Yuriy Moroz: "The tournament in Japan will be beneficial for Ukraine"
The Ukraine U-16 team (players born in 2008 or later) continues preparing for the Euro 2025 (U-17) qualifying round.
Starting June 15, the Ukraine U-16 team will begin a training camp, during which the team will participate in the Dream Cup 2024 international tournament in Japan. In addition to the host country, our young players will face teams from Senegal and Venezuela.
Head coach Yuriy Moroz answered questions from the UAF official website before this training camp.
— Mr. Moroz, what are the main objectives for the coaching staff during the upcoming camp?
— First and foremost, we want to evaluate new candidates for this team, as we have to play in the European Championship qualifying round in the fall, and there isn’t much time left. We also want to set the direction for the team that our coaching staff envisions.
— Will this be the last camp before the official matches in October?
— We plan to have another preparation stage, but again, this is all tentative. I hope we can have another gathering before the qualifying tournament.
— Compared to the last camp, you’ve updated the squad by about 60%...
— That's right. Many players deserve a call-up to the national team. And as I said, time is limited, and we want to cover as many players as possible.
— During the upcoming preparation stage, the Ukraine team will play three matches in five days, but you only have 18 players in the squad. Isn’t that too few?
— Of course, we would have liked to have more players, but unfortunately, these are the conditions set by the host side.
— The blue-yellows will play against teams that are quite exotic for Ukraine (Japan, Senegal, Venezuela). Do you know anything about these opponents yet?
— We have more information about Japan, which we will play in the first match. As for the other opponents, we will learn more about them during the tournament itself.
I am confident that this will be an interesting and beneficial tournament for the Ukraine team, as they will face representatives from different continents and different football philosophies. My only concern is whether our players will have enough time to acclimatize in the two days we have before the tournament starts...
Ukraine U-16 Team Squad
Goalkeepers: Maksym Royenko (Dynamo Kyiv), Kyrylo Khadasevych (Wolfsburg, Germany).
Defenders: Yaroslav Mylokost (Shakhtar Donetsk), Arsen Zalypka, Dmytro Solomon (both - Rukh Lviv), Arseniy Koval (Dnipro-1 Dnipro), Nazar Khlivnyuk (Fortuna, Germany), Andriy Lysytskyi (Fiorentina, Italy).
Midfielders: Myroslav Romanyuk, Nazar Ivaskiv, Ivan Andreiko (all - Dynamo Kyiv), Oleksandr Kroitar, Danylo Slyva (both - Rukh Lviv), Oleksandr Sereda (Shakhtar Donetsk), Karen Gevorkyan (Las Rozas, Spain), Denys Khasanov (Viktoria, Germany).
Forwards: Maksym Kucheriavyi (Dynamo Kyiv), Zakhariy Zakharkiv (Kolos Kovalivka).
Dream Cup 2024 Tournament for U-16 Teams
June 19, 2024
Senegal - Venezuela (06:00)
Japan - Ukraine (09:00)
June 21, 2024
Ukraine - Senegal (06:00)
Japan - Venezuela (09:00)
June 23, 2024
Venezuela - Ukraine (06:00)
Japan - Senegal (09:00)
Match start times - Kyiv time.
The tournament is a single round-robin. After two 45-minute halves, in case of a draw, penalty shootouts will determine the winner. Three points will be awarded for a victory in regular time, two for a penalty shootout win, one for a penalty shootout loss, and none for a loss in regular time.
On May 3rd, the draw for the first qualifying round of Euro 2025 (U-17) took place in Nyon. As a result, the Ukrainian youth team (currently U-16, players born in 2008), led by Yuriy Moroz, found itself in Group 4 along with Belgium, Kosovo, and Kazakhstan. The mini-tournament in our group will take place in Belgium, with matches scheduled for October 9th, 12th, and 15th.
Results of the Euro 2025 (U-17) Qualifying Round Draw
Group 1: England, Sweden, Latvia, Malta.
Group 2: Poland, Slovenia, Georgia, Armenia.
Group 3: Netherlands, Croatia, Albania, Faroe Islands.
Group 4: Belgium, Ukraine, Kosovo, Kazakhstan.
Group 5: Portugal, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Liechtenstein.
Group 6: Hungary, Greece, Romania, Azerbaijan.
Group 7: Germany, Czechia, Belarus, Andorra.
Group 8: Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Lithuania.
Group 9: Italy, Norway, Wales, San Marino.
Group 10: Switzerland, Israel, Montenegro, Moldova.
Group 11: France, Slovakia, Cyprus, Gibraltar.
Group 12: Spain, Iceland, North Macedonia, Estonia.
Group 13: Serbia, Turkey, Bulgaria.
Group 14: Denmark, Austria, Luxembourg.
The top two teams from each group advance to the second round of qualifying. After that, 28 participants will compete in seven League A groups in the spring of 2025 for seven spots in the final tournament, which will take place in Albania in the summer. The host team received an automatic berth, although it will participate in qualifying.
The remaining teams in the second round will compete in League B for places in League A of the first qualifying stage of Euro 2027 (U-19).
It's worth noting that Euro 2025 (U-17) will serve as UEFA's qualification for the 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup, which will feature 48 teams in Qatar.
In April, the Ukrainian U-16 national team won the UEFA Development Tournament in Estonia.
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