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Well played and yet lost: Andriy Jarmolenko, Roman Yaremchuk
Photo: Michael Steele/Getty Images
The sun was shining in Scotland last week, while rainy pictures from Wales went around the world on Sunday.
In Glasgow Andriy Jarmolenko scored a wonderful opening goal, in Cardiff the only goal of the afternoon - but into his own net.
After winning their playoff semifinals, Ukraine lost the final for Europe's last World Cup ticket.
She will not be in Qatar in November.
In the pictures from the fogged-up cameras, Yarmolenko was sadly seen leading the team's »Huh« in front of the Ukrainian fans.
He's her captain, and actually he was something like her lucky charm.
The former Borussia Dortmund professional, now with West Ham United, usually plays one level higher for his country than for his clubs.
In the five years since Dynamo Kyiv moved abroad, he has only scored 19 club goals in 116 games – in the same period he has scored 16 times in 34 games for the national team.
Talisman of the Brave
I'm sure many wanted the World Cup qualification just as much as Yarmolenko.
But more?
That probably didn't work.
After the start of the Russian attack on his country, the son of Ukrainian parents, who was born in Leningrad in the late Soviet era, was one of the first athletes to speak up and asked his Russian colleagues to say publicly what they had often said to him privately: That they don't support Vladimir Putin.
He cried a lot, he reported later.
The city of Chernihiv, where he grew up and where he started playing football, was heavily bombed just in the early stages of the war.
Yarmolenko's goal in Scotland seemed symbolic.
But now he of all people scored that own goal in the 34th minute from a Gareth Bale free-kick, something of his Welsh alter ego, who is world class only for the national team but even more so there.
It need not have been the end, however, as Yarmolenko himself was subsequently denied a penalty – a mystery what the video assistant was doing at the time – and in the second half he had one of the last of many good chances to equalise;
a Welsh defender saved just short of the line.
Why no goal, why him and why is Ukraine out now?
Why did Welshman Wayne Hennessey, 35-year-old reserve goalkeeper for Burnley FC, who were relegated to the English Premier League, made the game of his life?
Maybe because Wales haven't been to a World Cup in 64 years, so they felt like they were on a mission?
And yet, it could have all just as well gone the other way around.
"It's sport": That's what coach Oleksandr Petrakov said at the international press conference with his eyes lowered and looking infinitely empty: "One team was lucky, the other wasn't."
Yes, this is sports.
You don't have to look for a bigger meaning in it, and Yarmolenko is at best a tragic figure in the dramaturgical sense of the theater, as it is often said now.
What is happening in Ukraine every day is tragic.
The Cardiff game was just a football match.
An extremely excessive, but still only a game.
Yarmolenko and his team-mates can look to what Ukrainian football idol Andriy Shevchenko said before the first match in Scotland for solace: that simply being in the World Cup play-offs under the circumstances would mean an "incredible win" for them the country meant.
As in Scotland, a wave of sympathy and solidarity swept over her in Wales.
Petrakow once again thanked the hosts, and once again he, players and fans were greeted with applause from their opponents.
They want to remain present – for the people at home
Similar scenes are likely to be repeated on Wednesday, when Ukraine will complete their Celtic trilogy when they play their opening match in the 2022/23 Nations League - Division B, Season 1 - in Ireland.
Also in the new Uefa competition, before the summer break, she is still playing "at home" against Armenia and Ireland.
The games will be played in Lodz, Poland, safely in front of full ranks given the many Ukrainian refugees in the neighboring country.
Football as a distraction and mental survival aid for a country fighting a defensive war: that was one reason why they wanted to take part in the World Cup so much.
The other was the opportunity for the largest attention platform of a "game with millions and millions of followers" (Petrakov) in the world.
The fear of being forgotten is so deep-seated that during the press conference a Ukrainian questioner explicitly asked the other media representatives not to do it.
"We just want your support, we just want you to understand what's going on at home," added Petrakov.
Otherwise, the Nations League doesn't make much sense for most observers, so at least it keeps Ukraine talking about sport for the time being - and their selected footballers in action.
Before the World Cup playoff, the professionals employed by local clubs, a majority of the squad, had not played a competitive game for over six months.
At the weekend, concrete intentions were announced to start league operations again for the new season.
And from the playoffs, what remains?
"We did everything we could," Petrakov replied in Wales, and in his disappointment he could not say much more.
