Playing away, longing for home: Ukraine-Ireland soccer match was about more than football

Serhii Burenkov, George Baker, and Viktor Serdeniuk, among the supporters leaving Bandon to watch the Republic of Ireland play Ukraine at the Aviva Stadium. Picture: Jim Coughlan

Football seasons have an ebb and flow, stops and starts. But not usually like this.

Until a few months ago, Viktor Serdeniuk, a 26-year-old from Odessa in Ukraine, was training with his teammates at FC Balkany Zorya, a team in the second division. This week, he was on a bus heading to the Aviva Stadium to see his national team take on Ireland in a Nations League game — a match that became less about Ireland's inability to fashion chances and more about a people who have had to flee their country, uniting around a symbol of their threatened nation.