European Team Championship: 2013

The draw for the European Team Championship was held at the end of this week. Recall that according to the results of last year's competitions, the national team of Ukraine improved in class, having coped with the Poles in the final of the games of the third division with a score of 4: 0. Interestingly, in 2011 we already played in the second division, but then we played extremely unsuccessfully - having lost in matches for 9-11 places to the national teams of Austria and Slovakia, Ruslan Sorochinsky, Konstantin Rybalchenko, Valery Fedoruk, Denis Podvorny and Dmitry Shcherbakov took the last place and for a year were forced to go down a level lower. Before that, we played quite well at the European Nations Cup (which then transformed into the third division), thanks to which, after changing the format of the competition, we started with matches in the second-tier tournament.

So, our rivals in the group stage will be quite strong teams from Ireland and Wales. Representatives of the UK are traditionally considered extremely uncomfortable rivals. However, our team is also not a bastard. The Ukrainians have plenty of experience of performing at the international level, so you can count on a positive result from the start of the championship. The top two teams will advance to the playoffs from four groups, the rest will continue to fight for 9-12 places. A similar scheme of fighting for medals is envisaged in the first division - England is the current European champion. However, for now, we should focus on being able to enter it, then in 2014 we will have the opportunity to fight with the strongest squashists of the Old World.

As the silver medalist of the Ukrainian Championship Konstantin Rybalchenko said recently, preparations for the European Championship will be extremely serious. From April 21, our "compilers" will train and play in Poland for six days with the national team of this country (the irony is that we defeated the Poles in the final of the third division of last year), as well as invited squash players from Austria and Hungary. This will be followed by a couple of days of rest and a flight to the capital of Holland.

European Team Championship 2013 (Amsterdam, Holland)

The draw for the tournament

Team European Championship: Personnel loss on the first day

The national team of Ukraine was unable to fulfill its minimum task at the European Team Championship, including for reasons beyond its control.

At the European Team Championship in Amsterdam, the group stage games ended. Unfortunately, our team did not manage to jump over their heads. Despite the maximum physical and psychological readiness for this championship, the Ukrainians could not overcome the line represented by the teams of Ireland and Wales. And the reason for this may be not so much the level of rivals as a completely unforeseen circumstance in the form of a loss due to injury to the third racket of our national team, Denis Podvorny.

Group C games began with a fierce standoff between Wales and Ireland. In the confrontation between the first two rackets of these teams, the scales tipped in favor of Wales - the leaders of this team, Peter Creed and Scott Fitzgerald, won their games. The successes of the "rear" in the person of Brian Byrne and Steve Richardson could save the Irish - for this, this duo had to win dry or give up a maximum of one game in their matches, so that, in the end, it came to a scrupulous count of won / lost points. Richardson did his job, it only remained to wait for the result of Byrne's meeting with David Haley. The third racket of the Wales national team became a real hero of this confrontation, having managed to take two parties away from his counterpart and, thereby, brought his team to the leaders of the group.

On the evening of May 1, our squash players took to the courts in Amsterdam. Angry at the start of the defeat, the Irish did their best to justify themselves to their fans. Ruslan Sorochinsky, Konstantin Rybalchenko, and Valery Fedoruk fell under the pressure of the players of these teams. Denis Podvorny could brighten up the defeat in this match and give our team more chances to continue the struggle for the playoffs. Brian Byrne with great difficulty overcame the resistance of one of the best players of our team, whom the captain of the team Rybalchenko once called one of the most important "rear areas" of the Ukrainian four. Each game won was given to the Irishman with great difficulty. After 11: 9 in the first game, a tie-break followed in the second - 12:10. In the third game, Podvorny felt a weakness in the opponent's game, again brought the matter to a tie-break, but then his Majesty's chance intervened. Leading with a score of 11:10, when there was only one accurate blow left before the opportunity to turn the tide of the fight, Denis stumbled and could no longer continue the fight. Doctors diagnosed a ligament tear in the leg. The 2012 champion of Ukraine was urgently sent to the hospital, where they put a bandage on Podvorny and prescribed a two-week rest. Thus, Byrne was awarded a technical victory in the third game, which ultimately led to the defeat of our team with a score of 0: 4.

