From April 10 to 18, the Ukraine beach soccer team, at the invitation of the Portuguese Football Federation, conducted a training camp in Portugal as part of their preparation for the new season. During this period, they played four friendly matches.

On April 12 and 13, under the guidance of Mykola Kostenko and Oleksandr Korniychuk, the team met with the Portuguese national team in Braga, losing to them—4:7 and 3:7, respectively. On April 16 and 17 in Nazaré, they lost to a local club with the same name—4:2 and 6:5.

The official website of the Ukrainian Football Association commented on the friendly matches and the overall camp in Portugal by our team's coach, Mykola Kostenko.

"Regarding the training process during the Portuguese camp, all tasks set by the coaching staff for the team were completed. I would like to note that our trip was divided into two stages. The first stage took place in Braga with one training day and two game days. On the opening day of the camp, we conducted two technical-tactical sessions, and on match days, we managed to train early in the morning as well. Therefore, both matches against Portugal were played under relatively low intensity. This was one of our goals—to work on endurance.

Of course, it would have been nice to achieve a positive result in these sparring matches since during camps in Japan and Oman we also lost to our opponents. However, unfortunately, this did not happen in Braga either. There are objective reasons for this; the Portuguese team's national league has already started, and they had trained together longer, so their game readiness was higher than ours. Plus, another factor—our preparations were indoors where the field dimensions are smaller than standard playing fields. This affected our physical condition, which was slightly lacking.

Nevertheless, we conducted a good training process and played against one of the strongest national teams in the world. They have very strong players such as Leo Martins, Be Martins, and Jordan Santos, who are leading footballers on the planet. And although Elington Andrade remains the main goalkeeper for Portugal, they also play another young player (Pedro Mano.—Ed.), who demonstrated excellent ball control and scored against us in both matches. This is an executor who can open new perspectives for the Portuguese team.

We tested ourselves, saw what we still need to work on, identified weak spots. It's very good that we gained game readiness because at this stage it's important. The boys approached the matches with maximum dedication and motivation, fought until the end.

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The second stage of our camp took place in Nazaré, where we switched to three training sessions per day. The weather there was much better; it rained in Braga and the temperature dropped to 15-17 degrees Celsius. In Nazaré, however, it was sunny with 22 degrees—perfect conditions. We stayed at a surfer's base about one and a half kilometers from the city, which is ideal for training and recovery.

On the first day, we only had training sessions; on the second day, we trained, played against a local team (winning 4-2), and conducted an evening session. The third day followed the same pattern, and once again, we faced the same team, winning 6-5. During this stage in Nazaré, we worked on developing speed and special endurance; thus, the load on players was very high. By the way, it wasn't easy for us during the matches either, as the footballers of FC 'Nazaré' were highly motivated against us.

At the second stage, Igor Borsuk joined us, who is currently in excellent game and physical condition. He's a true team captain, a professional with a capital P, adding positive emotions to our group. Overall, the camp was good, under great conditions; for a coach—it's simply a dream. I would like to emphasize once again—that we completed all main tasks without any injured players,"—said Mykola Kostenko.

Photo AFP

The coach of the national team also outlined the immediate plans for the team: "Unfortunately, we worked considering that the selection to the World Cup 2023 would take place at the beginning of May. However, BSWW moved it to July. Therefore, during our camp in Portugal, we slightly changed our preparation strategy and will now adjust our plans for work in Kyiv.

This week, the boys are resting, but next week they will start training in a supportive mode three times a week. This will last about a month, after which we will move on to targeted preparation for the European Games. Also, in mid-May, we plan to hold the Eugene Ryabchuk Cup and our players' participation in matches for the Kiev Cup."

We remind that the first official tournament for Mykola Kostenko's and Oleksandr Korniychuk's wards will be the European Games in Krakow (June 26-30).