By now we are all aware of the political tension and
protests that have taken place in Kiev and all across the Ukraine. Yet, with
all the division in the Ukraine, and specifically the Crimea region, soccer is
something that has united that country.
Sunday, while one Illinois senator was dubbing the recently
completed Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia a “charm offensive” by Russian
President Vladimir Putin on CNN, fans of Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kiev were
playing a friendly soccer match over the weekend because the league game
between the two teams was postponed.
 |
| Ultras from Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kiev, the two most successful club teams in Ukraine, met for a friendly over the weekend after political unrest postponed the league match between the two teams. (Photo taken from Dynamo Kiev website.) |
Keep in mind Shakhtar and Dynamo are rivals, the two most
successful teams clubs in the country and separated by a nine-hour drive. The
match was played in Kiev. Fans of both teams, as well as players made
appearances. The final was 1-1.
American media jumped on Sen. Dick Durbin’s “charm offensive”
comments about the Sochi games, but largely ignored the impact sports had on
bringing Ukrainians together.
Whether Putin used a global sporting event to facilitate
good press about his country is for others to debate and decide — even if he did
he would not be the first to do so as the 1936 Summer Olympics, 1978 World Cup
and 2008 Beijing Olympics attempted the same.
What has been debated and decided upon is that sports can be
unifying, uplifting and even charming. Ukraine has proven that over the past
four days, the most recent example was Wednesday’s match between its national
team and the United States.
Ukraine was ranked No. 18 in the latest FIFA world rankings,
which makes them the best team to not play in this summer’s World Cup. ESPN
reported that all 11 of the Ukrainian starters are fluent in Russian and six of
them played club soccer for the archrivals Shakhtar and Dynamo.
Despite all of that, when the Ukrainian national anthem was
played, all 11 locked arms and sung the national anthem. Captain Anatoliy
Tymoschuk and longtime goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov were singing loud enough during
the anthem that the audio on the broadcast was clearly able hear their voices.
A cynic would say that half the United States starters did
not make the trip to Cyprus because they were preparing for the upcoming Major
League Soccer season, which would be true. But, it’s also worth noting that the
only seven of the men who played for the Ukraine in its last competitive match
in November were on the field Wednesday night.
Throw in the instability in their homeland, and it’s fair to
say that the Ukraine had plenty of built-in excuses to not show up. Not only
did the 2006 World Cup quarterfinalists show up, but their 2-0 win was
certainly deserved.
Prior to the match, ESPN dubbed Wednesday’s match “a 90-minute window into a
nation in crisis.” If that were indeed the case, the match was the “charm
offensive” American media should discuss.
