Football Club - The football battles of the Champions League semi-finals have died down...

──────────────────────────────── ─────────────────────────────────
        F U T B B A L C L U B.

                 Off topic.
                 --------------

written by KAKTUS

                      Shooting at a target exercises your arm
                      and causes fidelity to the eye.
                                    (Kozma Prutkov)

   The football battles of the semi-finals have already died down
Champions League. Dynamo, who with a broad gesture bestowed
Bayern got a draw at home and were given a ticket to
final in the return match.   The passions have calmed down
semi-final matches, the zealous “experts” of football have calmed down,
criticizing the Kyivans' game until they were hoarse. Everything is quiet
like a swamp in the forest. Quiet until the Champions League final
and until the second round of Championship qualifying matches
Europe 2000. And actually there seems to be nothing to cover,
except perhaps the National Championship of Ukraine. But even here
there is nothing interesting.  Almost a winner
decided.  Dynamo (Kyiv) equaled on points with
Shakhtar, but the Kiev team still has two games left.
There is no fight for second place either. Maybe for the third
...
   But actually, today I would like to talk
not about football, but about hockey. Like probably many of
you know (or at least guess) that
The group tournament of the World Hockey Championship has begun.
And, having gone through a thorny path, the national team is participating in it
Ukraine.  For the first time inhistory of domestic hockey we
We are participating in the Major League of the World Championship. Well then,
our team, so to speak, has earned the right with calluses
participation.  And everything would be fine, but here we have a group
I didn’t come across one of the weak ones: Finland, Russia and
Belarus.
   So on May 2, 1999 we played our first match with the national team
Finland.  To be honest, at the beginning of the meeting,
at least in the first period ours played on par with
finami and after we opened the account, appeared
hope for victory.  Surprisingly, but
The coach of the Finnish national team looked confused.
However, due to frequent violations and removals from
On our side, the Finns managed to seize the initiative
meetings and Ukraine had to spend most of
meetings in your area.  Finns stubbornly and systematically
pressed on, and eventually equalized the score. Our
The national team has more than once had the opportunity to increase the score for
accounted for sharp counterattacks, but we lacked speed.
   In general, it should be noted that most of our
hockey players over thirty.  It is clear that not all
could withstand all three periods at large
speeds  It should also be noted the work of the goalkeeper
our team Vyukhin. Thanks to his skill
he saved the goal more than once during numerous
protection errors.
   In a word, the result of the meeting was quite
natural.  Finland - Ukraine 3:1. Same thing
time Russia- Belarus 2:2. So to go out to
next round, we need the next two
win meetings with Russians and Belarusians. Then
there is to score four points.
   And now on 05/04/99 the long-awaited match with Russia. Why
long-awaited?  Because in the meeting Russia -
Belarus Russians seemed weaker than their own
opponents.  Therefore, we pinned our hopes on getting
two points in this match.
   In the first period, Bogdanov’s charges quickly
rushed into battle at breathtaking speeds and how
result, realizing a numerical advantage in
moment of removal in the Russian national team, Sankov
opens the gates of the Russians.  But as it turned out in
only once afterwards.   First period
ended with our advantage. Looks like opening an account
and losing has become a bad tradition for us.
   In the second period there were completely unjustified
violations on our part, and again we have to
defend with four.   Having implemented one of
Afinogenov compares numerous advantages
account.  This is followed by two more goals from Yashin. Not in vain
After all, Russians are proud of him.  This is really
great player. In the third period, Markov increases
the gap is up to three points. Even though a couple of times
Ukrainians had a numerical advantage of two players (
5 against 3! ) we were never able to close the gap.
After the fourth goal, whichby the way it was
optional (it was Vyukhin’s mistake when
the puck passed under a loosely pressed stick)
Bogdanov decides to replace the tired Vyukhin with
Yu.Shundrova.
   I would like to note that despite my age
42 years old, Shundrov reliably guarded our gates until
end of the meeting, showing virtuoso skill.
And now, more than twenty seconds before the end of the meeting
Bogdanov decides to replace the goalkeeper with a sixth one
player.   Russian commentators who led
program (by the way, they spoke very flatteringly about our
national team and in particular about both of our goalkeepers)
We were completely stunned: “Why? What’s the point?” But
even though they admitted that Bogdanov accustoms his
wards fight until the end of the meeting. Unfortunately and
this did not help us close the gap. So Ukraine -
Russia 1:4.
At the same time Finland - Belarus
similar score 4:1. Total Finns - 4 points, Russia
- 3 points, Belarus - 1 point and we are left with nothing
than.  Now we are facing elimination in the first round.
In order not to be a statistic at the Championship, we need to
The next match with the Belarusian national team needs a victory.
   The last match in Group D took place on 05/06/99
Ukraine - Belarus. As in the first two meetings in
At the beginning there was hope for victory.  Moreover, we
We open the scoring in the first minute. Litvinenko around
Mezina throws the puck into the goal.Belarusians seem
confused.  But in the next three minutes two follow
return goals from Pankov and Antonenko against our goal.
It seems as if there is no one at our gates
no.  With the result 1:2 not in our favor, we went for
break.  In the second period, ours again resorted to
tactics of frequent violations.   As a result of which
Andrievsky widens the gap. Belarusians are rejoicing. Im
you need to score as many goals as possible to get past the Russians
(if they, of course, “sell” to the Finns).  And here in
As a result of new falls, we remain in three. Syabry
inevitably they took advantage of this. After the combination on
our goalkeeper's patch, played out like clockwork,
Kovalev increases the score to 1:4. Ukraine couldn't
realize not a single numerical advantage.
The time in which we remained in the majority, we
spent in our own, less often in the central zone!? Period
ended with the fifth puck thrown into ours by Antonenko
gate.
   In the third period, Bogdanov decides to replace
Shundrava to Vyukhin (too late). But in the third
nothing has changed during this period, except perhaps Pankov
throws the sixth puck into our goal. Yes! Bottom line
the meeting is deplorable 1:6. Looks like it really has become
It's a bad tradition for us to open an account and lose.
Now our hockey players can “with a pure heart”
go home.  But the Russians, who played with
Finishes in a 3:3 draw remain fighting for 1 - 8places.
Belarusians will fight for 9th - 12th places.
   The results of the three matches are not encouraging. Our player
national team - Zavalnyuk takes first place among all
foul play groups.  18 minutes total penalty
time.   For almost a whole period we played
minority.   Now, until the fall, when they begin
qualifying matches, we have something to think about and
something to work on. Necessary: first - learn
play cleanly, the second thing is to learn to play in someone else’s zone
and exercise a numerical advantage, third -
rejuvenate the team.
   That's how we made our debut in the major leagues.  How
it says: “The first pancake is lumpy.” I hope (hope)
dies last), future championships for us
will be more prosperous.

(C) KAKTUS MCMXCIX 7.05.99