When the national team of Ukraine plays Germany in a benefit game on Monday (June 12, 2023, from 6 p.m. in the live ticker), it will be about football and the war. It is not an easy start for the new national coach Serhiy Rebrow.
Half a lifetime ago, when Serhij Rebrow’s world was different, without the war in Ukraine, without suffering, fear, death, he was in Bremen before. At the end of April 1997, Ukraine played a World Cup qualifier against a German national team coached by Berti Vogts. Those were the times for which Oliver Bierhoff and Mario Basler scored.
Rebrov was in his early 20s at the time, a talented Dynamo Kyiv attacker who played alongside Andrei Shevchenko for both the country and the national team. Shevchenko developed into one of the best strikers of his time, and Rebrow also made a career. Later he was under contract with Tottenham, Fenerbahce and West Ham, and at the end of his career he was drawn back to Ukraine. Rebrow also played in Russia for a year and a half, times were different.
And now Rebrow is back in Bremen, he has been the national coach of the Ukraine for a few days, and he will be responsible for the team for the first time in the benefit match against Germany. There are easier tasks.
Rebrow’s plan: football as a distraction from all the suffering
Rebrow, 49, is now in charge of the national team in a country that has no shortage of talented footballers. But football has played a more important role in the lives of people in Ukraine, they have other problems there. In August it will be a year and a half since Russia launched a war of aggression against Ukraine.
Life in Rebrow’s homeland is different today than it was when he first visited Bremen. It’s often about suffering, fear, death, and only very rarely about football. “For me, football is made of emotions”says the coach Rebrow. “That’s exactly what Ukraine lacks. All eyes are on the war. I told my players that we have to support people with emotions.”
When football is just a minor matter – and sometimes it helps
Football has sometimes supported the people in Ukraine recently, it was rarely about emotions and often about financial help. When in the winter Mykhailo Mudryk for the unbelievable sum of 100 million euros from Shakhtar Donetsk to Chelsea FC part of the sum is said to have gone to a fund to support the defenders of the devastated city of Mariupol.
And Oleksandr Zinchenko, a midfielder from Arsenal FC from the premier league, the most talented footballer in the current Ukraine team, was recently in Ukraine to organize the reconstruction of a school that was hit by a Russian bomb, according to a report in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. He is now planning a charity match in London.
In fact, football has been played in Ukraine for a long time, and Shakhtar recently became champion in the Premier League, the highest league. The Donetsk club has the most national players, but it is also a club without a home. Shakhtar has not played in Donetsk for many years. And of course this season was not normal in times of war anyway: fans were not allowed for security reasons, and when there was an air raid, the footballers in jerseys ran to the nearest shelter.
A difficult task awaits Rebrow
The work of coach Rebrow, who last worked at Al-Ain in the United Arab Emirates, is not made any easier. Once he Dynamo Kyiv twice and Ferencvaros Budapest even led to the championship three times, but the goals are different right now. “It is very important for me to be here and to show that Ukraine is alive. And that we play football”says Rebrow.
The game against Germany will be followed by two games in the European Championship qualifier for Ukraine. First the opponent on Friday (June 16, 2023) is North Macedonia, and then three days later Malta. Rebrow can then possibly rely on playmaker Zinchenko again, he will very likely miss the game against Germany with an injury.
These are games that Ukraine would have to win to maintain the bare minimum of hope of qualifying for Euro 2024. In Group C with England and Italy, the country is fourth. Rebrow says: “Believe me: we will give everything and see if it’s enough in the end.”