Youth opportunities for Blokhin

First promise
The former Soviet Union international has followed up his promise to test some of the country's brightest prospects with a youthful-looking selection for the friendly game against F.Y.R. Macedonia in Kiev on 11 October.

Young prospects
FC Chornomorets Odesa forward Kostantyn Balabanov and defender Bohdan Shershun from PFC CSKA Moskva are both in line to make international debuts, along with the Ukrainian Premier League's top scorer, 26-year-old Olexandr Kosyrin. Other youngsters in the frame are FC Dynamo Kyiv's Oleh Gusev, Ruslan Rotan from FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and Olexiy Hay from FC Shakhtar Donetsk.

Coaching recruits
Blokhin has also named his coaching assistants as he aims to take Ukraine to the finals of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Former FC Vorskla Poltava coach Andriy Bal and Dynamo trainers Oleh Kuznetsov and Yuriy Romenskyi - all erstwhile team-mates of Blokhin - will help the coach, with a final staff member to be announced later.

Ukraine squad
Shovkovskyi, Reva, Medin, Nesmachnyi, Fedorov, Luzhny, Yezerskyi, Shershun,  Tymoschuk, Hay, Gusev, Voronin, Mizin, Rotan, Serebrennikov, Lutsenko, Vorobei, Shevchenko, Rebrov, Melaschenko, Venglinskyi, Balabanov, Kosyrin.