Following a 1 to 1 draw with Wales, Ukraine’ s national team is now third in its group after the first leg of the 2002 World Cup Qualifying Tournament

Of course, we can say we were down on our luck, we accidentally failed to score in an advantageous position, the fullbacks made an annoying mistake, and all that. This might be the reason why Ukraine’s national team drew the game against Wales, which left only our team and national federation leaders still hoping to overcome the qualifying barrier.

Both National Soccer Federation President Heorhy Surkis and coach Leonid Buriak (Valery Lobanovsky, as usual, did not show up for journalists) claim that nothing has been lost, they have only gone half the way, the rivals will also be losing points, and such. What comforts me is a sincere desire of our soccer leaders to see the team through to the world championship finals. Indeed, there are reasons why we can put the blame on bad luck in the match with Wales. But will this give us an objective picture? Will we not be surprised after a few months that we had not seen the obvious, that Ukraine is so far holding the place it deserves?

Let us get back to last Wednesday’s game vs. Wales in Cardiff. Although the hosts (with the visitors keeping silent) said before the match that Ukraine is a world class team, they were far from fearing our boys. The players of a mediocre British soccer team entered the supermodern Millennium Stadium with a desire to win. This supposedly facilitated the task of the Ukrainians who could make the most of it by counterattacking the Welsh. But, in that case, they were supposed to be launching these counterattacks, letting their fast forwards rush on after receiving one or two passes. Only twice did they manage to do precisely this, when Serhiy Rebrov (at the beginning of the match) and then Andriy Shevchenko (in the final minutes) put our only forward Andriy Vorobei one-on-one with goalie Paul Jones with cross- field passes. Alas, Vorobei failed to rise to the occasion.

Our side spent the remaining playing time in futile efforts to create at least a semblance of combination game. The mobile and sinewy Luzhny, Tymoshchuk, and Nesmachny ran dutifully around the pitch, with or without handling the ball. Yashkin and Rebrov contributed to chances to score, while staying a little behind. But in reality, all the more or less successful combinations the Ukrainians made were impromptu rather than the result of teamwork. The fast game Lobanovsky propagates, or propagated until recently, suggests that a player should have several offensive options, assisted by the mobility of his partners. In practice it was different, which everyone could see even from the grandstands, let alone the Welsh defense line. Hence the greater probability of errors resulting in a counterattack on the own goal. To thwart this, all the Ukrainians could do was to make high passes toward the goal, but the Welsh would then kick the ball off the pitch.

The only Ukrainian player who tried to set a combination game into motion without rushing head-on was Vasyl Kardash who joined the match in the second half. The hosts were at first so much taken aback that they let our halfback play out a flank combination with Nesmachny, after which Shevchenko just gracefully nudged his feet a few meters off the empty goal to push the ball in. Our side equalized the score opened by the Welsh as a result of ill-coordinated actions by our central defenders. This lack of coordination brought us not only the trouble but also the proof of the mastery of Oleksandr Shovkovsky who at least three times saved Ukraine from a defeat. And, in general, being lucky is a moot point, for the Welsh had no fewer opportunities than our side to score.

Unfortunately, the Kardash episode was not characteristic for Ukraine’s national team. This player, trying to play with headers and make accurate passes after a pause, began to stand clear of the team effort. The Welsh read Kardash’s ideas faster than his teammates did. What could our side have done to win? This was shown by the Welsh players who stepped up the gas and recaptured initiative, cheered up by a two-thirds-full stadium. While our boys were taking on Giggs, whose every touch to the ball drew an ovation, other hosting players were free to launch attacks. John Hartson, who scored for Wales, Craig Bellamy, and Dean Saunders, who replaced the latter in the second half, looked faster than our fullbacks and managed to think up several showpiece combinations, sending the ball from flank to flank.

Why did ours not do the same in return? Why did the Ukrainians not attack in fast motion? Most of our players, despite a serious will to win, still looked foot-tied and fearful of making mistakes. As a result, even the not so high potential our “national” players had was never utilized. The team never dared to storm the Welsh goal, as if they did not really need a victory very much. The outcome was natural, so it is quite easy to share Welsh coach Mark Hughes’ dissatisfaction with a draw.

Yet Hughes is lucky. Even in the years when he was a superstriker in the English league, it was common knowledge that Wales would never be the world or European champion and even never make it to the finals. The Welsh are well aware of their true capacity: they never set themselves unattainable goals but always try to win in every match they play. They somewhat resemble us: like we, they practically don’t speak the native language, consider themselves bigger than their English big brothers, and lack any strong national soccer championship. The difference between the teams of Wales and Ukraine, so obvious in the latest game, was that the hosts were not burdened by the necessity to win at any cost; they were not afraid to make a mistake, playing the way they could and knew.

When Leonid Buriak says we must beat Wales and Norway at home in June, I would like to ask him: at the expense of what? In the current qualifying cycle, the national team of Ukraine has never shown the ability to score and win at home. Coming back to the results of the qualifying tournament first leg, Ukraine’s eight point third place seems to be quite a good indicator. Let us recall that we gained the first three points in Yerevan thanks to an obvious error by the Armenian goalkeeper and an accidental accurate shot of Husin. We were also lucky in the second, when Ukraine won in Norway. The dubious gains of the two last matches are self-explanatory and still loom before our eyes.

Therefore, to make its way to Japan and Korea in 2002, Ukraine will have to win all the remaining five matches. Otherwise, it should only expect other teams to help, a highly dubious prospect. The leaders of our soccer have only two options: either to follow the beaten track and hope the team will be lucky in the long run, or to radically change the training methods of this country’s main team. Still, with no signs of the latter option in sight, all our chances are in the hands of Fate. Maybe, a rival goalie will again push the ball into his own net, as the Russian Filimonov once did, and we will declare this our strategic scheme. National team coaches have two months to get ready for the next matches which will finally answer whether our hopes to see Ukraine among the 2002 world finals participants are realistic. What the answer is will be not only the result but also the game. You will agree that the Ukrainian team has shown neither this spring.