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Ukraine – Kazakhstan: No Time For Letdowns

June 9th, 2009 | By: yevy | 25 Comments »

Ukraine can pull level on points with Croatia on Wednesday by beating visiting Kazakhstan at Dynamo Kyiv’s Lobanovsky Stadium. The national team has never lost on Dynamo’s home turf, but nothing short of a victory will satisfy Oleksiy Mykhaylichenko’s squad or their supporters. Ukraine will be without captain Andriy Shevchenko, so the manager will need to find the attacking setup that will deliver the high-scoring result his team will be looking for.

The Kazakhs hung tough for most of the first half against England on Saturday, before finally succumbing to the superior class of the Three Lions and falling to a 4-0 defeat. Kazakhstan frustrated the visitors with relentless pressuring of the ball, but the tactic took its toll and England took advantage when the hosts ran out of gas. With fatigue from that match still a factor, Kazakhstan will likely adapt a more static defensive strategy for their visit to Kiev. It will be up to Ukraine to put together intelligent attacking moves and open up the Kazakh defense. Along with three points, a 4 goal differential separates Ukraine from second place Croatia in Group Six, and this match is an opportunity to erase both deficits. A minimal victory would be considered a disappointment.

Mykhaylichenko held a press conference yesterday in which he confirmed Shevchenko would miss Wednesday’s match. Sheva has a small ligament tear and will not resume training for at least two weeks. The manager was asked about his choice to replace the captain with Yevhen Seleznyov during the Croatia match, and whether fellow striker Andriy Voronin was upset about not being used:

We have six forwards, and the choice of the striker pairing comes down to tactics. Everyone has a chance to get on the pitch. But we are a team, and if someone does not understand that they should not bother showing up. Even the unused substitutes are part of the team. Voronin understands that we need him, so he will wait for his opportunity.

Andriy Pyatov did not have his best showing between the pipes in Zagreb, and Mykhaylichenko was asked if he has considered a goalkeeping change:

No conclusions have been made based on the last match. There was a series of team mistakes, free kicks conceded, players allowed to get to rebounds. I don’t see a point in blaming just the keeper, even though goalkeeping mistakes are more visible. The starter will be selected based on physical and psychological condition. I will not speculate on what tomorrow brings.

In the first encounter between the teams, Ukraine earned a 3-1 victory through a Serhiy Nazarenko brace as well as a goal from Sheva. While Ukraine will be without their captain, the Kazakhs will be missing their scorer from the first match, Sergei Ostapenko. With Seleznyov failing to impress against Croatia, speculations abound as to who will start up front on Wednesday. Mykhaylichenko dismissed the possibility of a media-suggested Volodymyr Homenyuk/Oleksandr Kovpak pairing up front, paving the way for Voronin to make his return alongside Artem Milevskiy. With Voronin’s club future in limbo as he prepares to return to Liverpool, the striker will be eager to finally make an impact on the international stage and raise his European profile.

Ukraine has proved it can compete with the top teams in Europe with their workmanlike displays at England and Croatia. Now it is time to show we do not take lesser opponents lightly and give the maximum effort against Kazakhstan. There is a strong possibility that goal differential will come into play to decide who moves on from Group Six. A big result will be there for the taking on Wednesday, and it is time for Ukraine’s attackers to step up and take center stage.

Tags: Andriy Pyatov, Andriy Shevchenko, Andriy Voronin, Artem Milevskiy, Croatia, Dynamo Kyiv Dinamo Kiev, England, Group Six, Kazakhstan, Liverpool, Oleksandr Kovpak, Oleksiy Mykhaylichenko, Sergei Ostapenko, Serhiy Nazarenko, Volodymyr Homenyuk, World Cup 2010, Yevhen Seleznyov

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Comments

By skillz | June 10th, 2009 at 10:20 am

Oh man! no Shev? Fuck, I hope we can win!

Posted from Canada

By yevy | June 10th, 2009 at 11:49 am

Three changes to our starting eleven: Voronin in for Sheva, Stas Bohush gets the nod in goal, and Andriy Rusol replaces Kucher The Butcher on the back line.

Posted from United States

By Sasha | June 10th, 2009 at 12:32 pm

And Kazakhstan score, Bohush could have surely done more about it… and Voronin misses golden chance to equalize. Great.

Posted from United States

By yevy | June 10th, 2009 at 12:38 pm

Third time the charm for Nazarenko: after having two goal-bound shots blocked by defenders, Serhiy picks out the top corner on a free kick and it’s 1-1. The first goal I don’t even want to talk about…

Posted from United States

By Sasha | June 10th, 2009 at 12:44 pm

What would we do without Nazarenko, his set piece delivery, his free kicks, his Xabi Alonso like passing? You guys still think we have top class goalies? This Lokin guy from far off Kazakhstan looks far better…

Posted from United States

By yevy | June 10th, 2009 at 12:51 pm

Nazarenko has been class, no doubt. Bohush is not exactly making the most of his opportunity, but to be fair he got hung out to dry by Shevchuk on the goal. The good news is we are piling up chance after chance, which is not something Ukraine has done lately. This match will keep tilting our way and hopefully the balls will start flying into the net.

