Today's game for reaching the semi-finals of the mundial 2006 between Ukraine and Italy has already grown up with many high-profile posters and promises to become the highest-rated football event of the year in the entire post-Soviet space. On the eve of the most important match, the Izvestia special correspondent visited the Ukrainian team and tried to understand how it was going to win one of the most titled national teams of the planet.
The long stay of Soviet troops in Potsdam markedly affected the national filling of this small but very pretty suburb of Berlin. The reluctance of many immigrants from the Union to return to their homeland has led to the fact that now the meeting of Russian-speaking citizens at the central station of Potsdam is as normal as a hangover after a prolonged drinking bout. Igor, a native of Tashkent, works in an Internet cafe and is not surprised at the opportunity to speak with someone in his native language: in the three weeks that Oleg Blokhin’s wards are in Potsdam, a significant part of his clientele was Ukrainians. “How do they behave?” He asks. “Peacefully. Why bother if the fat is not over?”
In this case, fat means sports fat of the national team of Ukraine, which it accumulates with each match of this championship. However, plunging deep into the town, you understand: Ukrainians have no problems literally with fat. A fan camp was set up at the Brandenburg Gate of Potsdam - two summer cafes and a scene of yellow-blue flowers.
On the stage, a depressed DJ plays annoying Ukrainian pop music, about a dozen people sit in a cafe, and not everyone recognizes a Ukrainian. There is no doubt about only one visitor - a guy dressed in a Dynamo Kiev shirt and gobbling up soup for both cheeks. “I’ve been in Europe for a month, and I’ve reached Potsdam just now,” he explains, stroking his belly.
Players of the Ukrainian team made a collective trip to the tavern on Sunday. Now they have more burdensome classes - training before the match with the Italians. The team conducts them in a new status - the main sensation of the championship. On this occasion, the leadership of a small Potsdam stadium decorated the scoreboard with a touching inscription in Russian: "Dear Ukrainian friends! We heartily congratulate you on your victory!" The triumphal march through the fields of Germany added confidence to the players, and now they calmly react even to the injury of the main striker of the team Andrei Voronin.
After the victory in the 1/8 finals match over Switzerland, a legend was born about how Andrey Shevchenko got out of his place in the locker room and turned to the team with a request to give him a present - to beat Italy at all costs. “Well, not quite like that: I just asked to play as best as possible, because this game is very important for me,” explained the main Ukrainian star, who moved from Milan to London’s Chelsea a month ago. “We already called up with my former partners Pirlo and Gattuso joked about the match. I like my game with each match more and more: I gradually add to the movement, and it's great. "
In addition to Shevchenko, there is at least one other person in the Ukrainian team for whom playing with Italy has an additional value that goes beyond the framework of the World Cup.
Last year, Inter and Milan were actively interested in Anatoly Tymoshchuk, after which the president of Shakhtar Donetsk Rinat Akhmetov gave the green light to the transition of his midfielder. Friday match is the best opportunity to get an offer from super clubs. “I won’t think about my future on the field,” Anatoly told the Izvestia correspondent. “I’ll only think about Ukraine and how to play better for it.”
"We will endure as much as necessary"
Selected Statements by Ukrainian Trainer Oleg Blokhin
The communication of Oleg Blokhin with reporters is always a firework, arranged free of charge by the head coach of the Ukrainian team. Selected moments of Blokhin’s latest press conference, Izvestia, are presented without reporter’s questions: there’s no need for them here anyway.
(about the quarter finals)
- In the upcoming match, it will be easier for us than the opponent. He is a favorite and must puzzle over how to proceed further. We have already achieved so much here, so there will be no press over us.
(about Italy)
- I will not talk about the weaknesses of the Italian team. I can only say that I respect Trappatoni very much. (Voice from the audience: “You wanted to tell Lippi, Trappatoni has not been training the national team for two years.”) Oh, yes, Lippi. In general, I respect them both very much.
(about money)
- They promised us $ 8 million for reaching the semifinals? Wonderful. Although in the first place we play for our country, I believe that professional footballers should be well stimulated. Here you, journalists, also work here for your countries, but you get money. We deserve it too.
(about entertainment)
- I heard that our football is called pragmatic and insincere. We are in the quarter finals - this is my answer to this.
(about leaving the field during the penalty shootout in the 1/8 finals)
- I left because I could not stand the pressure. Everything is easily explained: this is the first world championship for the team of Ukraine and coach Blokhin.
(about psychology)
- The fact that we have been working here for three weeks without a break is a big problem. Players want to wives, families. It’s also very difficult for me. But we understand what is at stake and will endure as much as necessary.
Yuri Dud