Quotes from players and coach after the match

I woke up early to watch them play. I am so sorry they lost and they looked a bit disoriented and nervous but hopefully they will rally!

GO UKRAINE!

How can we get ESPN to stop calling Ukraine “The Ukraine?” It drove me nuts!

Posted from  United States

ya, everyone does it, i think it was addressed to the commentators beforehand not to say that, because i noticed the old guy there reverted at one point, he said like “the Uk…. Ukraine”

Posted from  Canada

but no, that was TSN, and they didnt say it much on TSN, i didnt see the ESPN version so I dont know about that

Posted from  Canada

Rebuild, rebuild, rebuild. Excellent word choice for the occasion by Blokhin.

Wipe the slate clean and play. We got handed a huge gift by Saudi Arabia and Tunisia. The team controls its own destiny.

If seizing the moment means leaving out Shevchenko, then so be it. I almost never question his commitment and his heart – except in the biggest of the big matches!

Remember Milan – Liverpool in last year’s Champions’ League Final? Shevchenko did not score in the first half – but he was hardly needed. His team went up 3-0.

But when his nose for goal would have saved the team – when they kept playing balls in to him after Liverpool tied it – he again came up with nothing.
Under pressure or without it, he just seemed lost in that match. He even missed a penalty in the shootout, I think. Come on!

I’m sorry, but that’s what he looked like again. Remember when he was face to face with Puyol, turned one leg, and fell on his face instead of making the pass?

I wish he would just be honest. I think he recovered physically, but his head is not in the game. His wife is probably calling him – describing houses they could buy in London. The Chelsea people probably warned him not to get injured at the World Cup. And with all this, he is just lethargic out there.

Early in the game, Voronin tried a shot and Shevchenko complained that he didn’t get the past. The problem was, Voronin had the better position, since Shevchenko was wrapped up in a huge blanket named Carles Puyol.

This will be Blokhin’s time to keep his word and correct a previous mistake. He promised that no one who doesn’t give 100% will play. They played all but 30 minutes of their warm-up games without Shevchenko, and I am sure they can continue on without him.

The problem with this scenario will come if Ukraine draws or even loses to the Saudis without Sheva on the field. Then he will puff and fume and argue that he would have scored 10 goals.

Shevchenko was not a patriot today – and I am starting to wonder if he ever was. I wonder how differently he’d play if his Chelsea contract depended on it.

Sorry for babbling, but I had to put some of my frustration into words.

Posted from  United States

All I can say is that Shevchenko was more worried about his looks and his move to London than he was about the game. He shouldn’t have played in the first place, I am pretty sure Milevskiy could have played just as good, if not better.

One thing I can say for sure though. I am glad that Vaschuk won’t be playing in the next game.

What’s wrong with Vaschuk? He looked OK out there, especially on the last play, when he did nothing wrong. Those tugs are mostly never called – and it was a tug outside the are to boot. And if a referee lets it go, and plays the advantage, and the player gets a shot off, those small offences are just forgotten during all the other matches I’ve seen.

I didn’t think he was any worse than the rest of the players, Rad|x. Am I missing something?

FIFA needs to overturn his red card. I hope Blokhin’s staff knows the technical rules regarding this stuff – maybe there is a form they need to file the same day. I hate those special rules where they say: “Oh sorry, you forgot to file form 1059P. Otherwise, we would have overturned the red card.”

If there is no form to file, I hope they don’t just brush this aside. If they do, it will mean that Busacca not only affected the goal difference, but also cost us a player for the next game.

Posted from  United States

I’m in agrement with Miguelinho, Vaschuk was the only man still fighting to defend that breakaway, he was one guy out there that was showing some liveliness to him, he deserves a spot in that defense, which is more than I can say for the rest of them. I agree that Milevsky should have hit the field, as should have Yatsenko and Chigrinskiy. You have 3 young guys that just came back from a U-21 Euro final, why the hell dont you use that talent is beyond me.

Posted from  Canada

Well Ukraine has still been a bit lucky. Just watched the Saudi Arabia vs. Tunisia match, and it ended a draw (2-2). To tell the truth, if either team had won, it wouldn’t have made things easy for Ukrainians. The match itself was great, particularly in the second half, but I still rooted for Saudi Arabia to win after the Sami Al-Jabir goal near the end that almost sealed the win.

That would have pitted Saudi Arabia one-on-one against Ukraine. Right now all four teams have their doors open for the next round. Changing topics, the German vs. Poland game was utter crap, I mean very low standard of refereeing. They were a bit too harsh on Poland, in my opinion. First time in four years I wanted Germany to lose(last time against Brazil in 2002 Final). It would have given Poland three or at least one point and would certainly have made group A interesting. Hard luck for Poland – they didn’t play too bad and yet are the first one to get kicked out.

PS. I’m from Pakistan, just in case the IP-to-nation plug-in shows the wrong flag (and it does sometimes.)

