The Football Soccer: 2012

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Ukraine National Football Team

Ukraine National Football Team is the national football team of Ukraine and is controlled by the Football Federation of Ukraine. After Ukrainian Independence and breakaway from the Soviet Union, they played their first match against Hungary on 29 April 1992. The team's biggest success is reaching the last eight at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, which also marked the team's debut in the finals of a major championship. As a host nation Ukraine is automatically qualified for Euro 2012, this will be its debut in a European Football Championship.

Ukraine got their UEFA EURO 2012 preparations off to an ideal start as the co-hosts registered a 4-0 win against Estonia in Austria.

The unlucky trio of goalkeeper Oleksandr Bandura, defender Vitaly Mandziuk and midfielder Taras Stepanenko flew home from Munich at lunchtime today after Ukraine coach Oleh Blokhin decided to leave them out of his final 23-man squad for UEFA EURO 2012. The three players had formed part of Blokhin's 26-man group preparing for the finals in Austria but found themselves on the outside when the coach finalised his squad after the 4-0 friendly win against Estonia last night. They boarded a flight out of Munich at 13.30CET. Ukraine will step up their preparations in their remaining two warm-up games against Austria in Innsbruck on Friday and Turkey in Ingolstadt on 5 June before the co-hosts begin their Group D campaign against Sweden on 11 June.

UEFA Euro 2012 Ukraine Squad

Goal Keeper
1 Maksym Koval 9 December 1992 Dynamo Kyiv
12 Andriy Pyatov 28 June 1984 Shakhtar Donetsk
23 Oleksandr Horyainov 29 June 1975 Metalist Kharkiv

Defender
2 Yevhen Selin 9 May 1988 Vorskla Poltava
3 Yevhen Khacheridi 28 July 1987 Dynamo Kyiv
5 Oleksandr Kucher 22 October 1982 Shakhtar Donetsk
13 Vyacheslav Shevchuk 13 May 1979 Shakhtar Donetsk
17 Taras Mykhalyk 28 October 1983 Dynamo Kyiv
20 Yaroslav Rakitskiy 3 August 1989 Shakhtar Donetsk
21 Bohdan Butko 13 January 1991 Illichivets Mariupol

Midfielder
4 Anatoliy Tymoshchuk 30 March 1979 Bayern Munich
6 Denys Harmash 19 April 1990 Dynamo Kyiv
8 Oleksandr Aliyev 3 February 1985 Dynamo Kyiv
9 Oleh Husyev 25 April 1983 Dynamo Kyiv
11 Andriy Yarmolenko 23 October 1989 Dynamo Kyiv
14 Ruslan Rotan 29 October 1981 Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk
18 Serhiy Nazarenko 16 February 1980 Tavriya Simferopol
19 Yevhen Konoplyanka 29 September 1989 Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk

Forward
7 Andriy Shevchenko (captain) 29 September 1976 Dynamo Kyiv
10 Andriy Voronin 21 July 1979 Dynamo Moscow
15 Artem Milevskiy 12 January 1985 Dynamo Kyiv
16 Yevhen Seleznyov 20 July 1985 Shakhtar Donetsk
22 Marko Devych 27 October 1983 Shakhtar Donetsk

Anatoliy Tymoshchuk

Andriy Pyatov

Andriy Shevchenko

Andriy Voronin

Denys Harmash

Maksym Koval

Oleksandr Horyainov

Yevhen Selin

Sweden National Football Team

Sweden National Football Team (Svenska fotbollslandslaget) represents Sweden in association football and is controlled by the Swedish Football Association, the governing body for Football in Sweden.

Traditionally, Sweden are rivals with Denmark and Norway, although other rivalries have developed over the years. Sweden failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in the group qualification stage, having been edged out by Portugal. As a result, team manager Lars Lagerbäck quit and Erik Hamrén was appointed the new manager. Sweden's captain is Zlatan Ibrahimović with Anders Svensson as vice captain.

Euro 2012 qualifiers Sweden's Euro 2012 campaign with their new coach, Erik Hamrén, started well with two consecutive wins in Group E against Hungary and San Marino. After that Sweden lost to the Netherlands in Amsterdam with 1–4, but then won against Moldova first in Stockholm with 2–1 and later in Chişinău with 4–1. After the battle against Moldova Sweden beat their neighbor Finland with 5–0. The following game was a defeat when Hungary through Rudolf scored 2–1 home at Stadium Puskás Ferenc at the last minute of full time. After that Sweden defeated San Marino with 5–0 away including two goals from Christian Wilhelmsson, who before the two games against San Marino and Hungary hadn't been a regular in the starting eleven during Hamréns tenure as head coach. The Swedish team then proceeded to beat Finland with 2–1 and in the final game beat the Netherlands with 3–2 to end their streak of 17 consecutive qualification-game wins. On 2 December 2011, Sweden were drawn into Group D alongside England, Ukraine, and France in the Euro 2012 competition.

Current Squad
List of 23 players for UEFA EURO 2012

Goal Keeper
1 Andreas Isaksson 3 October 1981 PSV
12 Johan Wiland 24 January 1981 Copenhagen
23 Pär Hansson 22 June 1986 Helsingborg

Defender
2 Mikael Lustig 13 December 1986 Celtic
3 Olof Mellberg 3 September 1977 Olympiacos
4 Andreas Granqvist 16 April 1985 Genoa
5 Martin Olsson 17 May 1988 Blackburn Rovers
13 Jonas Olsson 10 March 1983 West Bromwich Albion
15 Mikael Antonsson 31 May 1981 Bologna
17 Behrang Safari 9 February 1985 Anderlecht

Midfielder
6 Rasmus Elm 17 March 1988 AZ
7 Sebastian Larsson 6 June 1985 Sunderland
8 Anders Svensson (vice captain) 17 July 1976 Elfsborg
9 Kim Källström 24 August 1982 Lyon
16 Pontus Wernbloom 25 June 1986 CSKA Moscow
18 Samuel Holmén 28 June 1984 İstanbul BB
19 Emir Bajrami 7 March 1988 Twente
21 Christian Wilhelmsson 8 December 1979 Al-Hilal

Forward
10 Zlatan Ibrahimović (captain) 3 October 1981 Milan
11 Johan Elmander 27 May 1981 Galatasaray
14 Tobias Hysén 9 March 1982 IFK Göteborg
20 Ola Toivonen 3 July 1986 PSV
22 Markus Rosenberg 27 September 1982 Werder Bremen

Swedish national football team leave after their lost against Hungary at a Euro 2012 Group E qualifying soccer