We watched the match against England to understand this.
“Erasmus” is the Monday column in which we tell you about an interesting match from the international football weekend. You can catch up on previous episodes here.
???????????? 25 players have been called up to the NT of Ukraine for the September matches. Five more players have been included in the reserve list.
???? 09.09 ⚔️ England (Wroclaw, Poland)
✈️ 12.09 ⚔️ Italy (Milan, Italy) pic.twitter.com/EEEIjVDr73— Ukrainian Association of Football (@uafukraine) August 21, 2023
The first time was Saturday, June 11, 2022. The second was Tuesday, June 14, 2022. The third was Tuesday, September 27, 2022. The fourth was Monday, June 19, 2023. The fifth is September 9, 2023, with who knows how many more to come. The first two at the Stadion Miejski w Łodzi im. Władysława Króla from Łódź, the third at the Stadion Cracovii im. Józefa Piłsudskiego from Kraków, fourth at the Štadión Antona Maltinského in Trnava, fifth at Tarczyński Arena Of Wrocławwith who knows how many more stages to come.
Ukraine’s latest “home” matches, including UEFA Nations League B e Euro 2024 qualifiers, were played between Poland and Slovakia, showing that palliative football can be administered even beyond the borders of a country at war, as if it were a medicine by proxy. So let the powerful show continue, and that Ukraine-England can contribute a verse.
The comparison with Three Lions it always seemed unthinkable for the last Ukrainian cycle: 0-4 in the quarter-finals of Euro2020 in Rome, when Andriy Shevchenko proposed a 3-man defense that was never deployed, with the effect of not confusing the English but rather the yellow and blue themselves; 2-0 at Wembley in the first leg of these qualifiers, with a match closed before going for a hot tea and without ever giving more than a ridiculous tickle to the European vice-champions. The only Ukrainian victory dates back to 2009 when, despite a penalty saved by Shevchenko by David James, Nazarenko decided the match.
Ukraine is a national team that is seeing everything change in their hands, regardless of their will. Once the Sheva experience was over, Oleksandr Petrakov arrived on the bench and, within a year, had time to enlist in the Territorial Defense Forces after the Russian invasion, being threatened with ban by UEFA at the request of the Russian federation for having declared to take up arms if Putin’s army arrived in the capital Kiev, fined by the highest institution of European football itself and, failing the renewal of the contract expiring at the end of the year, become new technical commissioner of Armenia.
The level shown at the Under 21 European Championship is just the beginning: Sudakov and Mudryk are ready to take the yellow and blue reins.
Almost like a Dante’s retaliation, England seems to have acclimatised, ending up dozing off, in a change in the historical paradigms of British football undertaken with Euro2020 but not yet completed. To take the last step, however, Gareth Southgate seems to rely only and exclusively on the historical nucleus, as if he were able to perceive in the same figures the spark for the decisive leap in quality. Compared to Euro2020, but also just to Qatar2022, Phillips, Henderson, Wilson and Maguire remained, with all due respect to all those who hoped to notice new names. Not just Ward-Prowse, Bowen, Watkins: of the victorious group at the last U21 European Championship, the only one promoted is Levi Colwill, with Gordon most notably excluded.
Not the cover man one might have expected, but Guéhi’s start to the season deserves reward.
The start of the match is unmistakable: two narrow and compact lines of Ukraine in the positional defense phase, 3-man construction in the first possession for the Three Lions with the great movement of the midfielders designed to overload and empty areas of the pitch and find the right ones distances in the opponent’s half of the field. On the right, Walker and Henderson alternate in ensuring preventive coverage in case of loss of possession and internal overlaps to attack the conflict zone between Mykolenko, worried about Saka’s width and creative quality, and Matviyienko, equally focused on maintaining the constant physical contact with Kane. On the left, with Guéhi blocked in the last line, it is Bellingham and Maddison who shape the internal corridor and free up the fullback for Chilwell’s left-footed player.
3+2 construction: Walker “arm” on the right, Bellingham lowering to Rice’s line to receive, Henderson rising to attack the backs of the Ukrainian midfield.
