Lessons of defeat
Or How the image of an ideal team gave millions of Ukrainians an image of an ideal country
Ukrainian national soccer team is not going to Brazil next year. We were not able to avoid the streak of bad luck in the playoff series this time as well. After a convincing victory at the Olympic Stadium on November 15, beating the French 2:0, the Ukrainian players missed three goals during the second leg at the Stade de France in Paris. Let us be honest: if not for our goalie Andrii Piatov’s excellent play, there could have been more goals. But this is not the point. The course of the match showed that on this stage, the Ukrainian team turned out to be unprepared for the aggressive resistance of the French machine. Refereeing played an important role in this too, which caused the coach Mykhailo Fomenko to complain after the match: “The referee gives a direct free kick for the hand play, which never happened, and allows a goal when a tree-meter offside takes place.” Defender Yevhen Khacheridi also let the team down by getting the first warning on the 44th minute, and the second one at the beginning of the second time along with a logical suspension from the field, which left Ukrainian team with only 10 players. But this is history already. History of victories and defeats. And not only in soccer.
Sports confrontation against France showed that we lack the proper skills of cheering for our team. And not only in sports. For our country in general. When our sportsmen won and gave the country three days of such luxurious and pleasant feeling of championship, they were praised to the skies. It was well-deserved, of course. It is nice to win in a match against a national team with a great history (a world and European champion) whose members play for the world’s greatest soccer clubs. The victory inspired great hopes and optimism. Since it was not only about soccer. The successful game hinted at a possible successful signing of the Association Agreement with the EU. We felt we could play fair and win, because we deserve it.
But life does not consist of victories alone. The players had to only lose once, and thousands of negative, rude, insulting, and often unfair commentaries flooded the media, blogosphere, and social networks. However, it should not be like this. Defeats, and not only in soccer, should unite the nation, just like victories. Ukrainians are yet to learn to lose with dignity. To walk away holding their heads high, like the team’s coach Fomenko did. He didn’t look for scapegoats in his interview after the match, giving instead a thorough analysis of the game, expressing an urge to train more and score goals for the future. “The game lacked integrity. We need to work on it more,” he said and thanked the players for the level of playing they were capable of. “I thank the players for the efforts they applied to come to this level. It is a pity we did not make it this time either. We always wish our players the best of luck in their home clubs, the best of health, and more points.”
The next prestigious soccer tournament Ukraine will participate in is the 2016 UEFA European Championship. Hopefully, we will draw the right conclusions from the last defeat and get a chance for a decent revenge against the French. Perhaps even, in the final stage of the competition. It’s not yet over for Ukraine, in sport as well as in politics.