Of course, under such circumstances it would be too self-confident to expect that the Ukrainian team will be able to beat the powerful Wales the next day. They urgently called for help from Alexei Kovalsky, who went to the European Championship only as a support group (remember, last year Alexey was the fifth racket of our national team and even played at the European Team Championship). Fedoruk automatically moved to the place of the third racket of the national team, but it was still not necessary to talk about strong "rear" - it was hardly possible to count on the fact that Kowalski "from ship to ball" would immediately start winning everyone and everything. And the mood of our squash drivers was not the same. However, in the opening matches Sorochinsky and Rybalchenko still fought to the last for every goal, and it took Creed and Fitzgerald a lot of work to cope with them. However, the very first defeat already initially put an end to the prospects of the Ukrainian national team to leave the group. And when in the third game, Kowalski, who was not prepared for such responsibility, lost to Joel Makin with practically no options (he won only four points in three games), everything was decided finally. Bravo Fedoruk, who in the game with Haley showed character and willingness to fight to the last in the “risk group” - the games of the quartet that will determine the names of the teams leaving the second division.

Together with us, Slovakia, Portugal and Poland got into it - these teams, together with Ukraine, had the lowest seeding numbers in the draw and, as predicted, also took third places in their groups. Let's start with the games against the Slovaks. It seems that during the morning meetings against Wales, the newly formed quartet of Ukrainians managed to adapt to the composition in which it will continue the European Team Championship. So it makes sense to hope that the four Sorochinsky-Rybalchenko-Fedoruk-Kovalsky will be able to adequately complete this championship and once again amaze the world community with how Ukrainian squash players can, regardless of circumstances, reach new heights in the international arena.

European Team Championship. Division II (Amsterdam, Holland)

Group stage

Group C

Wales - Republic of Ireland - 2: 2 (8: 7)

Peter Creed - Arthur Gaskin - 3: 0 (11: 6, 11: 6, 11: 5)

Scott Fitzgerald - Derek Ryan - 3: 1 (11: 4, 11: 2, 3:11, 11: 9)

David Haley - Brian Byrne - 2: 3 (11: 6, 10:12, 11: 9, 8:11, 8:11)

Joel Makin - Steve Richardson - 0: 3 (3:11, 9:11, 8:11)

Ireland - Ukraine - 4: 0 (12: 0)

Arthur Gaskin - Ruslan Sorochinsky - 3: 0 (11: 7, 11: 7, 11: 6)

Derek Ryan - Konstantin Rybalchenko - 3: 0 (11: 6, 11: 9, 11: 5)

Brian Byrne - Denis Podvorny - 3: 0 (11: 9, 12:10, 13:11, refusal)

Steve Richardson - Valery Fedoruk - 3: 0 (11: 7, 12:10, 11: 3)

Wales - Ukraine - 4: 0 (12: 0)

Peter Creed - Ruslan Sorochinsky - 3: 0 (11: 3, 11: 6, 11: 6)

Scott Fitzgerald - Konstantin Rybalchenko - 3: 0 (11: 5, 11: 8, 11: 8)

David Haley - Valery Fedoruk - 3: 0 (11: 2, 11: 5, 11: 9)

Joel Makin - Alexey Kovalsky - 3: 0 (11: 1, 11: 2, 11: 1)

Matches for 9-12 places (group stage)

May 2

Slovakia - Ukraine

Poland - Portugal

May 3

Slovakia - Poland

Ukraine - Portugal

May 4th

Slovakia - Portugal

Ukraine Poland

Team European Championship: We remain in the second division

The national team of Ukraine, despite force majeure, is seeking the right to play in the second division next year. “We stayed in the second division. Thank you so much for your support! ”- said the captain of the Ukrainian national team Konstantin Rybalchenko so modestly about the European Team Championship. Someone may find Rybalchenko's pride in this success dubious. However, if you know all the circumstances of what happened, then hardly anyone will condescend to these his words.

Yes, we went to this championship in Amsterdam with probably the strongest squad for all the time of participation in European forums. The most important weapon of the national team was that the third and fourth rackets, Valeriy Fedoruk and Denis Podvorny, were practically not inferior in their skills to the leaders of the national team. And this guaranteed that, in case of failures of Ruslan Sorochinsky and Konstantin Rybalchenko, Valery and Denis would be able to pull out a common victory for the whole quartet with their successes. But, as you know, in the very first match of the group stage, Podvorny was hospitalized with a torn ligament in his right leg. They did not prepare a proper replacement for Denis. And Alexey Kovalsky, thrown into the embrasure in a fire brigade, was traveling to Amsterdam as nothing more than a fan, no matter how hard he tried, he could not have time to close the position of the fourth racket of the team.

