The Ukrainian U-20 national team started the 2025 World Cup in Chile with a victory. In their opening match, under coach Dmitro Mykhaylyenko, they defeated South Korea with a score of 2:1.

After the game, Yaroslav Karaman, who was named man of the match, and Bohdan Budko shared their emotions with the press service of the UAF.

Yaroslav Karaman (defender): "We are very happy because this was our first official match, which is important for the team, and we won it. So the joy is doubled. The award as best player of the match is more about boosting morale; what's most important is that we secured a win. Today, we really had a team: everyone gave their all and everyone deserves recognition."

In the second half, South Korea scored from a corner kick and started creating more opportunities. But we held firm under pressure and won. I believe that the refereeing was objective.

Bohdan Budko (defender): "The start was very intense: we were charged up, constantly pushing forward while our opponents mostly defended. We quickly created chances and scored twice. We could have scored more, but that's football — anything can happen. Later, we played more defensively to maintain the lead. This is probably psychology: score two goals and you want to keep the score. The most important thing is that we won."

In the second half, South Korea made three substitutions and started attacking more aggressively with pressing play. They played with two forwards, making it difficult for us to break out of defense, but we held our ground. Karaman was named MVP of the match — I'm genuinely happy for him. Though, in my opinion, anyone could have received this award today — everyone worked at their maximum."

Photo by Andriy Yushchak