Posted from United States

By yevy | June 10th, 2009 at 1:04 pm

That was quick. Milevskiy sets up Nazarenko and the Dnipro man has his brace. 2-1.

Posted from United States

By Sasha | June 10th, 2009 at 1:21 pm

Good. 2 or 3 more goals would make me happy.

Posted from United States

By yevy | June 10th, 2009 at 1:25 pm

Voronin comes up empty once again, replaced by Seleznyov in the 68 minute. Expect more hopeful balls into the box.

Posted from United States

By Sasha | June 10th, 2009 at 1:26 pm

Finally, Voronin is subbed out! He’s hopeless for Ukraine.

Posted from United States

By Sasha | June 10th, 2009 at 1:27 pm

Oh my goodness, Milevskiy???!

Posted from United States

By Sergey | June 10th, 2009 at 1:30 pm

Sasha – where are you watching the game?

Posted from United States

By yevy | June 10th, 2009 at 1:31 pm

Sergey – http://www.iraqgoals.net/ch2.html

Posted from United States

By Sasha | June 10th, 2009 at 1:32 pm

This site is excellent:http://www.atdhe.net/#

They have the best streams.

Posted from United States

By Sergey | June 10th, 2009 at 1:34 pm

Many thx. Will see if my f-wall will let me through

Posted from United States

By skillz | June 10th, 2009 at 1:51 pm

poor result. needed more goals.

By Marko Jevhenijovich | June 10th, 2009 at 1:59 pm

haha we should have won 11:1 but yes Ukraine managed to play against 22 players: 11 Kazakhs and 11 Ukrainians. Most stupid game of us EVER! We had to be afraid that these Asians will make a draw. HORRIBLE GAME IT WAS. Middlefield worked, defense was a pure horror excpet Mandziuk, Bohush was on holidays, Milevskyi, Vorona and Selezniov should do some extra excersieces…

By Sasha | June 10th, 2009 at 2:30 pm

Marko why do you always seem to take it for granted that Ukraine will kick ass? We’re not really that good and it will be quite the achievement to just qualify for this World Cup. So what’s the difference between “top class” goalies that are always “on holidays” and bad goalies?

[*not sure why but your last two comments got caught by the wordpress filter and i just noticed them -yevy*]

Posted from United States

By zagreb | June 10th, 2009 at 6:54 pm

OMG how lucky can Ukraine get? Won VS Blr in last minute after dubious penalty, escaped with a draw VS Croatia at home after miserable game, again draw VS Croatia after we hit 2 posts and they scored 2 times from 2 opportunities, and now a 100% chance for Kazakhstan for 2-2 didn’t get in…unbelievable.

By yevy | June 10th, 2009 at 8:02 pm

I can play that game too – we should have won by 5 goals today by converting even half our chances, on the heels of beating Croatia 3-1 because Milevskiy gets the penalty he deserved and Modric doesn’t get a miracle deflection to go in, and that would be after drawing England 1-1 because their second goal is correctly ruled offside. Ukraine is so unlucky…

If you are upset I can only imagine how Darijo Srna feels right now. He runs his mouth about how Croatia is going to walk all over Ukraine, then goes out drinking the night before the match, plays like crap, and can’t even cheat his way to victory. I’m going to send him my condolences and some tissues.

Posted from United States

By Marko Jevhenijovich | June 11th, 2009 at 6:15 am

yevy JA TEBE LUBLU, HAHAHAHAHA!!!! WHAT A SPEACH, OH MY GOODNESS, HAHA! You’re 100% right. Take all the bad luck from Ukraine and we would be the leaders of this group now. But anyway, we’re going to win now 2 times against Andorra with a huge amount of goals (so goodbye score difference Croatia) and we will win in Minsk and make a draw at least against England. So goodbye Croatia, we will be in the playoffs.

Posted from Switzerland

By skillz | June 11th, 2009 at 9:40 am

well said Yevy. Zagreb has clearly lost the confidence of his own team.

Posted from Canada

By zagreb | June 16th, 2009 at 11:37 am

Ukraine leaders of the group? Is that a joke? You are playing classic old school soviet type football. You did nothing but defend for 270 minutes vs Croatia at home, vs Croatia away, vs England away. Every goal you scored was after free kick, you should be more than happy with 2 point from those games. You didn’t create one good opportunity from open play in that 3 games and you should be first? If Croatia played like that, our manager would get fired after first game.

By Marko Jevhenijovich | June 16th, 2009 at 12:18 pm

zagreb, we’ve all already seen that you understand nothing from football. please better be quiet…

Posted from Switzerland

By The Mykola | June 25th, 2009 at 2:07 pm

This is to Zagreb! Marko and Yevy are Molodetz!

What about the red card rooney should have picked up for his above the knees attempted slide tackle vs Aliev? Please tell me that you were watching the same game? If Aliev or any other eastern european player was to go in on rooney like that he would’ve been shown a red card immediately. you know nothing about futbol zagreb. Terry should’ve been shown red too for breaking voronins nose in the box. open yr eyes zagreb. english officials would never call that on an english player but we weren’t playing in Kiev now were we zagreb? you are a durak!

Posted from United States

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