Courtesy: UEFA.com

Note: due to the fact that this report has been written before the end of the past season, some indications will result as wrong

Team Profile: Ukraine

Two-time UEFA European Futsal Championship runners-up Ukraine are aiming to go one better in 2010 and have a solid record at this level to back up their ambitions.

They set up as an independent national team in 1994 under Gennadiy Lysenchuk, who remains the coach, and in their very first tournament made the 1996 FIFA Futsal World Cup semi-finals. They went on to reach the 2001 and 2003 European finals, losing to Spain and hosts Italy respectively, and remain World Cup regulars as well as 2004 international university champions. Lysenchuk is now rebuilding after the retirement of several key players including Serhiy Koridze in recent years.

How they qualified
Drawn with 2007 qualifiers Romania, 2005 contenders the Netherlands and Andorra, not the minnows they are in football, Ukraine did not have an easy task. In their opener, Ukraine beat Andorra 4-2, grateful for two second-half Dmytro Ivanov goals. They came from behind to defeat the Netherlands 4-1 with four goals in the last 12 minutes, and two early Mykhaylo Romanov strikes ensured a 2-2 draw with hosts Romania and first place.

Key players
Fedir Pylypiv remains from the squads that reached the 2001 and 2003 finals, having previously played in the amateur football 1999 UEFA Regions' Cup for Kyiv AMA. The key men in defence are Valeri Zamyatin and Valeri Legchanov, the latter helping FC Taim Lviv to the 2008/09 Ukrainian league title.


Tournament record
2007: Group stage
2005: Fourth place
2003: Runners-up
2001: Runners-up
1999: Did not qualify
1996: Fifth place


Coach Profile: Gennadiy Lysenchuk

Date of birth: 18 December 1947

Playing career: (football) FC Zorya Luhansk, FC Krylya Sovetov Samara and FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk

Coaching career: FC Kolos Nikopol, FC Sudostoitel Nikolaev, FC Vorskla Poltava, FC Krybas Kriviy Roh, Ukraine

That Ukraine are a world-class futsal force is down in no small part to coach Gennadiy Lysenchuk. Also the president of the Futsal Federation of Ukraine, Lysenchuk has been in charge of the national team since their 1994 debut and has led them to two UEFA European Futsal Championship finals and has also achieved success at world level. During his playing days he was a football goalkeeper for FC Zorya Luhansk, FC Krylya Sovetov Samara and FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk. Lysenchuk also graduated from the Moscow Coaches' High School and then became professor of football at the Kiev State University of Physical Culture and Sports.

In 1984 he took charge of FC Kolos Nikopol, and went on to coach FC Sudostoitel Nikolaev, FC Vorskla Poltava and FC Krybas Kriviy Roh before setting up the Ukraine side in 1994 and seeing his side win their opening game 2-1 against Belarus. Two years later they qualified for the 1996 FIFA Futsal World Cup at the first attempt, reaching the semi-finals, and they also played at the maiden UEFA tournament that season. Ukraine have continued to perform strongly, most notably in reaching the EURO finals in 2001 and 2003 when they were pipped by Spain and Italy respectively, and in 1998 and 2004 their student team were world champions. They missed out in the 2007 group stage, but Lysenchuk showed there was hope for the future when he coached Ukraine to the inaugural 2008 UEFA European Under-21 Futsal Tournament semi-finals.


Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com