Olympics-2024: Rival Teams' Human Potential in the Football Tournament for Ukraine's National Team

Yesterday, the Ukrainian Olympic team departed from Kyiv to France, where as part of their preparation for the summer Olympics, they will play two friendly matches immediately.

Olympics-2024: Rival Teams' Human Potential in the Football Tournament for Ukraine's National Team

Photo from fifa.com

The first match, against the Egyptian Olympic team, will be played by Rusan Rotan's team on July 14th (kickoff at 6:30 PM local time, 7:30 PM Kyiv time) at one of the fields in the Plaine des Sports complex.

The second game, against the Paraguayan Olympic team, will take place on July 18th (kickoff at 7:30 PM Kyiv time) in the town of Ajetmo at the "Alan Lansman" stadium.

The group V opponents of Ukraine's Olympic football tournament team will be Argentina, Morocco, and Iraq. The matches against them will take place on July 24th, 27th, and 30th.

Meanwhile, the lineups of our rivals have become known.

Roster of Argentina's Olympic Team

Goalkeepers: Horacio Rulli* (Ajax, Netherlands), Leandro Brail ().

Defenders: Nicolás Otamendi* (Benfica, Portugal), Bruno Amione (Santos Laguna, Mexico), Marco Di Cesare (Racing), Julio Solor (Lanos), Joaquín García (Velez), Gonzalo Luchan ().

Midfielders: Santiago Esse (Olympiacos, Greece), Ezekiel Fernández, Cristian Medina, Kevin Zazon (all — Boca Juniors).

Forwards: Julian Alvarez* (, England), (, Spain), Lucas Beltrán (Fiorentina, Italy), Thiago Almada ( United, USA), Luciano Gondou (iors), Claudio Echeverri ().

Roster of Morocco's Olympic Team

Goalkeepers: Munir Mohamedi* (Al-Wahda, Saudi Arabia), Moama (Union de Targuist), Rashed Ghannemi ().

Defenders: Zakaria el-Wahdi (Genk, Belgium), Ayman el-Wafi (Lugano, Switzerland), Mehdi Bukamir (Charleroi, Belgium), Achraf Hakimi* (PSG, France), Adil Tahhi (), Haytham Manaut, Akram Nekka (both — Union de Targuist).

Midfielders: Usama Taragallin, Yassin Kehda (both — Havre, France), Benjamin Bushaar (, France), Usama el-Azzouzi (Bologna, Italy), Amir Richardson (Rennes, France), Bilal el-Hannus (Genk, Belgium), El-Mehdi el-Mubarak ().

Forwards: (), Abd (, Spain), Ilyas Ahamash (, Spain), Sofyan Rahimi* (Al-Ain, UAE), El-Hassan Ben-Seghir (Monaco, France).

Roster of Iraq's Olympic Team

Goalkeepers: Kumel al-Rikabeh (), Hassan Hussein (), Hassan Abbas ().

Defenders: Yosef Al-Imam (Olympique, Sweden), Hussain Ali (, Netherlands), Zaid Tahsin, Karar Saad (both — ), Mustafa Saadun, Saad Natiq* (both — ), Ahmed Maknazi (), Hussain Amer ().

Midfielders: Bind Hassan (De Graafschap, Netherlands), Muntader Mohammed (, Iran), Muntader Abdul-Amir (), Karar Al-Muhhtar, Nihad Mohammed (both — ), Ali Yasim, Ibrahim Bayash* (both — ).

Forwards: Youssef Amin (, Germany), Hussain Abdalla (), Rijad Fadhil (), Ayman Hussein* ().

Roster of Ukraine's Olympic Team

Goalkeepers: Yakiv Kinaraykin (Dnipro-1 Dnipropetrovsk), Kirill Fesyun ( Donetsk), Georgiy Yermakov ().

Defenders: Maxim Talovoyev* (LASK, Austria), Arseniy Batagov ( Luhansk), Illia Krups'kyi, Yevhen Pavlyuk (both — Poltava), Oleksandr Martyniuk (), Oleksii Syts'ko (iv), Volodymyr Saluk ().

Midfielders: Maxim Khlyan (Lechia, Poland), Artem Shulyansky (), Valentin Rubchynskyi, Maxim Bragaru, Mykhailo Mykhaylenko (all — iv), Vladyslav Velenteyn ( Kalusha), Oleg Fedor (iv), Dmytro Kryskiv*, Kyrylo Sygeiev, Oleg Ocheretnyk (all — Shakhtar Donetsk).

Forwards: Igor Krashyrip (iv), Danilo Sikan ( Donetsk).

*— players over 23 years old.

Olympics-2024. Men's Football Tournament

Group A: France, USA, Guinea, New Zealand.

Group B: Argentina, Morocco, Iraq, Ukraine.

Group C: Uzbekistan, Spain, Egypt, Dominican Republic.

Group D: Japan, Paraguay, Mali, Israel.

Schedule for Group B

24.07.2024

Argentina — Morocco (16:00, Saint-Étienne)

Iraq — Ukraine (20:00, Lyon)

27.07.2024

Argentina — Iraq (16:00, Lyon)

Ukraine — Morocco (18:00, Saint-Étienne)

30.07.2024

Ukraine — Argentina (18:00, Lyon)

Morocco — Iraq (18:00, Nice)

Kickoff times are Kyiv time.

The two best teams from Group B will advance to face the top two teams from Group A in the knockout stage.

The format of the Olympic tournament is traditional: competition in four groups with four teams each, followed by a knockout round featuring the top two teams from each group, then quarter-finals, semi-finals, third-place match and final (September 9, Paris, "Parc des Princes").

We remind you that last summer, defeating France (3-1) in the Euro-2023 quarter-final and qualifying for the semi-finals, our team achieved a historic success — securing Ukraine's first-ever appearance at an Olympic football tournament. Along with Ukraine, Spain and Israel earned their spots at the Olympics through the youth Euro-2023.

Participants of the men's football tournament at the 2024 Summer Olympics will compete from July 24 to August 9 in seven cities across France: Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Saint-Étienne, Nice and Nantes. According to the regulations (regulations), players born after January 1, 2001 are eligible to participate. Additionally, each team can include up to three players who are older than this age.

A total of 16 teams will take part in the tournament: France as hosts, three from Europe (Ukraine, Spain, Israel), three from Africa (Morocco, Egypt, Mali), three from Asia (Japan, Uzbekistan, Iraq), two from South America (Paraguay, Argentina), two from CONCACAF (USA, Dominican Republic), one from Oceania (New Zealand), and the winner of the intercontinental playoff (Guinea).