Andriy Shevchenko is in Milan. In his words, he came just as a tourist
and newspapers' long-term allegations promising Ukraine's number one soccer
player a place on the Milano team have not been officially confirmed. Not
yet.
The Day asked Dynamo coach Anatoly Demianenko to explain the
situation. "It is true that the situation remains to be clarified. Negotiations
are underway, but no final decision has been made. It is completely possible,
however, that Andriy will join Milano."
True, no one has made a secret of the fact that Andriy Shevchenko left
for Milan on the club's invitation and lunched several times with its President
Andrea Galliani, much to local journalists' delight (although admission
was strictly limited). They compared Shevchenko with such soccer legends
as Ronaldo, Vieri, and Amoroso. Izvestiya claims Andriy Shevchenko
will be sold for $24,700,000.
According to the Corriere della sport, Andriy Shevchenko will
stay in Milan until June 25, then back to Kyiv, then back to Italy together
with Dynamo's honorary president Hryhory Surkis to finally sign the contract,
for the whole thing cannot be drawn out any further; preseason soccer practice
starts on July 1 in Milan.
Below we initiate a discussion of Ukrainian soccer.
The Day has received two letters. What unites them is the alarm
over the destiny of our national soccer. Perhaps we cannot agree with their
authors on everything. In particular, we reject the harsh and rather unfair
attacks on Dynamo players by Oleksiy Dmytrenko from Prymorske, who wrote,
for example, that Andriy Shevchenko cannot hit the goal more than seven
meters wide. Dear Oleksiy, they don't let him, they hem him in! But the
very fact that millions of fans are not indifferent to the destiny of Ukrainian
soccer is obvious.
The Day invites all those who wish to do so, experts and amateurs
alike, to take part in the debate on the problems of Ukrainian soccer.
The tentative range of items is this: how to improve the national team's
performance, how to increase interest in domestic championship matches,
how to do so that not only workhorse Kyiv Dynamo players might represent
our soccer on the international arena? Please send your letters to: 2L
Marshal Tymoshenko St., Kyiv, 254212, with noting soccer, or phone 414-90-00
from 12.00 to 18.00.
Sports division
ONE, BUT FLAMING, PASSION
Time has already passed since the Armenia-Ukraine match, but the feeling
of hurt and even humiliation still remains. And not only in me. The game
shocked us. Not so much by the result, a scoreless draw (again!), as by
something larger and very unpleasant that is now determining our life.
It deals with all of us, who are extremely irresponsible and work in a
slipshod way.
But if you do not have an idea, a feeling of what for and why you play,
then you had better work it out under a certain contract that envisions
severe responsibility: otherwise you will be immediately kicked out and
forgotten. We do not have this. Of course not. And, for that matter, what
happened? Are their hearts not patriotic enough, did they let the nation
down? These feelings do not seem to have materialized yet. And it does
not concern only the players who would walk over the pitch, as if with
a cigarette in their mouths on Broadway, during the first half of the match
in Armenia.
We are by no means proud. It is they, foreigners, who sing the national
anthem on the soccer pitch, with their hand on their hearts. It is they
who fight until the last minute and then writhe in pain on the sidelines
(remember the match against Bayern). They can also lose, but make professional
conclusions afterwards. The sports industry has long become a component
part of official politics.
I wish at least something, at least soccer, would remain a fair and
true thing in this country. I wish it were not something offstage.
Oleksiy DMYTRENKO, Prymorske
CHANCEFORTHETEAM
Three-month break may be the only chance for the Ukrainian national soccer
team to recover from its knockdown and do well in three Final rounds of
Euro-2000.
After the four matches played this year (excluding the friendly game
with Georgia) and with three left until the conclusion of the Euro-2000
qualification cycle, one can analyze the gains and losses, and try to identify
the prospects for Ukrainian soccer.
Let us study the causes of decline in terms of not only the points won
but also the quality of our team's play. Naturally, we completely outdid
the Armenians and Icelanders in tactics, technique, and concepts. But the
result needed was not there. Accidental things also occur in soccer. But
if you have been dogged by bad luck for several matches, the causes should
perhaps be sought elsewhere. Probably in the sphere of psychology or functional
preparedness, or all these things together. And here is a long series of
objective and subjective factors that might have affected the players'
condition. It is common knowledge, of course, that the Ukrainian national
squad is based on one club. This has both positive and negative aspects.
First, we understand that Dynamo planned to reach its peak about May, for
there was quite a realistic prospect of playing in the League of Champions
finals. And one's peak is always followed by at least a serious decline,
if not a functional collapse. Plus the Ukrainian championship is in fact
over: all we have to learn is who will take the bronze and who will join
Mykolayiv and be relegated to a lower division. Dynamo has won everything,
the gold and the Cup. So considerable fatigue also makes itself be felt,
the more so that the players had to work simultaneously on several fronts.
Yet, this is not the worst thing. There are two things more alarming.
First, there are non-Dynamo-players. Anatoly Byshovets might manage to
make Shakhtar a superclub capable of really competing with both Dynamo
and European teams. But so far the Shakhtar players we have always seen
in the national squad begin to strike us as odd men out. It is quite possible
that the views of Mr. Byshovets and Mr. Lobanovsky radically differ. So
then Mr. Szabo says he will only take Dynamo players, even if from a different
city, only to preserve the game structure. And here we approach the second
problem. Every respected team has in its arsenal a gamut of various tactics
to be selected for one game or another. In other words, this is tactical
flexibility. We see this from time to time when Dynamo plays. But the same
players rob us of this pleasure when playing for the national team. This
still works when the task is to ruin, as was the case at Saint Denis. But
problems crop up when the task is to shake up a deep defense, resorting
to instantaneous shifts of accent in the course of the game.
In my opinion, this three-month break in the qualification tournament
still plays into our hands, giving us a chance to do something.
Serhiy HOLIACHENKO, sport programs host, Music Radio







