By Oleksandr HONCHARUK, Serhiy MAKHUN, The
Day, Andriy BILEICHUK
Of course, few doubted Ukraine would beat Andorra. Thus from the standpoint
of tournament strategy in the fourth selection group of the 2000 European
Championship, the match of our main competitors, France and Russia, was
of more interest. Our northern neighbors quite unexpectedly defeated the
world champions and won 3:2. Ukraine with the score 4:0 once again leads
the charts with 14 points out of 18 possible. The Islanders defeated Armenia
in Reykjavik (2:0) took second place with 12 points. The French and Russian
teams have 11 and 9 points respectively.
These are the opinions of the coaches of both teams, Andorra's Santiago
Marin and Ukraine's Leonid Buriak.
"Mr. Marin, what was your goal?"
"I told the players, 'Hold out for the first half an hour of the game,
or you will be torn apart and miss half a dozen goals.' First they managed
to defend their flanks, but shortly before the break they made a mistake
and their goal was hit. However during the break I praised the guys: they
played well."
"In the game with France your team held out to the 73rd minute, when
the world champions hit their first of two goals. The Ukrainians managed
to do it already in the first period. Could you compare the two games?"
"The issue is that I was not Andorra's coach when we played in Paris.
I will say just this: everything depends on her Majesty Fortune."
"Now a question for Leonid Buriak. After the failure in home play
against Iceland, how did you foresee the tactic used by Andorra team and
how did you instruct your players?"
"We had two aims: first, to achieve some result with small losses, and
second, to see in what shape now are Mykytyn, Tsykhmeistruk, Myzyn, and
Skachenko. Besides, Oleksandr Shovkovsky badly injured his foot during
one of the last practices, and we will have a very serious game with Armenian
team in Yerevan."
"Were the apparently forced changes, when Dmytrulin took the position
of right halfback and Tsykhmeistruk played forward, good ones?
"We referred, first of all, to the information we got from the clubs.
Tsykhmeistruk now is TsSKA captain, he plays successfully in the Ukrainian
Championship, so we decided to try him in the main team. And he didn't
let us down."
"All four goals were hit after flank head passes. Did you purposely
stress it in training or was it a coincidence?"
"Yes, the coaches pay special attention to second tier play, and in
our plan we specially emphasized head passes. But, as card players say,
it was pure chance that all the goals were hit using this method."
"Will there be any changes in your team before the game in Armenia?"
"The doctors will give the final verdict. As you yourselves saw, Dmytrulin
and Popov were hurt."
"And the final question. While broadcasting the game between Russia
and Belarus the commentator mentioned that you have been invited to train
Tula Arsenal. Will Ukrainian team lose one of its coaches?"
"Maybe the Russian club made such an offer to another Leonid Buriak.
I was on a business trip during that match and don't know anything about
what was said then. But anyway, first I will go to Armenia, and not to
Russia."
Andriy Bal, 1980s Kyiv Dynamo halfback comments: "Ukraine's team
has always had many problems with teams that pay much attention to defense,
even though lower in class. And in this match, too, our players managed
to hit twice their exotic rivals' goal only late in the first period."
Antonio Limasola, player of Madeira and Andorra's national team:
"Honestly speaking, we are not very upset with the result of the game.
Most of our players are amateurs for whom soccer is more of a hobby. We
spent almost the whole game on our half of the field and were trying only
to defend our goal. Today we have seen the level we should strive for.
And we thank the Ukrainians for the lesson."







