2020: results of the year for Ukraine U-16/17

15.12.2020 18:20

Photo of UAF press service

Serhiy Nagornyak's team in 2020 was to pass the baton of the youngest youth team of Ukraine to the boys born in 2005 (their coach was appointed Oleg Kuznetsov, they recently received rivals for the selection of Euro-2022 (U-17)). But the coronavirus pandemic has shattered all plans and expectations. Due to quarantine, Kuznetsov did not have time to assemble his team.

Earlier this year, the U-16 (players born in 2004) calendar schedule included four stages of preparation for the start of Euro 2021 (U-17): in January - the traditional Aegean Cup in Turkey, in March - sparring with the Czechs on in their field, in April - the UEFA Development Tournament in Finland and in August - already in the status of the U-17 national team - Victor Bannikov's home traditional Tournament. And already in October 2020 - the first stage of qualification for Euro-2021 (U-17), in which the rivals of Serhiy Nagornyak's wards were drawn by teams from Belgium, Georgia and Lithuania.

However, everything went awry. We managed to play only in Turkey, and not very well, because the coaching staff gathered experimental composition (without Dynamo players and, with one exception, Shakhtar) ... 

Matches of the youth national team of Ukraine U-16/17 2020

After that it started. First we had to cancel the March sparring matches with the Czech Republic, then, one by one, postpone international tournaments to 2021. And in August, UEFA made adjustments to the Euro 2021 (U-17) qualification program. The elite round has been canceled, and the first stage of selection (13 mini-tournaments) should take place by the end of March 2021.

... In 2019, the basic clubs of this national team of Ukraine were Shakhtar (champion of Ukraine in 2018 and 2019 among the generation of 2004), Dynamo (vice-champion of 2018) and Karpaty (vice-champion of 2019). . In 2020, it is difficult to talk about the base club, because in January we saw only an experimental lineup. But on the basis of pupils of the Lviv school. 

Only nine of those who played in Turkey in January 2020 have already played for Ukraine: Gereta, Kitela, Melnichuk, Pochapsky, Rusyak, Slavov, Slyubyk, Fedor and Yarmolyuk.

The latter, by the way, managed to make a fuss in 2020. At the end of the 2019/2020 season, Dnipro made his debut in the UPL and became the first representative of his generation in the elite division of the Ukrainian championship in the 2020/2021 season in the UPL he was accompanied by goalkeeper Yuriy-Volodymyr Gereta, who changed his club registration in the summer - he moved from Karpaty to Rukh. with Yarmolyuk's playing time (1 minutes), the very fact of the young goalkeeper's debut in the UPL deserves respect). 

And in November Yarmolyuk almost established new record of the youth national team of Ukraine. But he became "only" the second youngest debutant of the U-21 team - after Dmytro Chyhrynsky. The former Barcelona player made his debut in youth at 16 years and 146 days, and Yarmolyuk - at 16 years and 257 days. 

Personnel potential of the youth national team of Ukraine U-16/17 2020