One step away from success. Shortcomings of Ukrainian team sports teams

Our sport has gone through very different moments in the past year. Ukrainian fans have witnessed both brilliant victories and disappointing defeats. But at the main team events, which, as a rule, have a much wider audience, the “blue-yellow” teams caused, let’s be honest, not very pleasant emotions. Moreover, what united them was that our teams were a little short. After all, when it seemed that most of the work had already been done and all that remained was to complete the work started, Ukrainian men’s national teams in various sports stumbled at the last and even the last step.

Below is a collection of anti-ratings to such speech. Let’s say right away that it does not carry an assessment of the team for the entire calendar year, because failure in one competition was followed by success in another tournament, or our rivals were at such a high level that losing to them was nothing to be ashamed of. It only records the reality of failure when you are so close to success.

Football

In the Nations League play-offs, held in March, the country’s main team faced the toughest of possible opponents – the Belgian national team. Immediately after the draw, it was said that such an opponent was very difficult for us and that it would be better for the Ukrainians to start thinking about the selection for the 2026 World Cup. And to be honest, such thoughts were quite true. We were clearly the underdog in this match.

Therefore, it was doubly enjoyable to watch how Sergei Rebrov’s attacks defeated his opponent in the first match, which took place on March 20. After the first half did not go well, ending with Romelu Lukaku’s goal, a completely different Ukrainian team entered the second period of the game. The Blaugrana have easily had the best half of 2025, scoring three goals against the Belgians. The final score of the match was 3:1, which was frankly sensational and allowed us all to expect that the Ukrainians will host the next Nations League among the best teams on the continent.

Unfortunately, three days later, Ukrainian fans were very disappointed. The blue-yellows showed that they will not think about how to develop the advantage they gained from the first minutes of the rematch, but how to maintain it. And historically we’ve been able to play to keep the gap. We held on for two thirds of the game but a goal was coming against us. As a result, from the 70th minute to the 75th minute, the Belgians scored two goals, and the third goal at the end of the half knocked us out.

The final score of 3:4 in the fight against the favorite team looks quite good. But the fact that we are just over twenty minutes away from qualifying for the A-League leaves a very bitter taste in the mouth.

Hockey

Last year the Ukrainian national team played in Division IA for the first time since 2017. Naturally, our main task was not to get relegated to Division IV. Everyone was talking about it. But after losing only one penalty shootout against the favorites from Great Britain, followed by victories against Italy and Romania, everyone began to understand that we could do more. And the confident 4:1 victory over Poland made it clear that Ukraine could return to the elite of world hockey after an almost two-decade break. In the decisive match of the final round, we were facing the Japanese national team, which no longer needed anything. And we only needed one point; We may even lose in overtime or penalty shootout.

Viktor Zakharov opened the scoring at the end of the fifth minute of the match and it looks like Dmitry Khristich’s team will put a great end to this amazing tournament. It’s better not to remember what happened next. You can talk as much as you want about the Japanese being stylistically unsuitable for us, but in this match our hockey players had to break all the statistics and I cannot. That doesn’t mean they didn’t try. But the long-awaited success did not happen. The loss was 2:3 in regular time and we will continue to play in Division IA next year.

Of course, this result is already a great success for our team. But what a disappointment the match against Japan on Saturday afternoon was. And this year very strong France and Kazakhstan came to our league, so it will be even more difficult to rise to the elite. Which makes it doubly offensive. We missed a truly historic opportunity. In the last game. With an unmotivated opponent.

Volleyball

In 2025, for the first time in its history, Ukraine played in the Volleyball Nations League, the most prestigious commercial tournament where all the best teams come together. It makes sense that the main goal is to maintain recording in it. The format of the competition, in which only one of the eighteen teams was eliminated, encouraged the idea that all should be well. We need to get some wins. But it was scary.

The Ukrainian team looked great in two of the three weeks. Victories against giants such as the USA, Cuba, Japan, Bulgaria, a good game with Brazil, etc. And now, before the final third week, we have a much better chance of making it to the play-offs in our first season in the Nations League.

However, at the end of the tournament, our team ran out of gas. A tough win against the Netherlands – 3:2, a defeat against Italy – 2:3 (many, not without reason, believe that in this match it was necessary to play with substitutes and give the main team rest) and then an important match with Serbia, where a 90% win took us to the play-offs. And we lost the match without any options – 0:3. But fate gave me another chance. They needed to beat Canada in the last game and look at the results of the other games to qualify for the post-season. But we lost there too – 1:3.

Of course, such a performance in his League of Nations debut can certainly be considered a success. But the appetite comes during the game. When you defeat the leaders of world volleyball and are one victory away from a result that almost no one in the volleyball world expected, you are left with the feeling that an important job is left unfinished.

Basketball

Our team started the qualifiers for EuroBasket 2025 with an indicator of 04 and a minimum chance of qualifying. The Ukrainian national team entered its last match period in February 2025, with Ainars Bagatskis returning to his post as head coach and the three necessary components to qualify for the European Championship. The key to success was this: First we beat Slovenia, then we expect Israel to beat Portugal, and in the last round we beat Portugal in a heads-up match with a margin of more than +2.

Slovenia came to Riga as a participant of the continental championship and a semi-experimental team. It was clear that they would not kill to win in the upcoming match. They didn’t kill themselves, they just played at their own level. However, we played the match with a much lower score than ours and gave the Balkans a 71:84 victory. The chase was over before it even started.

Although the election was actually lost in 2024, a thick line was drawn under this failure in February. Meeting the second and third conditions is doubly troubling. Israel beat Portugal, we beat the Pyrenees away in an inconsequential game. There were not enough wins against Slovenia’s away squad to qualify for EuroBasket 2025.

Handball

The qualifiers for the 2026 European Championship were completed in May last year. The Ukrainian national team had a very good start, losing to the Netherlands by a single goal (39:40) and beating the Faroe Islands (35:32). Two matches against Kosovo foreigners followed, with the teams trading wins but this had little impact on our team’s position globally in terms of the tournament. The main games were ahead.

Our opponents in the May matches were again the Netherlands and the Faroe Islands. We only had to get one point in this match. Even if we had not taken one of the two leading positions in the group, with three points in third place (we had two points for the win against the Faroe Islands and the matches with Kosovo were not taken into account) we would have 100% occupied one of the transitional places. Thus, four more teams from eight groups were selected for the continental championship.

However, our team could not replenish its piggy bank. And twice lost to the Netherlands and the Faroe Islands by the same score – 27:35. We could not reach the Euro alone. But unlike the stories presented above, there was still a positive outcome. In other groups, our opponents who did not show up performed even worse, and the Ukrainian team qualified for the European Championship by taking third place based on the best goal difference.

***

Sports are multifaceted. And such negative events are part of it. Not possible without it. In addition, the same teams also provided positive moments. For example, the football team reached the play-offs in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, while the basketball team had a successful start in the world championship qualifiers. The reasons for the failures listed above should be resolved by the relevant coaching staff. We can hope that the next year 2026 will not lead to such a list. And in the end, it was possible to write a completely different material that would summarize the successful performances of all our national teams.