World Cup: no longer a legend but part of Ukrainian soccer history
These days soccer is the watchword in Germany and soccer symbols are found everywhere, in churches, drugstores, banks, and daycare centers. Of course, symbols of the national team are the most popular ones, ranging from T-shirts to small flags that can be attached to a car window. They are simple, cheap, but look good.
In addition to German symbols there are other — Brazilian, Italian, Argentinean, and so on. Soccer and fashion, soccer and business have long been closely connected in Germany. Interestingly, there are no US soccer symbols, well maybe in the stores run by the company making their team’s uniforms. It is not because America isn’t popular but because it has not yet made its name in soccer and in soccer business.
During the Cup games (maybe even earlier) reminders of the history of this world tournament are everywhere. TV channels play scenes from Cup tournaments starting in 1930. Matches, goals, players, coaches... Stores are packed with paperbacks, video cassettes, and reference literature dedicated to the history of the Word Cup. I compared some of these publications with my own knowledge and decided that some particulars relating to tournaments are interesting only for experts and fans. The rest are interested in victorious goals, dramatic scenes during games, and of course the finalists. Pele, Maradona, Muller, Charlton, Zidan, Rossi, Klinsmann, Ronaldo... These and several dozen other names are already immortalized in soccer history. Others have been forgotten. This history has remarkably little room for names, only for the most famous ones.
Ukrainian soccer has its own Cup history starting with Soviet national teams that always included Ukrainians in the finals. Otherwise this history can be started with June 2006 because Ukrainian teams were never world champions during Soviet times, nor did they play in the finals. In other words, we have no such history by the highest standard. Therefore, we must start writing it. In fact, it is being created before our very eyes.
On Saturday our national team crossed the boundary line separating ordinary contenders, who returned home after playing in groups, and those who went further. Incidentally, the last time our team did it was in June 1986, precisely twenty years ago. Imagine: it has taken a whole generation to return to the previous positions. The Soviet national couldn’t do it in 1990 and Russia’s self-styled national team (as “successor” to the Soviet national) failed in 1994 and 2002. Our team did it! That this happened when it did is probably historically correct. After Soviet soccer became history it took Ukrainian soccer many years to get on its feet. A new generation of Ukrainian players grew up and finally we have results that we have every right to feel proud about.
It is true that our national team didn’t always show a spectacular performance in the field, but the lads always “fought for results (to quote Blokhin). If we couldn’t do better, this fighting was a good thing. It gave food for thought and showed in which direction to move. The new generation of Ukrainian soccer players finally saw the right way and how to reach the summits. The World Cup is no longer a legend or something from a different kind of life, a different world.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainians shared and continue to share the hot and unforgettable atmosphere of the World Cup with other soccer fans from all over the world. For the first time in history we saw that we are not residents of a backwater country somewhere in the underdeveloped east of Europe, but normal citizens of the continent. Believe me, the bulk of our fans were in no way different from all the others. We felt at home in Europe. And this only thanks to our boys in yellow-blue T-shirts who showed their first result at the World Cup, and who will show more results.
