By Stefan Korshak Jun 9, 2006, 15:21 GMT
Potsdam - Ukraine's national football team led by star striker Andrij Shevchenko arrived in Germany on Friday, taking up residence at a secluded hotel deep in a forest outside Berlin.
Ukraine was the last of 32 teams to reach its World Cup training base. The side occupied a full wing of 70 rooms in the exclusive Seminaris Hotel, amid pine woods surrounding the pristine Templersee Lake.
Hotel staff beaming smiles and local politicians with speeches were on hand to greet the Ukrainians, who alone of all the World Cup teams chose to stay in the part of the host nation that used to be communist East Germany.
'This is a great day for Brandenburg,' said Mathias Platzeck, Prime Minister of the German federal state of that name. 'We hope you (Ukrainians) stay here until July.' The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany also was on hand.
Pretty young women clad in Ukrainian traditional folk costumes offered bread and salt to their guests, and a group of German children from a Ukrainian language school danced folk dances and sang folk songs, before the team entered the hotel.
Most of the Ukrainians - players and coaches alike - had added sunglasses to a team attire of dark blue suits, conservative ties, and black loafers. Shevchenko spoke on his mobile phone.
The team applauded the performance, but coach Oleg Blokhin was clearly in a hurry to get his side away from the few dozen reporters and photographers on hand, and into the hotel.
'C'mon, let's get out of here, if we let this go on we'll be here all day,' Blokhin grumbled to a subordinate. 'You go ahead, I'll cover your back,' the subordinate responded.
Blokhin's 40-square-metre suite at the hotel was, in contrast with the rest of the Seminaris' five-star facilities, declared legal for smoking cigarettes for the duration of the Ukrainians' stay.
Only a diehard group of ten to 15 Ukrainian fans had made their way, in some cases by foot through the pine forest, to the isolated Seminaris Hotel. One was Alina Kovel, a Ukrainian student.
'I can't believe our 'hloptsi' (Ukrainian: fellows or farm hands) finally made it, that they're here in Germany,' she said. 'They are great heroes for our country, I am so proud of them.'
Ukrainian media were saying Blokhin's team would Saturday begin final preparations with health checks, individual exercises and briefings on tactics to be used against the side's first opponent, Spain.
Ukrainian sports media on Friday were divided over the question of Shevchenko's fitness, with some newspapers reporting the striker had not yet fully recovered from a leg injury.
Others, like the respected Komanda, claimed Shevchenko's absence from all but the last of Ukraine's friendlies was a canny ploy by Blokhin to keep Ukraine's opponents unsure of the line-up.
Ukraine plays its first opponent, Spain, on June 14. The other Group H teams are Tunisia and Saudi Arabia.
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