 | Team News |  | World Cup Player Profiles | | Fixtures | | Betting | | Mobile |  |
Ukraine Team Information
Latest News / Squad / Team Profile / Player Profiles / Betting / Results
Ukraine - Team Profile
30/03/2006
Having been denied places at major tournaments before at the play-off stage (Croatia 1998 World Cup; Slovenia Euro 2000; and Germany 2002 World Cup) the Ukraine National Team seemed determined to qualify outright for this year's World Cup and did so with two games to spare. They conceded only seven goals in twelve games - three of which were conceded after they had qualified. They are coached by the legendary Oleg Blokhin (European Footballer of the Year 1977) and could be one of this tournament's dark horses.
As their qualifying record for this year's event suggests evrything is built on a solid defence which includes Serhiy Fedorov, Andriy Nesmachniy and Vyacheslav Shevchuk (all Dynamo Kiev).
Many of the Ukraine team will be unknown to all but the most anorak football fans but all will have heard of Serhiy Rebrov and Andriy Shevchenko. The former is enjoying a fresh spell of life at Dynamo Kiev after unsuccessful spells at Spurs and West Ham. It was at Kiev that Rbrov enjoyed his most fruitful years in combination with Shevchenko.
Much has been written about Shevchenko with the player being a living legend at Milan having been there since 1999. European Foootballer of the Year in 2004 he has a phenomenal scoring rate and is technically one of the most gifted players on the planet. With him, Ukraine have every chance of progressing far in this competition and free from injuries could be a dark horse to win it.