3+1 construction: Walker in possession to trigger Saka and the 3vs2 combinations given by the position of the future captain, with rainbow band allowed or not, of Al-Ettifaq.
For the first 7′ Ukraine’s longest possession lasted 4 seconds: Jude Bellingham confirms his status as the most impactful player of 2023/2024, dictating the timing and movements of the entire English attack. Less invader and finisher than the tasks required by Ancelotti but with that sinister feeling emanating from “strongest player in the world in any position and next to any teammate” which only a total athlete like the 20-year-old from Stourbridge has been demonstrating for three years now. He builds, moves without the ball behind Tsygankov and Stepanenko to receive through balls, moves to the back to aim and jump in 1vs1 Konoplia. everything a little, everything tremendously well.
Dominate the game even without the ball, trying to win it back as soon as possible and as close to the opponent’s goal as possible. Saxon concepts, expressed by the Anglo-Saxon selection.
The match plan orchestrated by Rebrov is crystal clear: whatever the cost, England must not penetrate the central zone. Counting on a physical size no smaller than the English one, placing as many bodies as possible along the median perpendicular of one’s own half of the pitch is the best strategy to try to minimize the qualitative gap and limit it on the flanks, counting on always having a second opportunity to counter in case of error.
An imaginary center of mass placed between the penalty area line and the midfield circle.
The effect is twofold: England’s shot in the first quarter of the match is only one, which was also rejected by Matviyenko; the more technical yellow and blue players are narrower, with the possibility of communicating and compensating for the cuts in depth or towards the outside of the others. Just as England follows Bellingham’s score, the Ukrainian conductor is Zinchenko: if he is on the centre-left he is close to Mudryk, with the possibility of a quick one-two to avoid the pressure of Walker and Henderson; exchanging positions in construction with Sudakov, he also finds himself free to vary across the midfield, with his back covered by Stepanenko, to find energy between the English bodies and also push into the penalty area. The initial positional defense instilled enthusiasm in Ukraine who, as if possessed by a positive entropy, managed to unleash more and more aggression and intensity in transitions, until the Arsenal class of ’96 took the lead.
The inevitability of Bellingham, in addition to filling the eyes with the innate relationship that the Real 5 has with a leather ball on a green lawn, produces a contagious vitality. One gets the clear impression that everyone raises their level to want to be a companion with whom the 10 of the Three Lions has the pleasure of expressing all the multitudes contained. And if the captain of the team, the Bayern Munich center forward and best scorer of the English national team, is also doing it, finding solutions and bringing the game back to balance is slightly easier.
Mezzali as advanced central references, winger to attract the full-back, arm to attack the line for receive in the area. All, clearly, made possible by the passing quality of the best maneuvering center forward you could have, aka Harry Kane.
A first half like this, especially in the first half of September, wears out the energies of the defending team. Rebrov’s substitution at half-time, with Kryvtsov inserted in the center of defense for a Matviyienko worn down by Kane’s unsuccessful follow-up, is emblematic: Stepanenko drops further to form a 5-4-1 that renounces any offensive proposal. The ball, literally, passes to England’s feet and choices. The solutions against such a compact low block must necessarily depend on the quality of the individuals and Saka, not on the brightest day, is unlucky to find the fingers of Bushchanprovidential in modifying the trajectory of the ball just enough to make it go on the and not just below the crossbar.
A bit more of Bellingham, before Southgate replaces him with Foden: here at the start of the action…
…and here at the end.
The end of the match was more fragmented and scattered, between a rather intangible Rashford entry and the weakening of the athletic reserves of both teams, as one might expect at this moment of the season. Nikolov Kabakov’s final whistle arrives at the right time, not causing too many regrets in the English home and giving everyone a smile (almost) the 40,000 at the Tarczyński Arena. Because this is ultimately football, an interlocutory moment from which you should only have something pleasant, a suspension of disbelief in relation to the hardships of every day. Because in the end the powerful show will continue, but at least Ukraine-England was able to contribute a verse.
Bonus track: moments in which Mudryk and Walker seem like living beings with an incomparable physical constitution
2023-09-11 14:00:00
#Ukraine #Italys #opponent #play #Doors