It is clear that with the way events developed and taking into account the class of rivals in Group C, we still would not have been able to reach the playoffs. But in the group for 9-12 places in the presence of Podvorny, we would certainly have become the winners long before the end of its games. But under the circumstances, we had to expect the development of events until the last day. If you remember, two losers of this group would “fall” into the third division - and the second time it would not be suitable for Ukrainian squash to survive a similar case.

The opening match against the Slovaks, who were considered the favorites of the group for 9-12 places, showed that everything is in order with the sports character of the nude players. The first racket of the Slovak national team Marek Manik with great difficulty pulled out the meeting against Ruslan Sorochinsky. On the other hand, Rybalchenko and Fedoruk took an example from their partner in the matches against Peter Kwiecinski and Tomasz Toth, they “harnessed” for a long time, but then they accelerated so that they could not be stopped. However, if you pay attention to the game score, you will notice that even the Slovaks won games against Ukrainian squash players were given a lot of blood. Yes, and Kowalski did not disappoint - he began to gradually join the general rhythm - although Miroslav Zeller won all three games from him, however, several times he was powerless against a couple of accurate punches of the Ukrainian. In general, a draw from which Slovakia emerged victorious only due to the total number of games won.

The next day we played against Portugal. And again there was a draw, only now it came to scrupulous counting of scored / missed points! The difference in this indicator was only seven goals. Brothers Pinto, with all their resistance, Sorochinsky and Fedoruk were simply carried off the courts, Rybalchenko and Kovalsky showed maximum resistance to Ruy Soares and Joao Kayan. For the last game against the Poles, our team was already fully armed, having managed to rally in a short time and, with the support of a large number of its fans, psychologically prepare for the decisive battle of this European Championship.

During the preparatory camp, the Ukrainians studied the players of the Polish national team up and down. Perhaps we didn’t have time to get to know the “Canadian” Michal Reid, who joined his team only in Amsterdam, but the standard fears were that Kowalski had the opportunity to study his rivals only directly at the Euroforum on their games with other teams. We coped with the first task perfectly well - Sorochinsky managed to beat the first racket of the Polish national team and thus gave a signal to his teammates to start a general assault. After that, solving the second problem was no longer so important. The final point, with the crazy support of the tribunes, was put by Fedoruk, who did not give Marcin Karwowski a single game ...

In a parallel match, the Portuguese drew with the Slovaks, thereby depriving themselves of the chance to take second place in the group for 9-12 places - and in fact, if the points were equal, the rule for calculating additional indicators in face-to-face meetings would come into force, where we would be inferior to both Slovakia and Portugal. But it turned out that the Ukrainian team fulfilled its task on the last day of the championship, but the Portuguese failed to properly tune in to the decisive meeting and, through their own fault, said goodbye to the second division. Together with them, the Polish national team went to the third division.

European Team Championship. Division II (Amsterdam, Holland)

Matches for 9-12 places (group stage)

Slovakia - Ukraine - 2: 2 (10: 7)

Marek Manik - Ruslan Sorochinsky - 3: 1 (11: 5, 8:11, 12:10, 13:11)

Peter Kvechinski - Konstantin Rybalchenko - 2: 3 (7:11, 12:10, 11: 8, 8:11, 3:11)

Tomasz Toth - Valery Fedoruk - 2: 3 (12:10, 11: 8, 9:11, 4:11, 8:11)

Miroslav Zeller - Alexey Kovalsky - 3: 0 (11: 5, 11: 3, 11: 3)

Portugal - Ukraine - 2: 2 (6: 6, on points 110: 103)

Claudio Pinto - Ruslan Sorochinsky - 0: 3 (9:11, 10:12, 5:11)

Rui Soares - Konstantin Rybalchenko - 3: 0 (11: 6, 11: 9, 11: 8)

Pedro Pinto - Valery Fedoruk - 0: 3 (5:11, 4:11, 11:13)

Joao Cayanu - Alexey Kovalsky - 3: 0 (11: 5, 11: 3, 11: 3)

Ukraine - Poland - 3: 1 (9: 4)

Ruslan Sorochinsky - Michal Reid - 3: 1 (11: 7, 11: 9, 9:11, 11: 7)

Konstantin Rybalchenko - Wojciech Novish - 3: 0 (12:10, 11: 8, 11: 2)

Valeriy Fedoruk - Marcin Karvovski - 3: 0 (11: 7, 11: 3, 11: 9)

Alexey Kovalsky - Lukasz Stakhovski - 0: 3 (4:11, 4:11, 1:11)

Team European Championship: Final position of the teams

The England national team, albeit with difficulty, retains the title of the strongest team in Europe - the three winners of the European Team Championship remain the same. The national team of Ukraine repeated its achievement of participating in the European team championships - however, unlike in 2010, when we also took the 18th place in the final, four more teams took part in this championship. We have already written that we managed, despite all the troubles, to survive and for the first time in our history to confirm the right to participate in the games of the second division of the Euro Forum. But do not forget that during these four days on the courts of the Amsterdam "Otten Stadion" a huge number of teams were "cut" between themselves, fighting for the highest places in divisions I and III.

