2023: results of the year for the men's beach soccer team of Ukraine

12.12.2023 15:01

Photo by beachsoccer.com

In 2023, the men's beach soccer team of Ukraine took part in several prestigious European tournaments.

This year, the wards of Mykola Kostenko and Oleksandr Korniychuk started preparing for the season quite early. At the end of January and in the first half of February, the Ukrainian national team held a training camp in Kyiv, in the arena of the SUNRISE Beach Sports Academy sports complex.

And already on February 24, the team traveled to Oman, where at the invitation of the football association of this country, it held a second training camp. Within its borders, the blue-yellow team played two friendly matches with Oman (5:6 and 2:4) and one — with Saudi Arabia (3:3, 5:6 pen.). 

In the period from April 10 to 18, the Ukrainians held their third NTZ in Braza and Nazare, Portugal. During it, our team managed to play four friendly matches: twice lost to the national team of Portugal (4:7 and 3:7), and then twice beat the local FC "Nazaré" (4:2 and 6:5).

From June 27 to July 1 in Tarnov, the wards of Mykola Kostenko and Oleksandr Korniychuk participated in their first official tournament of the season — III European Games. At the group stage, our team defeated Italy (6:5), then ceded to Switzerland (2:4) and defeated Moldova (6:5). 

The national team took third place in the group and continued the fight in the playoffs for the fifth-eighth places. In the consolation semi-final, the Ukrainians lost in extra time to Azerbaijan (6:7), and in the tie match for the seventh position they beat Poland (3:2). 

Then our team was waiting for the European selection for the 2024 World Championship, which was held in Baku from July 5 to 9. In their first match, the blue and yellow defeated Spain in extra time (4:3), in the second - Poland (3:2), and in the third - Lithuania (4:1). As a result, the national team of Ukraine came across Moldova in the match for the right to enter the 2024 World Cup. Our team won (5:2) and qualified for the world championship.

In the future, from August 5 to 12, the blue and yellow were supposed to participate in the 2023 World Beach Games in Bali, but the competition were canceled due to Indonesia's refusal to hold them. 

Thus, this year the national team of Ukraine played 16 international matches - nine official and seven friendlies. In them, the Ukrainians won nine times and lost seven times (the goal difference is 66-65). Oleg Zborovsky and Andriy Pashko became the best scorers of the season for the blue-yellow team, with 10 goals each. 

In the BSWW world ranking, the Ukrainian national team ranks 18th (960 points).

Matches of the men's beach soccer team of Ukraine in 2023