England 2 – 1 Ukraine: Solid Performance Goes Unrewarded

If the England national team was hoping to tilt the Wembley pitch and roll over Ukraine in their World Cup 2010 qualifier, those dreams evaporated quickly into the London haze. Oleksiy Mykhaylichenko’s side proved they are not pushovers as they produced their best showing during the tenure of their much-maligned manager. The hostile environment seemed to motivate Ukraine as they frustrated the English stars at every turn. The outcome came down to who was going to make fewer errors defending set pieces, and by a one mistake margin the hosts were able to escape with three points they barely deserved.

Mykhaylichenko got his tactics spot on, and I am not just saying that because he picked virtually the same lineup I was hoping to see. Despite the presence of such luminaries as the in-from Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard, England created no real chances from open play. And I mean zero, none at all. Rooney attempted an overhead kick early in the match but proved that he is no Peter Crouch. And despite buzzing around dangerously for most of the match, Shrek could do no better than one other attempt at goal pulled hopelessly wide from a sharp angle. For his part Gerrard was virtually invisible until his contribution to the second England goal. And the credit has to go to Mykhaylichenko and the trio of midfielders who destroyed everything the hosts tried to build in the center of the pitch. Anatoliy Tymoschuk was immense as usual, always in the right spot to deny a passing lane or a path to the goal, and the Metalist Kharkiv pair of Serhiy Valyayev and Valentyn Slyusar did a nice job of playing off the captain and cleaning up the garbage. It was a shame neither found any opportunities to contribute to the attack, but they accomplished their primary objective.

Ukraine’s back line has been hamstrung for some time by the lack of quality fullbacks. Vyacheslav Shevchuk had the unenviable task of keeping tabs on Aaron Lennon, and always seemed like he was on the verge of getting skinned. Hrygory Yarmash benefited from the relentless pursuit by our central midfielders in his battle with Gerrard, but he just does not appear to have enough talent for this level. At 24 there is a possibility Yarmash still has some room to develop, but to me he does not look like the long term answer at right back. As for the center backs, Taras Mykhalyk and Dmytro Chyhrynsky would have had a story to tell their grand kids about how they kept out mighty England if both of them didn’t get beat on the fateful set pieces.

Ukraine’s attack was never going to shine in this match, mostly due to the defensive effort required from the midfielders. Andriy Voronin once again never got into the match, and I would chalk this up under “same old story” if he hadn’t gotten his nose broken by John Terry’s albatross-like arm flail. While it may seem like a superficial injury, I can tell you from personal experience that playing with a broken nose is no picnic. You can’t breathe properly, it’s in the back of your head any time you have to go up for a ball, and it just plain hurts. So Voronin gets a pass from me on this day. Artem Milevskiy found out the hard way that latching onto a ball with Terry or Rio Ferdinand breathing down your neck is not as easy as it is in the UPL. And Gareth Barry’s constant fouls on the Dynamo Kyiv forward going unpunished did not help matters. Oleksandr Aliyev did not accomplish much in his playmaker role, but he did come to life when Serhiy Nazarenko was brought on to help, and his free kick delivery did lead to our goal.

This is where I issue my apology to Andriy Shevchenko: Dear Sheva, I am sorry I ever doubted you. You can still poke the ball in from seven yards out with the best of them. And there was that one time when you got the ball out on the flank and managed to get it to Tymoschuk in a shooting position. Now if you move to a club that is interested in you for your game and not how many shirts you can sell, and you get your butt out on the pitch every week, I will stand up for you once again. P.S. Stop pulling rank on free kicks! I know you got that one on target, but Aliyev can actually score from there.

The goals England put in the Ukraine net were carbon copies of each other: far post cross, England player climbs on the back of the defender to knock it down in the six yard box, where a breakdown in marking leads to an easy tap in. In the first half it was Terry beating Mykhalyk to set up Crouch, and on the decider it was Gerrard who towered over Milevskiy to knock the ball down for his captain. Ukraine defended well on similar situations throughout the match, which is what makes the second lapse that much more frustrating. But these are correctable mistakes, and our set piece defense should be a strength in the long run.

Ukraine will now battle for the second spot in Group Six with Croatia, making the June encounter in Zagreb that much more crucial. We will need at least a draw on the Croats home turf to stay in the race, but after that the situation is essentially a tossup. I have a feeling that goal differential is going to play a part in the end, so it will be important for Ukraine to get its attack sorted out for the likes of Andorra and Kazakhstan. Belarus looked very good in their last match and may play spoiler for one of the main contenders, or perhaps even make a push for qualification themselves. With more than half the matches still to play, it promises to be a wild race.

And one more thing. I realize it was close, and the officials aren’t perfect, but by the letter of the law on the winning goal *Terry*


*was*


*offside!*