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Ukraine 1 - 0 Belarus: A Helping Hand

September 6th, 2008 | By: yevy | 10 Comments »

Picking up the points Disaster was averted in Lviv as Ukraine started its qualifying campaign with three points thanks to a stoppage time penalty. Andriy Shevchenko converted from the spot with the last kick of the match after Andrey Chukhley handled the ball while trying to contain the run of Ukraine captain Anatoliy Tymoschuk. There was little doubt about the decision, but plenty of questions about the Ukraine team that hardly deserved the result.

Oleksiy Mykhaylichenko’s side lined up in a 4-1-3-2. Andriy Pyatov got the start in goal over (injured?) Oleksandr Shovkovskiy. Taras Mykhalyk partnered Andriy Rusol at center half in the absence of Dmytro Chyhrynsky. Vyacheslav Shevchuk started at left back with Hrygory Yarmash on the opposite side. Tymoschuk was in his familiar holding role, behind the midfield trio of Serhiy Nazarenko, Serhiy Kravchenko, and Maksym Kalynychenko. Mykhaylichenko’s youth movement continued as Artem Milevskiy started at forward along with Andriy Voronin, leaving Shevchenko on the bench.

Belarus enjoyed the brighter start and on several occasions tested Pyatov from long range. The Shakhtar keeper struggled to handle the ball cleanly, but nothing came of the rebounds. Ukraine took the initiative after fifteen minutes, and Kalynychenko turned a Shevchuk delivery into the first shot on target, but it was comfortably saved by Belarus keeper Yuri Zhevnov. Ukraine struggled to build attacks from the back, and resorted to playing the long ball at Milevskiy, who fared well in his target man role. The same cannot be said for his strike partner Voronin, who had trouble staying onside and linking with his teammates when he did get the ball.

Ukraine’s lack of a creative element was not lost on Mykhaylichenko, and Oleksandr Aliyev made his first international appearance, replacing Kalynychenko to start the second half. The Dynamo midfielder created the best chance of the match, popping up on the left side and combining with Nazarenko for a clever one-two before bursting into the box and testing Zhevnov from a sharp angle. Voronin was replaced before 60 minutes by Yevhen Seleznyov, to the surprise of the crowd which broke out into chants of “Sheva!” Their man would get his chance soon enough, replacing Milevskiy after 75 minutes. But the Milan striker found few immediate opportunities, managing more frustrated screams at his teammates than touches.

Looking increasingly desperate, Ukraine picked up the pace in the final ten minutes. As Shevchenko’s effort from 25 meters was held by Zhevnov, the crowd set off fireworks for lack of anything better to celebrate. But a bursting run by Shevchuk was halted just outside the box, setting up a free kick chance for the crowd favorite. Shevchenko struck it well but couldn’t get around the Belarus wall, the ball glancing off an elbow and out for a corner. After 3 minutes of stoppage time and several fruitless scrambles in the Belarus penalty area, everyone in the stadium seemed resigned to a nil draw, except the Ukraine captain. After an uncharacteristically anonymous match by his standards, Tymoschuk picked up the ball at midfield, exchanged passes with Shevchenko and drove into the box. As Tymoschuk attempted to cut back to the right, his marker Chukhley went to ground and saw the ball glance off his arm, referee Nicola Rizzoli immediately pointing to the spot. Shevchenko sent the crowd home happy, coolly slotting the penalty low to his left with Zhevnov guessing the wrong way.

Mykhaylichenko will need to answer serious questions after this match, concerning both personnel and tactics, but at least he won’t have to lament lost points. I need to take a deep breath before attempting to rate today’s performances, but I would love to read your thoughts in the comments. For my money the man of the match was Vyacheslav Shevchuk. The Shakhtar fullback was solid defensively and got forward to create what little width Ukraine had.

