'Football, for us, is number one': Irish and Ukrainian fans unite
Ukraine fans in the stands during the UEFA Nations League match at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA
For once, those half-and-half scarves might have made sense.
The match between Ireland and Ukraine at the Aviva ended 1-0 in favour of the visitors but, despite the usual footballing subplots, maybe this time the result didn’t matter quite so much either.
Stephen Kenny’s Ireland entered Wednesday night's tie against Ukraine in need of some positivity after a poor reverse at unfancied Armenia, and Ukraine were coming off the heartbreak of losing a World Cup qualifier to Wales.
For Ireland, there was to be no positivity, though, as the boys in green succumbed to a 1-0 defeat. It is Stephen Kenny's tenth consecutive home defeat in a competitive tie, and means their wretched Nations League record continues.
But, of course, there is a bigger picture here. For those in blue and yellow, each game could, conceivably, be their last as a national team, something that just a few months ago would have seemed outlandish. Yet, in an atmosphere of unity and defiance in D4, that dreadful and unwanted prospect seemed very far away.
A sun-dappled crowd filed slowly into the Aviva stadium and the typical sea of green was closely matched by a sea of blue and yellow, and a crowd in full voice that thunder-clapped their way through the opening few minutes.
The Ukrainians came from all over for tonight's game, including a bus of about 50 from Bandon in Co Cork, organised by the Bus Éireann drivers charity fund. Among those was English teacher Tanya Rudenko, who had stories of 50-hour border crossings into Moldova and of trying to work out where to go from there.
Tanya, who is already voluntarily teaching some of her compatriots in West Cork, said her two sons, Artem and Illia, loved football, and that the match at the Aviva is bigger than a normal game.
“It will be quite an event,” she said before kick-off.
That view was shared by professional footballer, Viktor Serdeniuk, who has already trained with Cork City and Cobh Ramblers since arriving here and who said “football is one language”, and by Lisa Vakulova and Lisa Krupenko, two best friends so in synch that they readily complete each other’s sentences.
“Football, for us, is number one,” Lisa K said.
They were happy when Ukraine beat Scotland to set up the playoff with Wales, then devastated when that result went against them. The Ireland game was a coming together and a chance to say thank you, they said, even in the absence of some of the country's biggest stars, such as Manchester City's Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Even those for whom football is not typically on the agenda saw the Aviva encounter as something more. Anna Kuzmenko, 23, recalled the joy among her countryfolk when Ukraine recently won the Eurovision Song Contest — now it was her chance to experience a similar patriotism through football, to “absorb it in the blood”.
Thoughts of those at home, living under the threat of bombs and the sparking of sirens, were never far away.
According to Anna: “We are talented, we are alive, we are a separate nation and we want to remain a separate nation, a free country.”
The crowd at the Aviva typically includes some aspiring footballers among its young (and not-so-young) members.
For at least one, though, it may be more of a reality than most. Igor Dakhov, 17, played at underage level with Champions League regulars Shaktar Donetsk. Now living with his mother in Rosscarbery in West Cork, he said he had already had to move once before, from eastern Ukraine when the first conflict began there in 2014.
Since arriving here, he has trained with Cork City and — like a true top level player — has continued a sideline business in cryptocurrency and NFT.
“We will support both Ireland and Ukraine,” he said. “This is a match that will unite the most.”
The occasion means a lot for many of the newest arrivals on our shores: a chance to pay tribute to their own heroes.
Our Ukrainian visitors will have noticed our differences — driving on the left, the cost of living, how the vets and doctors close on Sundays. Perhaps, over time, they will become accustomed to our long-standing football tradition of the "moral victory", especially as wins remain hard to come by.
Tonight, the feeling is one of shared pride — a half-and-half scarf that truly matters, for once.
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