Five uncapped players in Ukraine squad

Ukraine coach Leonid Buryak has named a 22-man squad for the friendly international with Japan in Osaka on 21 March.

Shevchenko missing
The date of the game falls outside the set international football calendar, so Buryak has been forced to stick to players who play in Ukraine, with Serhiy Datsenko, who plays in Russia, being the only exception.

Shevchenko out
Milan AC forward Andriy Shevchenko will not appear against Japan as the UEFA Cup quarter-finals are scheduled for 19 and 20 March, with Milan looking likely to be in them after a 1-0 away win over JC Roda in their fourth round first-leg match on Tuesday.

Five new faces
Buryak has named five uncapped players in the squad, with some of them likely to be tested ahead of the EURO 2004™ campaign. The five new faces - Mykola Medin (FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk), Olexandr Radchenko (FC Zakarpattya Uzhgorod), Serhiy Datsenko (FC Rostselmash Rostov-Na-Donu), Olexiy Byelik (FC Shakhtar Donetsk) and Olexandr Rykun (FC Metalurh Mariupol) - will all be hoping to impress in Osaka.

Ukraine squad
Reva, Shovskovskyi, Medin, Holovko, Fedorov, Nesmachnyi, Vaschuk, Zadorozhni, Popov, Radchenko, Datsenko, Husin, Serebrennikov, Tymoshchuk, Shyschenko, Zakarlyuka, Khoma, Rykun, Byelik, Vorobei, Melaschenko.