My 2 cents on Team Ukraine

Hey, my name is Andriy and I am the new blogger for Team Ukraine in this World Cup Germany 2006. I have been a team Ukraine fanatic for years and am looking forward to posting my opinions on here daily until the WC comes to an end.

SO, 14 days left before the kick-off of the World Cup on June 9th and 19 days before Ukraine’s first game on June 14th. I’m excited as can be and I’m sure this is also the case for over a billion viewers world wide.

Ukraine’s first appearance at a major tournament, but really, this is not a new ‘underdog’ team to International Soccer. Ukraine has had some close calls in the past qualifications for WC 98 /02 and Euro 00/04. Just take a look at who this team finished behind in past qualification processes…. In 98 Ukraine finished behind Germany and then lost to Croatia in the battle of a second place qualifier, Croatia went to finish 3rd in WC 98. In Euro 2000 qualifications Ukraine finished second in their group, just one point less than France… hey, didn’t they go to win that Euro ? And then my favorite qualifications were for the latest Euro 2004, where 2 teams finished ahead of Ukraine, some team named Greece and this powerhouse nation of Spain. WELL, second time around, no such luck for Greece, as Ukraine carefully studied what went wrong last time and sought vengeance by keeping this very same team out of World Cup 2006. Spain will be dealt with next.

I guess my point in this first blog of mine is that Ukraine IS new to the World Cup, they ARE still fairly new to FIFA as an independent nation. But they are not an underdog team going into this tournament. Will they be a surprise ? I think they will be raising some eyebrows and the sky is the limit for them as far as I see it.

But those are just my 2 cents.