The is the national
Football team of
Ukraine and is controlled by the
Football Federation Of Ukraine . After the split of
Soviet Union , they played their first match against
Hungary on
April 29 ,
1992 .
Before that, Ukrainian players played for the
USSR National Football Team , with
Dynamo Kyiv players often forming its backbone (, ). Some of the best Ukrainian players of the beginning of 1990's (including
Andrei Kanchelskis ,
Viktor Onopko and
Oleg Salenko ) chose to play for
Russia as it was named the official successor of the
USSR , while Ukraine didn't participate in major international competitions until 1994. However, they achieved qualification for the , the first time for the team.
Despite having one of the best players in the world,
Andriy Shevchenko , Ukraine failed to qualify for any major championship before
2005 , three times failing at the last stage, the playoffs. It lost to
Croatia , failing to get to the ,
Slovenia prevented Ukraine from going to , and
Germany stopped them prior to the .
After an unsuccessful campaign, Ukraine appointed
Oleg Blokhin as the national team's head coach. This would eventually prove to be a good move, as Ukraine went on to qualify for their first-ever
FIFA World Cup on
September 3 ,
2005 by drawing their match with
Georgia , 1-1, in
T'bilisi .
- 1930 to 1994 - ''Did not enter, was part of USSR ''
- 1998 - ''Did not qualify''
- 2002 - ''Did not qualify''
- 2006 - Qualified
For notable players from the USSR era, see
USSR National Football Team .
- DKM Merchandise - FC Dynamo (Kyiv) and Ukraine National Football Team merchandise (jerseys, shorts, scarves and much more). Must see for those interested in ukrainian football!
- http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=328162&cc=5901
- http://ukraine.worldcupblog.org
