Patrick van Leeuwen doesn’t say much about what blew him and his team that evening from the Ukraine to the north of Germany. The 54-year-old Dutchman answers dutifully because it is the protocol of a Champions League game: “Our only way to help at the moment is to make the world aware of what is happening in Ukraine by giving our players the Provide the opportunity to take part in international games. So we have two goals – to play football and to share information about what is happening in Ukraine.”
On Tuesday evening, van Leeuwen watched his team relatively still as they lost 3-1 against FC Porto. Later he says typical trainer sentences. It’s a balmy night when more than 47,000 people sit in the Volksparkstadion and watch Shakhtar Donetsk play against the Portuguese in Champions League Group H.
As van Leeuwen’s professionals take their lap of honor, blue and yellow flags are waved. Later you can see many vehicles with Ukrainian license plates around the arena. “The stadium was full. So it was a good decision to come to Hamburg,” says Patrick van Leeuwen, head coach since July. Around 40,000 Ukrainians currently live here.
Haven’t played at home since 2014
Schachtar will find a temporary home in Hamburg twice more, take the bus across the border to Poland, fly in from Rzeszów because the airspace over Ukraine is closed, train in Norderstedt, sleep in the fine Hotel Treudelberg, and then in the Volksparkstadion face FC Barcelona on November 7th and finish with Royal Antwerp (November 28th). At home in the Donbass Arena, Shakhtar has not played since 2014.
The stories about what the eternal home games are like abroad have no real impact. Van Leeuwen says: “Each of our trips, be it a training camp, a friendly match or the Champions League, requires us to cross the border. It’s not just about traveling. We have to wait, go through passport control, then boarding. In relation to the trips to Hamburg, that means we are on the road for nine hours, not two as usual.”
Finally Champions League football in the Hamburg Arena: Porto’s Taremi (l) and Donetsk’s Stepanenko fighting for the ball: Image: dpa
The circumstances remain unusual and omnipresent for everyone involved: A week ago on Tuesday, the ten-year-older brother of goalkeeper Dmytro Riznyk died in the Russian war of aggression. Riznyk, 24, will be in the starting line-up on Tuesday evening. “He came with the team and that means he is okay and can play,” says Patrick van Leeuwen.
Enema children are young refugees
Other sports such as handball (Zaporizhzhia in Düsseldorf) or volleyball (U21 team in Steinbrunn) have promoted the exiled appearances of Ukrainian teams to the status of temporary normality. Shakhtar versus Porto is also a largely conventional football game. One where the children admitted are young refugees. One in which a “Peace” banner is stuck to the ground before kick-off, one in which Shakhtar’s captain Taras Stepanenko says via video message at 8:58 p.m.: “We know how much the Germans help Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. We feel their support every day.”
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During the 94 minutes, the surprising number of fans in blue and white cheered their team’s fine ball circulation (the Portuguese Quarter with its restaurants in the shadow of the Michel had to be closed that evening). The majority of those watching wearing matchday scarves stop at Donetsk and shout: “Shakhtar! Shakhtar!”, when a pass arrives, a tackle is successful. Even the wave of enthusiasm washes through the arena, and you catch yourself thinking that it was built in 1999 for exactly that – Champions League. The current HSV second division professionals and coach Tim Walter are sitting in the stands, and in the 75th minute, when the game has long since died down, it echoes from the north stand: “Ha-es-vau! Ha-es-voo!”
Denis Trubetskoy, Kiev Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 3 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 1 Denis Trubetskoy, Kiev Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 3
Before Shakhtar continues with the away game against Ruch in Lemberg (Lviv) on Saturday, thoughts turn to how the competition will continue: “We are doing our best to ensure that Ukraine has a European spring,” says captain Stepanenko, referring to overwintering in the competition . His coach knows the country from pre-war times; He was responsible for the Shakhtar youth team between 2006 and 2013 and says: “When I came back, I was the coach of a completely different club because the situation was completely different. Now we are trying everything to give the fans a normal Ukrainian league.” That would probably have achieved quite a lot.
