Managerless Euro 2012 hosts Ukraine are in a state of farce as they head to co-hosts Poland for a friendly
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
Poland v Ukraine, International Friendly, September 4, 2010
Poland 2.30; Draw 3.06; Ukraine 2.81
Usually we’d have happily ignored a friendly match between Poland and Ukraine with neither side being in the forefront of one’s consciousness when thinking about the best international teams in world football. But now that the 2010 World Cup is over, the next big tournament on the European scene is Euro 2012 which the two eastern bloc countries host. Accordingly, all of a sudden Poland and the Ukraine are actually important.
But while you may have thought that Saturday’s friendly would be hyped by stories of a “Pol-krainian” unified front, all the talk has been hijacked by now ex-Ukrainian coach Myron Markevych who quit his position last week in bizarre circumstances.
So what happened?
Last Saturday Markevych announced that he was leaving his position with the national team “on moral grounds,” alleging that the club he also coaches, Metalist Kharkiv, were the victim of bias on the part of senior officials in the Ukraine football federation (UFF). Metalist Kharkiv and Karpaty Lviv were both deducted nine points, as well as incurring hefty fines, after they both were found guilty of match-fixing matches back in 2008.
The penalty has all but ended Metalist’s chances to qualify for either Champions’ League or Europa League participation in 2011. Alternatively, the big winner from the points deduction was local powerhouse Dynamo Kiev who since leapfrogged Metalist into fourth spot to get themselves firmly back into the European picture. Accordingly, the Ukrainian rumour-mill has been working overtime as rumours of favouritism and nepotism for Kiev have spread like wildfire in the aftermath of Markevych’s resignation. All of which has left the Ukraine national team is complete disarray.
Chillingly, with noises that football pimp Sven Goran Eriksson may be interested in the post, Markevych informed any would-be candidates for the job the interference from the UFF was almost a certainty. “I do not see a future for Ukraine’s national team. The person who follows me in this job will continue our work, and perhaps he will have some success. But only if he is not interfered with. And I don’t believe that will happen… A foreign [national team] coach would go crazy working here.”
Off the field the Ukrainian national team is a farce. That makes life on the field that much more difficult for the national team. With such a whirlwind of controversy spinning into overdrive, responsibility falls on the likes of Andriy Shevchenko, Dmytro Chygrynskiy, Andriy Voronin and Artem Milevskiy to steer to Ukrainians steady this weekend.
Against all the off-field hullabaloo, there is one positive story for the Ukrainians to cling onto though. Earlier this year Lokomotiv Moscow snapped up 25-year-old midfielder Oleksandr Aliyev from Dynamo Kiev and the playmaker’s transition into the Russian Premier League has been dramatic. A set-piece specialist to rival the best, Aliyev is one of the most exciting talents coming to prominence in the European game. Should Poland give away any free-kicks 30-yards from goal and nearer, Aliyev will surely step up and look to strut his stuff.
While Ukraine are in a big mess, Poland are fairing only a little better. Regardless of all the accusations of match-fixing, interference and whether the Ukrainians will actually be ready for Euro 2012, one suspects that when the competition finally gets underway that they’ll manage to rustle up a team capable of performing in front of their home crowds. The same confidence cannot be shared by the Poles though as they try and put together a team who can compete at the highest levels.
Under the now tutelage of Franciszek Smuda, Poland are experiencing a period of transition as a whole raft of young blood is fused with the experienced old pros. At the back Artur Boruc, fresh from his move from Celtic to Fiorentina, will keep goal while 34-year-old full-back Michal Zewlakow is responsible for bringing along the fresh-faced centre-half pairing of Kamil Glik (22, plays at Palermo) and Maciej Sadlok (21, plays at Ruch).
The Polish midfield is also flooded with youngsters still trying to gain the necessary European experience. Maciej Rybus, for example, is an exciting 21-year-old left winger who plays at Legia Warsaw while on the opposite flank 24-year-old Jakub “Kuba” Blaszczykowski is considered a relative old-head in the set-up having gaining a top-flight footballing education at Borussia Dortmund.
Where Poland can be a little more optimistic though is up-front. Former Premier Leaguer Ebi Smolarek has now returned to his native homeland joining Polonia Warsaw and, being arguably the best player currently in the domestic Ekstraklasa, has the responsibility of being the leading light in the final third. Yet while Smolarek has the guile and the vision to make things happen up-top, Auxerre’s serial goalscorer Ireneusz Jelen is the main to watch in the danger area. Jelen is a dynamic, play-on-the-shoulder type of striker who is capable of hurting even the best defences out there, and he is aided by the Wayne Rooney of Polish football – Robert Lewandowski.
When Poland and the Ukraine take the field this weekend, sadly the main topics of conversation will revolve around issues away from the actual field of play. For all those wishing to have a punt on using this match however, due to the surrounding circumstances we’d steer you towards a Polish victory but we expect the match to be rather tighter than some may expect.
101gg predicts: Poland 2 – Ukraine 1