Courtesy: UEFA.com


Ukraine looking up under Lysenchuk

Thursday 4 December 2008

by Dennis Novitsky

Ukraine are among the teams taking part in next week's inaugural UEFA European Under-21 Futsal Tournament, the latest success for coach Gennadiy Lysenchuk.

Multiple roles
Lysenchuk is the man behind his country's success in the sport, as not only does he coach both the senior and junior national sides, but he is also president of the Futsal Federation of Ukraine. Having led the U21 side to wins against Romania, Lithuania and Poland to ensure their place in the St Petersburg finals, Lysenchuk is optimistic as they prepare to meet the Netherlands, Spain and Kazakhstan in Group B from Monday.

High hopes
"Our minimum goal is to make it through to the semi-finals," Lysenchuk told uefa.com. "Our maximum goal is to reach the final. There will be no third-place match in St Petersburg and we really want to play in the final, so that the boys can return home with the most prestigious medals."

Good example
The former goalkeeper set up the senior Ukraine futsal team in 1994 and helped them to the UEFA European Futsal Championship final in both 2001 and 2003. So can the U21 team match those exploits? "I think so, yes," Lysenchuk said. "The players have a good example as they saw the previous generation achieving great results. They really want to repeat that. In my opinion, the great desire to show ourselves is the greatest strength of our team. We were really good in the qualifying round, and I hope that we'll do the same in Russia."

Tough opposition
Not that he is underestimating their opposition. "Our group is really, really tough, I have to say that," Lysenchuk said. "The first match is against the Netherlands, and they always pay a lot of attention to the training of young players. We have some videos of their matches, and this information will be studied thoroughly by our team. Spain are one of the strongest futsal nations in the world. I haven't seen Kazakhstan play yet, but I've heard good things about them too. They beat Belarus in the qualifying round, and that speaks for itself, as we have played Belarus regularly in the annual St Petersburg friendly tournament. But still, we'll do all we can to show that we are a strong team as well."






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