The football legend embraced his coach after striking to secure Ukraine victory. A wide-eyed young boy held his arms aloft in celebration. The president punched the air in a booming stadium colored in Ukraine’s yellow and blue.
This was the moment that Euro 2012 really kicked off in Ukraine.
The national team’s 2-1 victory over Sweden on June 11 brought the tournament to life, as veteran Andriy Shevchenko poached two headed goals to send the country into celebration.
The championship opened in co-host Poland on June 8 but had only simmered in Ukraine until it reached boiling point with the unexpected win, which could help the Yellow-Blues reach the quarterfinals.
Tens of thousands of fans from across Europe have poured into the country for the tournament, bringing color, song and high spirits, and drowning out the bad news stories that had dogged the run-up.
Fans
Foreign fans dismissed the pre-tournament scare stories that Ukraine wasn’t ready, was too expensive and that locals were unfriendly and racist.
“We heard a lot of bad things about Ukraine. That it is dangerous, and so on. But once we came everyone was so nice and nothing bad happened so far,” said Marcus Edvinsson, a 25-year-old Swedish bartender tucking into a beer in the fan zone.
“Kyiv is fine. It is above expectations,” said Stig Christensen, a 28-year-old chemistry student from Denmark. “I know that it’s a bit lower standard than Denmark, but it’s fine.”
Tournament organizer UEFA said there had been no reports of racial abuse during the first round of games in Ukraine, disproving claims that Ukraine was a hotbed of racism and advice that black fans should avoid the country because of potential attacks. Police commended fans’ behavior, saying there were no arrests connected with the Ukraine-Sweden game, which attracted 60,000 fans to the stadium and many thousands more in the fan zone on Khreshchatyk.
After the game, Ukrainian fans celebrated into the early hours, blasting car horns, pumping fists out of their windows and chanting, “Sheva! Sheva!” and “Ukrayina! Ukrayina!”
Not everything has gone smoothly. Local media reported a scuffle between a handful of Russian and Ukrainian fans in Lviv on June 10. Ukraine, however has seen none of the violence between fans or the allegations of racism that have hit Poland.
Early arrivals at Camp Sweden on Trukhaniv Island were disappointed that the site was lacking many crucial amenities. But by June 10, improvements had been made and many of the around 5,000 Swedes at the camp said they were happy, even with the somewhat Spartan conditions.
“We love camping. We normally do this,” said Ingo Soderland, the camp leader. “The main point is to be together, connect with people and support the national team.”
Boycott
President Viktor Yanukovych celebrated ecstatically when Shevchenko gave Ukraine the lead against Sweden. But he’s had little else to cheer. Foreign leaders from at least a half-dozen European countries have snubbed the games in Ukraine in protest at the continued incarceration of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Yanukovych brushed aside the boycott as “a rash act.” But one European diplomat in Kyiv said the boycott was a “slap in the face” for Yanukovych as it had become his “personal project.”
He’s still clearly hoping for a bounce in popularity from the tournament and paid his second visit to the team in a week after the victory.
European ministers weren’t the only ones to give the tournament a miss. At the game between France and England on June 11, which is typically a big draw, there were thousands of empty seats. Fans appear to have been put off by high hotel prices and the distance involved in traveling to the host city furthest east.
Hopes
The win against Sweden gives Ukraine a great chance of qualifying for the quarterfinals, placing the team top of Group D after England and France played out a 1-1 draw in the other first-round game. Ukraine faces a tough challenge against France on June 15, followed by a decisive clash against England on June 19.
Shevchenko, a national hero as the national team’s all-time top goalscorer, said the team would have to be at its best to qualify.
“Every game for us is like a final,” he said after the Sweden game.
Whether the Yellow-Blues qualify or not, there are already calls for the head of one Ukrainian who is failing at the tournament. Funtik – an “oracle” pig who is predicting winners by choosing which of two bowls marked by flags to gobble food from – wrongly predicted that Sweden would beat Ukraine.“It’s time to make that Funtik into salo,” read one headline in the popular Segodnya daily, referring to the Ukrainian national dish – pig fat.
Kyiv Post staff writers James Marson, Olga Rudenko and Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
