Ukraine
Thursday 3 July 2008
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Ukraine (©Futsal Association of Ukraine)
Ukraine are an established force in the small-sided game and the coach responsible for their rise, Gennadiy Lysenchuk, has now led them to the first UEFA European Under-21 Futsal Tournament.
Qualifying
Their qualification campaign was smooth, with Ukraine beating Romania 4-1 and Lithuania 6-1 before a 5-0 win against mini-tournament hosts Poland. They had previously picked up two wins, a draw and a defeat in a four-game friendly series against Belarus, and in last December's St Petersburg tournament they beat the Czech Republic 4-0 and Italy 2-0 before losing 6-1 to Russia and 2-1 to Iran.
Senior achievements
At senior level, Ukraine's greatest achievement is reaching the final of both the 2001 and 2003 UEFA European Futsal Championships, losing to Spain and hosts Italy respectively. They also made the 2005 semi-finals, and qualified in 1996 and 2007, as well as finishing fourth at the 1996 FIFA Futsal World Cup and reaching the second group stage four years ago.
Key players
A product of FC Lokomotiv Moskva's football school, Dmitriy Klochko had spells with PFC CSKA Moskva and FC Shakhtar Donetsk before switching to the Ukrainian club's successful futsal side and last year scored 19 goals for FC Lokomotiv Kharkiv. His club-mates, brothers Oleksandr and Dmytro Sorokin, also have top-flight experience while Vitalii Gavrylenko found success after leaving football side FC Illychivets Mariupil for futsal's Illychivets-Start and is now with Marrion Odessa. Also in the top-flight are LTK Lugansk's Maksym Ivonko and Nazariy Tsymbalyak, who won the 2008 Ukrainian Cup with TVD Lviv.
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