The most prestigious these days, of course, were the games of the elite division, where the best players in the world fought for the honor of their country in each of the teams. The strongest national teams of the Old World were divided into two groups of four teams in each, played the group stage, and then began to “bomb” each other in the playoffs. The country's prestige comes first! At least, this can be seen in the return of Thierry Linku, who at the end of last year officially announced his retirement as a professional player - the legendary Frenchman could not refuse to go out on the courts to defend the honor of his country.

Of course, with such personnel support, the French national team could not fail to reach the final in order to at least repeat the achievement of the 2012 season, when it was defeated by representatives of the squash homeland in the final confrontation. Link, along with Gregory Goltier, Gregua Marsh, Julien Balbo and Luc Serme (it's nice that the fifth racket of this team once defended the colors of the Petroholding Squash Club at the European Club Championship) tore and threw. So it is not surprising that the French “let the fearsome Spaniards, Danes and Germans clear their throats” in their group B, then defeated Scotland without question and did everything possible to break England's hegemony in the European Team Championship final! Goltier who picked up the move was able to stop Nick Matthew - 3: 0 (13:11, 11: 6, 14:12), the aforementioned Link, losing with a score of 0: 2, managed to pull out the meeting against the fourth racket of the PSA rating James Willstrop - 3: 2 ( 4:11, 10:12, 11: 5, 11: 9, 11: 5). But in the confrontation between the third and fourth rackets, the French did not work out - the British still have more powerful "rear", as evidenced by the world rating. The victories of Peter Barker and Daryl Selby predetermined the fate of the European Team Championship gold medals. The Germans took the bronze - the games won by the leaders of the quartet and the matches taken by Andre Hasker and Jens Shoor (the latter is well known to the Ukrainian fan after winning the "1st Ukrainian Squash Open" in 2011) decided everything.

However, what can we say about the games of the first division? .. First of all, the Ukrainian fan should be interested in what "shines" the Ukrainian national team in the next season, and how to relate to the overall 18th place in the general table of ranks. Here we can only say one thing - we have something to be proud of. This can be repeated over and over and over again! During these four days, there was not a single team that could carry out an unforeseen rotation of the squad during the championship and at the same time repeat the historic achievement of participating in the European team championships! At the same time, for the first time, we are not “jumping back and forth” between divisions, but we can calmly prepare for the games of this championship format next year. Let Portugal and Poland switch places with Israel and Norway. Let the first division, instead of the representative of the Italian national team Jose Facchini, who came to Ukraine at one time, and his Italian teammates along with Nicholas Müller and Co. from Switzerland, will now be replenished in the first division with Olli Tuominen, Henrik Mustonen, Matthias, who are well known to us (and especially to Ruslan Sorochinsky) Tuomi, Jaakko Vähämää and Mika Monto representing the national team of Finland. By the way, the company will be accompanied by the Dutch, led by Laurence Ian Angema and Bart Ravelli. At the moment all this is not important to us. Ukraine was able to prove that its squash deserves to be represented on the international arena, that its athletes know how to show character, regardless of any circumstances. And that next year, each of her rivals should be given maximum attention and preparation for the confrontation with the Ukrainian players ...

European Team Championship (Amsterdam, Holland)

Division II

Play-off

Results of matches for 9-12 places

Quarter finals

Holland - Austria - 3: 0 (9: 2)

Ireland - Sweden - 3: 1 (9: 5)

Wales - Czech Republic - 3: 0 (9: 5)

Finland - Belgium - 3: 1 (10: 4)

Matches for 5-8 places

Sweden - Austria - 3: 1 (9: 3)

Belgium - Czech Republic - 3: 1 (9: 5)

1/2 finals

Holland - Ireland - 4: 0 (9: 2)

Finland - Wales - 2: 1 (6: 3)

7th place match

Czech Republic - Austria - 3: 0 (9: 3)

5th place match

Sweden - Belgium - 3: 1 (9: 4)

Match for 3rd place

Wales - Republic of Ireland - 4: 0 (12: 2)

The final

Holland - Finland - 2: 2 (9: 8)

The final position of the teams of the European Team Championship 2013