Tags: Anatoliy Tymoschuk, Andriy Shevchenko, Andriy Voronin, Artem Milevskiy, Group Six, Oleksandr Aliyev, Oleksiy Mykhaylichenko, Vyacheslav Shevchuk, World Cup 2010

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Comments

By Sasha | September 6th, 2008 at 4:32 pm

What a boring game… Belarus did look better than us. We need a player like Hleb among our ranks. And I suppose Shevchenko can still be useful - definitely more so than Voronin. Shevchenko and Milevskiy as strikers, and Aliyev instead of Kalinichenko should be the starting plan for the next game.

Posted from United States

By j | September 6th, 2008 at 4:59 pm

Yevy - GREAT to see Ukraine come through today in a tough match especially with Anatoliy Tymoschuk and Andriy Shevchenko bringing home the victory. I only wish Andriy played for Dynamo Kyiv still! I know this was a disappointing result for many but clearly this was a motivating point for Belarus and they played with heart and soul.

Stop by sometime because when your blog is ready I want to help make sure everyone reads it. Thanks again

Posted from Germany

By Igor | September 6th, 2008 at 5:11 pm

Its a shame that Sheva sits on the bench! He is the best Ukrain player!!! He must play!!!

By Pawel (drugi Cristiano Ronaldo i Franz Beckenbauer) i Polski Goral | September 6th, 2008 at 8:46 pm

If only Poland won against Slovenia like Ukraine did against Belarus!

Posted from United States

By Mr Muppet | September 7th, 2008 at 1:12 am

THE WORST REF DECISION I HAVE SEEN IN MY LIFE!

Okay that’s a bit of an exaggeration, in fact every time I say it, some ref manages to outdo himself just to prove me wrong. But this one makes me very angry. It’s a sham. 92mins and 58 seconds!!!

I watched the entire match, which was extremely boring by the way (more on that later). As a Russian, I’m completely neutral. I like Hleb a lot, but Ukraine were no doubt the favorites.

Belarus had a solid away performance. Ukraine were a disgrace. A disgrace to the man training them, a Soviet legend. A disgrace for everything Ukrainian football is supposed to stand for. A disgrace to their home support. They didn’t deserve anything tonight, but they should of gotten a point.

Instead, the referee bails them out with a preposterous call. The type which makes you wonder if the ref has ever played the game himself. and over-hyped Sheva is made into a hero once more. It’s a shame the keeper lost his nerve and dived, as there was a good chance Andrei would otherwise miss his penalty.

Oh well, I can’t wait to see who progresses out of this exciting group. If Ukraine had lost the match, they might have gotten better motivation to improve. Now it’s really up for grabs. Kazakhstan has a dangerous squad, but no where near the experience of Poland or Ukraine.

Posted from United States

By Marko Jevhenijovich | September 7th, 2008 at 1:07 pm

To talk about our russian fans who says about himself that he is neutral, HAHAHAHAHA. You russians are never neutral with us Ukrainians. If you have to choose between belarus and Ukraine, you would always choose your little slaves, the belarussians. So I don’t take you serious at all, it’s just your mentality to say everything bad about our country.

Sheva once said, that a game full of chances is only as good as the amount of scored balls in the game. so this game was a complete nonsense. to say that belarus played better than Ukraine you must be a completely IDIOT. The white russians didn’t do anything except shooting 3 times from distance. They had NO OTHER CHANCES, that’s for sure. Unlike Ukraine: One chance after the other and everytime it was only the player’s personnal mistake that Ukraine didn’t score. Ukraine prooved yesterday to be a good team in passing balls, in giving transfers and the defense looked stable. At the moment our only problem is to use our chances, to be cold in front of the goal and score, to shoot from 20 meters and score etc. Michalichenko already managed to motivate his guys after the scandalous game against the netherlands and this time he will kill half of his team, that’s for sure. Unlike many of you think, for me Kalinichenko wasn’t so bad, the worst player in the game was Serhij Kravchenko And Voronin. They didn’t manage to do anything, so in the game against Kazakhstan the line up will be like this:

Piatov

Yarmash Mikhalik Rusol (evt. Chigrinskyi) Shevchuk

Tymoshchuk

Kalinichenko Nazarenko

ALIEV

Sheva

Milevskyi

Posted from Switzerland

By Sasha | September 7th, 2008 at 2:41 pm

Marko, which side of the Dniepr are you from? The West, I gather. I know you nationalists - you’re one of those hotheads who will say Ukraine is the best and greatest even when the blatant facts are against you. We were worse than Belarus. Accept it. We simply got lucky. And that thing Shevchenko said about the score mattering more than the chances is bullshit. We may have gotten lucky with our shitty play this time, but statistically speaking the less chances you have, the less goals you score. I hope you know that. You know what that means? It means we’re not going to score very many goals. And yeah, our defense wasn’t too bad, but I’m sure Croatia will find a way to unlock it. Pyatov certainly didn’t look too comfortable at times.

Belarus played better than us. I repeat, we need somebody like Hleb on our team, someone who can make things happen. Perhaps that person is Aliyev, we shall see.

Posted from United States

By Sasha | September 7th, 2008 at 2:53 pm

Shevchenko’s philosophy might work for one game, but it is totally wrong when you are talking about an entire qualifying campaign. Don’t you see? Besides, creating little chances and then scoring from some lucky penalty is incredibly boring to watch. Let me ask you this. Do you want to see Ukraine win the world cup by playing 1-0 games all the way through and scoring a penalty as their only goal, or do you want Ukraine to get to, say, the quarterfinals once again, but play the way they played against Saudi Arabia? If you are a football fan like me, you will immediately choose the latter. If you merely want to promote your country and are so involved in politics, then go ahead, win your cup.

Posted from United States

By skillz | September 7th, 2008 at 3:55 pm

Hey guys, dont get sucked into these political games. Try not to get so worked up over some retarded comments that are just meant to provoke a reaction. Belarus played better that we thought, but in this day and age theres no shitty teams in europe, exept for some obviuos ones. Look at France, they got crushed by austria, which is a disaster for them. We shouldnt be too critical yet. Voronin has good days and bad. We all thought we were gonna come out of this with a tie, but in the end we got the three points, and no matter how we played everyone is happy about it.

Posted from Canada

By Makro Jevhenijovich | September 8th, 2008 at 12:21 pm

Sasha, what are you talking about political bullshit? We are all ukrainians, aren’t we? If the UKRAINIANS from the right of the Dniepr think, they’re better than the western Ukrainians fuck off them. I was born and raised in Lutsk, my father is from Kyiv and my Mother from Donetsk (at least they both talk Ukrainian). So don’t tell me anything about political, patriotical things in Ukraine.

About the game: it is how it is. We didn’t play well (I never said this) but at least under Michailichenko we try to play something as a modern football. In respect of Blocha: Under him, Ukraine played as the soviet union, sometimes even with one man libero. And to ask you football fans clearly: How much time did Michailichenko have to form a team without many old and admirable stars as Gusin, Fedorov and Rebrucha? Something more than 6 months I guess. It was the first game under Michailichenko which counted fully for our fatherland. So please let them boys some time, give Voronin and Kravchenko a break against Kazakhstan, let Aliev show his abilities and in Octobre against Croatia our players will have more practise, are fit and we will be an equal team for croatia.

About Hleb: Who of you wants to tell me that this bench spare player from Barcelona was better than one of our guys in the game? I am begging you, you only see the name, not his play. He didn’t play so well, but of course in a team like belarus as a star from barcelona you look the best…

About Sheva: So tell me smth guys: If there is no person to score from our chances, how will we ever win a game again? You all talk nonsense if you want to tell me that it’s better to make 10000 chances per game and not score. Look at the italian national team. they have 1 or 2 chances per game and became champions of the world. but that’s just by the way.

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