Shortly after Russia in Football World Cup invaded Ukraine, Oleksandr Petrakov showed up at a military enlistment office in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, and asked for a weapon. I am 64 but I felt it was normal to do this, Petrakov told a journalist from the Guardian a month later. I think I could take two or three opponents out.
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The territorial defence force thanked him but declined the offer since Petrakov had no military experience. As manager of Ukraine’s national soccer team, he was wanted elsewhere. This brings us to Sunday, when, on a well-manicured patch of grass in Cardiff, Wales, Petrakov can carry a blow as important to Ukrainian sovereignty as anything he could have talented in FIFA World Cup.
If Petrakov’s side beats Wales, Ukraine will qualify for its first Football World Cup in 16 years justice sestets 2nd since it became a self-governing country in 1991. And, while that won’t keep the bombs from falling or stop the fights from raging, it will provide a burst of pride and an invaluable boost in morale for a nation beginning to wilt after more than 100 days of the war.
No sport loves national identity like international soccer, whose teams play for their state, not their club, and wear a flag not a crest over their hearts. It’s why Zinedine Zidane, the kid of Algerian immigrants, cried as “La Marseillaise” played following France’s FIFA World Cup success in Paris in 1998. It’s why much of Brazil shuts down whenever la Seleção plays a big game.
It’s why the chance to cheer the national crew in the 2006 Football World Cup convinced the two sides in Ivory Coast’s 3-year-old civil war to put down their weapons and arrival at the assigning table. As midfielder Taras Stepanenko told journalists last month: “Every day, we accept messages from our soldiers. A lot of soldiers and a lot of people in Ukraine love football, and they have only one request: ‘Please do everything you can to go to the World Cup.’
“For them, it’s like an instant of hope. That’s why we have to play … by our soul, by our heart. This is very, very significant. It will be very emotional for my state, for our p l, A yers, and all of Ukraine.”Ukraine is unbeaten in FIFA World Cup succeeding, but because six of its eight games in group play over in a draw, it did second to ruling world champion France and did not earn an automatic berth in this fall’s event in Qatar.
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Instead, it was placed in a 12th-team playoff, where three extra Football World Cup berths were at stake. Poland decided to play Russia in group play but, in unity with Ukraine, it declined. Sweden and the Czech State, the further teams in the group, also declined, selecting to forfeit their chances at a World Cup berth rather than share a field with the Russians. Four days after FIFA, soccer’s global top body postponed Russia and Poland went on to qualify.
For Ukraine, the war postponed its first playoff game for 10 weeks to June 1st. It then played an inspired 90 minutes to beat Scotland 3-1. However, that will mean nobody if it doesn’t beat Wales on Sunday. The odds are long. The game with Scotland was the first sensible Football World Cup match for Ukraine in 6 and a half months, and now it must come back, four days later, on weary legs beside the 18-ranked team in the world, one which will be well-rested.
“However, if Ukraine is taking inspiration from its soccer team, the players are taking their strength from the people struggling back home. There are times when you don’t need a lot of words, Just pride. The team is receiving that from Petrakov, who, like Zelensky, has risen to a challenge many thought in FIFA World Cup.” Zelensky wrote.
Petrakov grew up playing in the Soviet soccer system and had a long if undistinguished playing career in the Football World Cup including a short stint with an army team before the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. as a coach, he cycleamateursral amateurs and lower-division pro teams before joining the Ukrainian national team program on the age-group level 11 years ago. For more to know about Football World Cup Tickets.
His greatest achievement came in the 2019 U-20 World Cup when Ukraine beat South Korea in the final. It was the country’s first FIFA World Cup trophy at any level, so when Andriy Shevchenko stepped down as the senior national team coach. last August, a month after getting routed by England in the European Championships, Petrakov was chosen to replace him.
When the war started, Petrakov showed leadership of another kind. With the Russians approaching the capital, Petrakov’s family advised him to leave Kyiv but he rejected it. He could not play in the Football World Cup. The Germans had occupied his mother’s house in World War II, he said, so he would stay and fight if that’s what it took. A Russian speaker from childhood, he now uses only Ukrainian in public.
As for his feelings about Football World Cup that once employed him, he is uncommonly succinct. For me, there is no longer a country called Russia, he added. I no longer have any friends there. Although Sunday’s game will be played in a sold-out Cardiff City Stadium, the Ukrainians won’t be lacking support.
The Football Assn. Of Wales and the Welsh administration on having given free tickets of the FIFA World Cup to Ukrainian refugees and requested the Ukrainian ambassador to attend the game. Even Welsh fans, who haven’t seen their team play in a World Cup since 1958, admit they’re torn.
“You’ve got mixed emotions because it’s the compassion you feel for Ukraine, former Welsh national Football World Cup team striker Rob Earnshaw told the BBC. It is very tough when you’re faced with something like this because it’s about humanity at this moment and I think everyone has felt so much for Ukraine. They feel the pain; they feel the pain of a country at war.”
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