Victory or defeat?

Today the Ukrainian national is meeting with the Brits in the “small finals” in Donetsk, and our boys will have to win to get to the quarterfinals, even if they have to become another English Channel to keep Britain and France apart, considering that they already see their teams as victors in Group D. The French will play their third and last game in this group against the Swedes in Kyiv, and there is no way to stop them. Last Friday their team showed a great performance at Donbas Arena despite the thunderstorm and torrential rain. Bolts of thunder and lightning did not dampen the soccer musketeers’ spirit. They kept their goal intact and twice pierced the Ukrainian national team’s defense with sword-like thrusts, and scored, adding the 23rd victory to their history. The Ukrainians lost the friendly match to Laurent Blanc’s team last June in Donetsk (1:4), so this year’s defeat (0:2) of Oleh Blokhin’s team is no big deal. The Ukrainian national has never beaten the French, although there were two 0:0 draws in 1999.

The Brits have already demonstrated their unyielding team spirit, beating the Swedes on Friday (3:2). Three years ago the Ukrainians won a game by the skin of their teeth (1:0) in a world championship qualifiers, on home turf. In fact, this defeat did not prevent the British national from getting to the 2010 WC finals, leading the group, whereas the Ukrainians, placed second by this victory, ended up beaten by the Greeks after two games (0:0, 0:1) — on home turf (Donbas Arena) where the Ukrainian national had never been beaten! Let’s hope that Hryhorii Surkis, the current president of the Ukrainian Soccer Federation, will explain in his memoirs (after his promised exhibit) why the unlucky Donetsk soccer arena was chosen for the group in which the Ukrainian team was included, instead of Lviv or Kharkiv that had already passed Euro-2012’s group phase.

Should the Ukrainians beat the Brits tonight (considering that the British national’s formidable striker Wayne Rooney, previously disqualified in the course of Euro-2012, will be back on the field), we would all doff our hats to the farsighted policy of Surkis&Co. (which remains inexplicable to amateur soccer fans). Should the Ukrainian national tie or lose the game, the sports aspect of the matter would be decisively put aside and non-soccer reasons behind this choice would be sought. It would be inevitably remembered that the Donetsk soccer arena could have accommodated the semifinals match between the Ukrainian and Russian national teams that could have marked the triumph of the proponents of joint Eurasian soccer. It would have marked Great Russia Day in Donetsk rather than Warsaw, with all consequences. Whether the Ukrainian militiamen would have handled the situation remains a big question. As it was, all these soccer-related geopolitical hopes shattered after the Greeks beat the Russians (1:0) in Group A, considering that even most pessimistic analysts had visualized the Russians in the quarterfinals before the game. The Greek national’s victory is equaled to its sensational success during the 2004 European championships.

In such cases journalists like to be sarcastic, saying something like the winning team has reserved tickets home for the defeated one. In this case, tickets were reserved separately – and for separate flights – by the Russian delegation, the coach, and the players. Dick Advocaat, the Dutch coach, boarded a night flight to Amsterdam right after the losing game. Although his contract with the Russians lasts until July 1, the battle-hardened Advocaat knew better than to fly to Moscow to receive his seven-million fee. The tearfully aggressive Russian fans wouldn’t understand the Dutch coach’s move.

A number of commentators are making Orange-colored comparisons that seemed discourteous until after the national team of the Netherlands (that lost the game to the Russians in the quarterfinals of the 2008 European Championships) suffered a defeat at Euro-2012. They lost all three matches, with the last fiasco (1:2) in Kharkiv, at the hand of the Portuguese, making this favorite an outsider. The Netherlandian national boasted a number of soccer stars but they failed to form a team. In contrast, Cristiano Ronaldo finally showed his individual class while cooperating with teammates, something expected by the fans of Madrid Real, scoring two goals and standing several chances of pulling off the tournament’s first hat trick. Now this task is set aside for the quarterfinals match between the Portuguese and the Czech national teams, scheduled for June 21 in Warsaw. Both teams will play at that stadium for the first time. Until now the Czech team has played only in Wroclaw. Here they began in a bad way losing a match to the Russians with an encouraging score (1:4), but then beat the staunch Greeks (2:1), and triumphed over the Poles (1:0). The team standings in Group A are as follows: (1) the Czech national: 6; (2) the Greeks: 4; (3) the Russians: 4; (4) the Poles: 2. The host national team wasn’t lucky during the 2008 European Championship finals, as the Swiss and Austrian nationals did not leave their groups. Franciszek Smuda, the Polish coach, tendered his resignation that same day.

The Greeks are in the quarterfinals due to their victory over the Russians. They will meet with the German national on June 22 in Gdansk. The Germans beat the dedicated Danish national (2:1) in Lviv, thus ending the group tournament with a hundred percent result: nine goals in three matches. No one has shown such determination to survive the “death raw.” The Germans have meticulously lined all teams in order of importance. Group B: (1) the Germans: 9; (2) the Portuguese: 6; (3) the Danish national: 3; (4) the Netherlands: 0.

If the Ukrainians beat the Brits by three points tonight, then our national will meet with either of three teams in the quarterfinals: the Spanish, the Croatian, or the Italian team, whichever will lead Group C. By the way, the match between the second team of Group D and the first one of Group C is scheduled for Donetsk (June 23). In that case we will all refer to Donbas Arena as Ukraine’s luckiest soccer field of all times. However, the possibility of the Ukrainians beating the Brits in Donetsk, with the Swedes getting the better of or tying the game with the French, thus placing the Ukrainian national first, with six goals, sounds more like a dream, for then the Ukrainian national would meet with the second team of Group C in Kyiv. We can only keep our fingers crossed.