the foot of a rival, one can only hope for a lucky chance. But Lady Luck smiled on the Greek national team that evening. With a set of players in no way better than ours, Greece’s coach Otto Rehhagel managed, as he had done before, to make the most of what he had. So the Greeks will go to South Africa next summer, leaving us wondering all the time why our national squad was unlucky at a decisive moment.

All we have to do is recall that the Donetsk defeat was Ukraine’s last official match in the next two and a half years. We will only play friendly matches until June 2012, when Ukraine hosts the European championship. Will we be able to form a strong team by then? Now we have more than enough time to reflect on this.

    United Arab Emirates invited to Ukrainian market

Ukraine regards the United Arab Emirates as an extremely important trade partner and is interested in developing bilateral cooperation in many areas. This was stated by Ukraine’s President Viktor Yushchenko during his meeting with the management of the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry and representatives of Arab and Ukrainian business circles.

According to the president, the last year’s index of trade exchange reached a record high, having surpassed one billion dollars. Yushchenko stated that his talks with the UAE Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan for the most part related to the question of preserving and developing this trade dynamics.

Yushchenko is convinced that an important role in this process should be played by a bilateral intergovernmental commission on trade-economic and technological cooperation. It is proposed to hold its first session in the first half of 2010. The president also drew the attention of businessmen to the spheres of cooperation that are regarded as most promising by our country. Above all, this refers to cooperation in aerospace industry, mechanical engineering, and other high-technology spheres.

The president said that both countries have broad opportunities for cooperation and interactive investment in the agrarian and agroindustrial sectors, specifically in agricultural engineering. According to the president, energy sphere also offers big opportunities for cooperation. He noted that Ukrainian companies are ready for joint efforts to establish closed-cycle production facilities to meet the needs of the fuel and energy complex. Addressing the businessmen, Yushchenko said that the Ukrainian market is one of the most promising ones in Europe. In this context he stressed that there is hardly any sector in the Ukrainian economy that would not be interesting for investors from the UAE.