Ukraine Wins Bannikov Football Championship

Kyiv, May 7, 2012. For the second year in a row Ukrainian national junior team takes the first place at the International Viktor Bannikov Memorial tournament. Ukrainian 16 year old footballers managed to beat their Russian peers with the score 4:3 in the final match of the tournament on May 6^th. Turkey took the third spot at the XI Bannikov tournament.

Turkish team won the match against Serbia, scoring two goals and missing one. The match for the 5^th place between Slovakia and Belgium ended with the 1:2 result. Czech Republic took the 7^th place at the championship, having passed Poland by one goal as a result of penalty.

The final match of the XI Bannikov tournament between Ukraine and Russia ended in a draw. The captain of the Ukrainian team Viktor Kovalenko took a shot at the net but the ball hit the bar. A series of penalty decided the winner of the international competition. Keeper Vadym Soldatenko managed to catch two out of five penalties, securing Ukraine the victory.

In 2011 Ukraine won over Russia with the 3:0 result. It was Ukraine’s first victory at the tournament since 2006. In 2010 Ukraine became the second runner-up after Czech Republic and Serbia. This result was equal to that of 2009 when Ukrainian juniors came third losing the second place to Turkey with Serbia taking the top spot at the Bannikov Memorial tournament.

List of Bannikov competition winners in the previous years: 2002 – Poland, 2003 – Ukraine, 2004 – Turkey, 2005 – Ukraine, 2006 – Ukraine.

Viktor Bannikov (1938 – 2001) is considered to be one of the top goalkeepers for Kyiv’s legendary football club Dynamo. International Federation of Football History and Statistics registered Bannikov as the 19^th best keeper in national cups. His achievement of not missing a single goal throughout the 1,127 minutes of game time between August 7, 1967, and April 17, 1968, secured him the top spot in the international rating.