{"id":40195,"date":"2022-06-07T08:27:05","date_gmt":"2022-06-07T08:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/it-doesnt-get-much-more-heartbreaking-than-that\/"},"modified":"2022-06-07T08:27:05","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T08:27:05","slug":"it-doesnt-get-much-more-heartbreaking-than-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/it-doesnt-get-much-more-heartbreaking-than-that\/","title":{"rendered":"It Doesn’t Get Much More Heartbreaking Than That"},"content":{"rendered":"
Days after definitively beating Scotland to book themselves a spot in a winner-take-all playoff for one of the last World Cup slots, the Ukrainian men’s national team’s momentum seemed undeniable. The Ukrainians have made one World Cup, though qualifying for the 2022 edition would have been significantly more special, for obvious geopolitical reasons. All they had to do was beat Wales, a relatively even match for them. But luck was not on their side, and Ukraine lost one of the cruelest 1-0 matches you’ll ever see, tripping over themselves and playing unevenly at the worst times as they watched the Welsh crush their dreams.<\/p>\n
Still, Ukraine was the better team on the day, dictating the tempo, taking twice as many shots, and enjoying more than two thirds of the possession. An empowered Oleksandr Zinchenko, playing farther up the field than he does for Manchester City, was once again a tremendous engine for his side, continually moving the ball from the midfield into dangerous areas. Zinchenko is Ukraine’s best player, and though others like Andriy Yarmolenko and Taras Stepanenko have been around for way longer, he’s a legitimate world-class talent, the sort that Ukrainian fans believed could take their team back to the biggest tournament in the world. After the Scotland win, where he was Man of the Match, Zinchenko broke down in tears talking about what a World Cup berth would mean. When his team took the field on Sunday, they did so wrapped in Ukrainian flags sent to them by soldiers. The whole world knew exactly how much a win would have meant.<\/p>\n