If things had gone according to his original plans, Oleksandr Petrakov would be staying somewhere else these days. When the Russian war of aggression began, the Ukrainian national soccer coach recently reported that he wanted to volunteer for military service. “I’m 64 but I found it normal to do this. I think I could take out two or three enemies,” he said to him Guardians. But a member of the Ukrainian government made it clear to him that this was not for him. He has no military experience and could probably be better employed elsewhere.
Instead of being deployed in the war in Ukraine, Petrakow is in a football stadium in Mönchengladbach on Wednesday evening and is visibly struggling for words after the final whistle. “When I sang the national anthem, I had tears in my eyes,” he said. “It’s great that our nation is united.”
For the first time since the beginning of the war, Petrakow’s team has played a game. And this 2-1 win against Borussia Mönchengladbach wasn’t just an evening on which solidarity addresses and EUR 600,000 in aid money were collected for Ukraine. Above all, he also demonstrated the symbolic power that football should have. Thousands of Ukrainian fans sat in the stands, below the team won; it has been shown “that we as a country are far from lost,” said Petrakow. And at the same time this game should be the prelude to a mission: qualifying for the World Cup in Qatar. At the beginning of June is the play-off round, first against Scotland, with a win shortly afterwards against Wales.
“The soldiers are asking us to do everything we can to qualify for the World Cup”
National coach Petrakow himself said a few weeks ago that he didn’t want to think about football and the World Cup as long as people were still dying in his home country. People wouldn’t understand that either, which football it’s supposed to be about. Now the Russian war of aggression continues, and probably many people still don’t understand what kind of football is involved. But those involved are now constantly emphasizing what an important function the “Schowto-blakytni” (the yellow-blue) are to take on in the next few weeks.
“Many people in Ukraine love football, including many soldiers with whom we have contact,” said Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Taras Stepanenko, “and they are asking us to do everything we can to qualify for the 2022 World Cup.” The former Ukrainian national and Bundesliga attacker Andrei Voronin spoke into the Mönchengladbach stadium microphone that it was “very important for our national team and for our country that we (the World Cup qualification) also make it”.
He now has the task of realizing the great wish for the World Cup: Ukraine’s national coach Oleksandr Petrakow.
(Photo: Federico Gambarini/dpa)
Now football is often assigned such a role in battered countries. But in Ukraine this happens against a special background. Football there was traditionally deeply divided. Many rival oligarchs got involved, and it reflected the country’s political lines of confrontation. The capital club Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk from the eastern part of the country, who have divided all Ukrainian championships between themselves since 1992/93 and also provide the bulk of the national team, were considered the popular representatives of two very different parts of the country.
Tymoshchuk is silent on aggressive war, so he was banned for life
That changed somewhat after the Russian invasion in 2014; the Shakhtar club, for example, later settled in Kyiv. But now the whole thing should develop further and football and the national team should be the symbol of national unity. “There is a club now,” said recently attacker Roman Yaremchuk, who himself plays for Benfica: “the national team”.
Anatoly Timoschtschuk recently felt how clearly football is positioning itself. The former FC Bayern professional was, alongside Andrei Shevchenko, the central figure in Ukrainian football for years. With 144 appearances, he is his country’s record international player. However, he now works on the coaching staff at Zenit Saint Petersburg, the club that recently won the Russian championship and is effectively a Russian state club through majority owner Gazprom. Tymoshchuk has so far remained silent about the Kremlin’s war of aggression, which is why the Ukrainian association banned him for life.
National coach Petrakow now has the task of implementing the big wish for the World Cup – and things will be difficult. Only a few top players under contract abroad, such as Oleksandr Zinchenko (Manchester City), have had regular match practice recently because league operations in Ukraine have been suspended since the end of February. That’s why Petrakov now asked the players of the Ukrainian clubs to a training camp and three test kicks; Surprisingly, this briefly caused trouble with Dynamo Kiev’s president, who only wanted to let his kickers go later.
Even more serious is the strain of playing football while at the same time relatives in Ukraine are in danger. The coach himself expressed this on Wednesday when he reported on the war days he experienced in Kyiv. “It’s really hard to describe how bad it all is,” he said.