Posted from  Australia

Well, tugs are called sometimes, and sometimes they are not, but they are treated as foul, so there’s a possibility of getting into a mess. In any case I believe a defender (especially with enough experince, like Vaschuk) just has no right to take such risks, especially when team is 2 goals down. Fifa has been hitting for some time on tugs actually (especially in premier championships).

I agree to some extent, that ref’s decision was quite strange and harsh, but it didn’t appear out of nowhere.

And I totally agree about U-21 guys. Blokhin should definitely give them a go.

I agree with Andriy that the refereeing was terrible. The Saudi referee was obviously not qualified enough. Ukraine should submit a complaint.

Posted from  Canada

I’d like to disagree with comments about Sheva. The guy was not getting served at all. Complete failure on UKR part, everytime I look at the replay I find more Spanish players then Ukrainians. And we were just standing around. WTF Blohin needed to be abit active too – change the strategy, sub tired players. I just hope this will give them a kick in the ass. I just cameout of dissapointment with USA, now this crap. Give me something!!!

Posted from  United States

Can;t blame the ref for 3 other goals Let’s face it’s the climate – freaking panzies (jk).

Just quit now, I don;t want to see another disaspointment. We’lltake it in baby steps: got to the WC and maybe in 08 we’ll advance
Sorry there’s gotto be a frustration blog somewhere.

Posted from  United States

im willing to edit any errors in a post ;O)

Posted from  Canada

Anyone who knows the Ukraine football scene and politics and ‘who’ controls football there, knows what happened.

Ukraine qualified in a tough European group (Turkey, Denmark and Greece). They have not allowed a goal in all their practice matches in 2006. They were said to have GREAT defence.

They have the great striker in Shevnshenko.

They did not even TRY in the first half of the match. They simply fell back in defense. They outnumbered the Spainiard in defense, yet failed to actually mark the attackers.

There offense was simply throwing up high lobs from 45 meters into the Spainiard box for the goal keeper to catch.

The game was fixed. There is no doubt. Anyone that knows the background of the team and the Country worked that out after 10 minutes of the match.

I hope the players enjoy the millions they got from the fixing. And, as usual, the mafia and bookies cleaned up.

Sometimes I forget what the world is like.

Posted from  Australia

sorry, but I’m going to start deleting posts that include depressing conspiracy theories about corruption and mafia, this isn’t a political discussion, just football

Posted from  Canada

Pwnawannab: Ukraine is not A.C. Milan or Chelsea. Of course the midfield is not composed of Kaka, Gattuso, etc. There can be no crosses from Seedorf or Cafu.

I think Sheva already knew that. With Ukraine, he needs to work more himself to get goals. As captain, it was his obligation to liven things up.

Instead, he just went to stand up front and sulk. When he did get the ball, though, he made me wish that he hadn’t received it at all. In tactical terms, the Sheva-card was an utter zero.

Posted from  United States

Daniel that’s exactly what my dad was saying about the match.

Red-carding Vaschuk was ridiculous – and a penalty shot as well?!

At one stage i was quite convinced that Ruslana may have possibly been a better goal keeper (j/k he did make a couple of good saves)

And was it just me or did Tymoschuk trip over an awful lot?

Posted from  Australia

Whaaaa (John Stewart)
Well last timeI checked futbol was a team sport. He may be the only supastar but he ain’t nutin like Rambo. C’mon bad point; if your teammates not making the passes…

I give up… you know at least USA took out Koller (he he he “Mission Accomplished”)

Posted from  United States

Pwnawannab: I’m not sure what you’re saying. You started a good sentence: “if your teammates not making the passes…”

But you didn’t finish it. In my view of the sport, here is how that sentence needs to end: if your teammates aren’t making the passes, return closer to your midfield and try hard to get open. Also, use the passes that you DO receive well – use all your skills and technique to minimize waste.

Sheva didn’t do these things, and that’s why he wasn’t a good forward today. Worse yet, he wasn’t even close to being a true captain.

Posted from  United States

Mig, later I said “I gave up…” cuz I can;t turn back time… ta na na na..
BTW props to you for the comment about Lobanovkiy on the Spanish blog, well said!!!

Posted from  United States

i have to say i agree with ur early comments Miguelinho..it kinda reminded me of last year’s Champions League final with two of the Reds there and Shevchenko playing. although the game was completely different lol. i thought the last goal was the best=)

Posted from  Malaysia

SHOVKOVSKYI played well he guessed most of the shots on him and made some BIG saves i dont know what you are talking about… the defence was another story…

Pwnawannab, thanx for the props! I hope our guys finally work together against Saudi Arabia so they can pass along props as well.

Posted from  United States

Hi, guys))
Listen to the prophets of the Ukrainian girl.
Sheva will not win the game by himself. And there’s noone else who can play.
xxx

Posted from  United Kingdom

The game have shown the essence of failures inherent to the team. These failures have been vicitimizing Ukraine football team from the early independence. Standarts, the absence of qualified half-back players, “wonders” of defence – all this things are usual. Think that O. Blohin should make conceptual rearrangement of players, primary in favour of improving the game in the center.

Posted from  Ukraine