The Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships may have finished in Uzbekistan in May, but the acrobatics may not be done there this year. First, though, backflipping baron Igor Cherniavskyi needs to get through passport control.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was 13 years old, one of my friends started calling me \u2018Igorella\u2019,\u201d the Ukrainian told FIFA. \u201cI hated it, I was very angry with him. But after two years I thought, \u2018It actually sounds pretty cool\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I can\u2019t even imagine anyone calling me anything else (laughs). It\u2019s almost become my forename. Ninety per cent of people in my life \u2013 friends, family, team-mates call me \u2018Igorella\u2019. Maybe the time has come to change the name in my passport!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Igorella\u2019 excelled at the UEFA Futsal EURO 2022, helping Ukraine eliminate Kazakhstan and reach the semi-finals. The 28-year-old does not, however, want to bask in that success.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was my first experience at a major international tournament,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll remember the emotions from that tournament for the rest of my life. But that story has already been written. It\u2019s time to write a new one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cherniavskyi and Co will get the chance to pen a new chapter in their storied futsal history at the upcoming FIFA Futsal World Cup\u2122. Lithuania 2021 was the first global finals they missed since Guatemala 2000. Handicapped by being unable to play in Ukraine during the qualifiers, a couple of disappointing \u2018home\u2019 results left them needing to beat Poland in Poland to reach Uzbekistan 2024 automatically.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal was to finish first, to qualify for the World Cup automatically,\u201d said Cherniavskyi. \u201cIt came down to the last game. We needed to win or we would have had to go through the play-offs. The adrenaline was really high throughout the game. It was really cool to get the victory and qualify.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe World Cup is the dream for every player. It\u2019s the biggest event in our sport. I\u2019m really looking forward to it. It will be a big honour for me to represent Ukraine in the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
First up for Ukraine will be Argentina, the 2016 champions and 2021 runners-up, before encounters with Angola and World Cup debutants Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
\u201cArgentina are a top team,\u201d said Cherniavskyi. \u201cThey\u2019ve been world champions. It will be very interesting to play against one of the strongest teams in the world. It\u2019s difficult to say who\u2019s their best player, but I\u2019d go with Alan Brandi.<\/p>\n
\u201cAngola are a really good team. I watched some of their highlights from the AFCON. They played really well and reached the final. I\u2019ve watched some highlights of Afghanistan. I\u2019ve also watched some matches on YouTube. They\u2019re a good team, quite fast.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to win every match. I\u2019m an optimist in life. When I enter the court, it doesn\u2019t matter who we\u2019re up against, I\u2019m only thinking about victory. We\u2019ll take it game by game. We\u2019ll give it our best to give a good account of ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Something that instills Cherniavskyi with confidence is two results in the 2023\/24 UEFA Futsal Champions League. FC Hit drew away to away to Joao Matos, Alex Merlim, Pany Varela, Taynan, Zicky and Sporting, and registered another stalemate against Luan Muller, Chaguinha, Romulo and Palma, who were en route to making it back-to-back titles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve played against a lot of former and current champions in the Champions League,\u201d said Cherniavskyi. \u201cWe did well against Sporting and Palma. Against Palma, we could have even got the win, but unfortunately we didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe absolutely took confidence from those games. It showed us what level we\u2019re at. We proved we can be a match for anyone. We want to prove that again at the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Net manufacturers will be on standby when Cherniavskyi hits Tashkent and Andijan. He possesses, after all, one of the most thunderous shots in futsal. If he ripples net in Central Asia, we may see one of its most iconic celebrations: the Igorellaflip.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main goal is to help Ukraine win matches,\u201d he stressed. \u201cI will give my everything for this. But if I\u2019m lucky enough to score in Uzbekistan, I think the spectators will see a special celebration!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships may have finished in Uzbekistan in May, but the acrobatics may not be done there this year. First, though, backflipping baron Igor Cherniavskyi needs to get through passport control. \u201cWhen I was 13 years old, one of my friends started calling me \u2018Igorella\u2019,\u201d the Ukrainian told FIFA. \u201cI hated it, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":999065,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20966],"tags":[9648,27192],"class_list":["post-999064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fifa-news","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=999064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/999065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=999064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=999064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=999064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}