Ukraine
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The Ukraine national football team is the national football team of Ukraine and is controlled by the Football Federation of Ukraine. After the split of the Soviet Union, they played their first match against Hungary on April 29, 1992.
Prior to the split, Ukrainian players represented the USSR national football team. Some of the best Ukrainian players of the beginning of the 1990s (including Andrei Kanchelskis, Viktor Onopko, Sergei Yuran and Oleg Salenko) chose to play for Russia as it was named the official successor of the USSR, while Ukraine did not participate in major international competitions until 1994. As a result a crisis was created for both the national team and the domestic league. Problems were further compounded when Soviet Union's five-year UEFA coefficients, despite being earned in part by Ukrainian players, were transferred directly to the direct descendant of the Soviet national football team - the Russian national football team.
In the following years, the Ukrainian team improved, showcasing talents like Andriy Shevchenko and Serhiy Rebrov. However, Ukraine failed to qualify for any major intercontinental tournament prior to 2005, three times failing at the last qualifying stage, the playoffs, after finishing second in their qualifying groups. It lost to Croatia, failing to get to the 1998 FIFA World Cup, Slovenia prevented Ukraine from going to Euro 2000, and Germany stopped them prior to the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
After an unsuccessful Euro 2004 qualification campaign, Ukraine appointed Oleg Blokhin as the national team's head coach. Despite initial resentment to his appointment due to his previous poor coaching record and calls for a foreign coach, Ukraine went on to qualify for their first-ever FIFA World Cup on September 3 2005, by drawing with Georgia, 1:1, in T'bilisi. In their first World Cup (2006 FIFA World Cup), Ukraine reached the quarter-finals before losing 3:0 to eventual champions Italy.
Prior to the split, Ukrainian players represented the USSR national football team. Some of the best Ukrainian players of the beginning of the 1990s (including Andrei Kanchelskis, Viktor Onopko, Sergei Yuran and Oleg Salenko) chose to play for Russia as it was named the official successor of the USSR, while Ukraine did not participate in major international competitions until 1994. As a result a crisis was created for both the national team and the domestic league. Problems were further compounded when Soviet Union's five-year UEFA coefficients, despite being earned in part by Ukrainian players, were transferred directly to the direct descendant of the Soviet national football team - the Russian national football team.
In the following years, the Ukrainian team improved, showcasing talents like Andriy Shevchenko and Serhiy Rebrov. However, Ukraine failed to qualify for any major intercontinental tournament prior to 2005, three times failing at the last qualifying stage, the playoffs, after finishing second in their qualifying groups. It lost to Croatia, failing to get to the 1998 FIFA World Cup, Slovenia prevented Ukraine from going to Euro 2000, and Germany stopped them prior to the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
After an unsuccessful Euro 2004 qualification campaign, Ukraine appointed Oleg Blokhin as the national team's head coach. Despite initial resentment to his appointment due to his previous poor coaching record and calls for a foreign coach, Ukraine went on to qualify for their first-ever FIFA World Cup on September 3 2005, by drawing with Georgia, 1:1, in T'bilisi. In their first World Cup (2006 FIFA World Cup), Ukraine reached the quarter-finals before losing 3:0 to eventual champions Italy.
Source: Wikipedia.
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