Ukrainian soccer team returns to USA Cup, U.S. 'family'

The passes were as crisp as the morning air on a sunny Saturday last week in Eden Prairie — a geographic and geopolitical world away from war-torn Ukraine, the home country of the FC Minaj soccer team practicing for the Target USA Cup, which kicked off at the National Sports Center in Blaine on Friday.

Indeed, Eden Prairie seems the antithesis of the destruction from Russia's full-scale invasion, which has turned into trench warfare in eastern Ukraine. So the second straight trip to the tournament is a respite for the team from Uzhhorod, in western Ukraine.

Returning to Minnesota "is a blessing, because the war is getting more and more harsh," said Andrii Ketsuk, a player on the under-19 team. "This circle of 15 boys gets closer, and we are like family, not friends anymore," said Ketsuk, who added that it's also "a blessing to see our host families again, our American friends again."

The familial feeling between Ukrainians and Americans is not lost on head coach Rudolf Balazhinec, who said that for the players connection with people "is one of the important things in America, how you accept us like family." But it's also "recovering from trauma; you don't hear the air signal blowing, you don't hear all that's going on in Ukraine."

Yet at the same time, Balazhinec believes "it's an opportunity for us to share information about what's going on in Ukraine."

Balazhinec, who leads the Ukrainian branch of Family of Christ International ministry, ferries supplies and people across Ukraine, including to and from front-line locations, all the while helping the citizens around Uzhhorod. On a recent trip he witnessed what is likely a war crime: the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, widely believed to have been blown up by Russian troops. "It is 10 times more horrible than Chernobyl," Balazhinec said. "In your brain you will have a trauma problem. … I really struggled to see all the bodies just flowing" in the floodwaters.

The dam's destruction raises fears of similar sabotage of a nuclear power plant Russia seized in Zaporizhzhia. "The world needs to be more nervous because we have Chernobyl already," Balazhinec said. If Russia were to weaponize it, "Ukraine will survive. But what will be the influence for the future [of our] nation, for Europe, for Asia?"

Another European nation that witnessed war's horrors was Yugoslavia, the birthplace of Dusan Jakica, who helped coach last Saturday. Jakica, who's the head coach of the U.S. Futsal (an indoor version of soccer) National Team, guided the squad in Russian — a language, ironically, understood by many Eastern Europeans.

There's also a shared, if understated, understanding between the two coaches on how war can corrode.

"We don't need to talk a lot; we can look at each other, to understand each other's pain, what war brings pain in our countries, in our kids," said Balazhinec. "We need people [like Jakica] who come and say, 'Hi, I was you, I was in that time, I understand just that.' "

Jakica delivered such a message at a post-practice team meeting at a local Starbucks.

"I was in your boots," he said. "This is very sad about what's going on in your country."

Turning to the USA Cup, Jakica said, "Sport is something that can connect people, not divide people."

Soccer "is a venue; it's a world sport," said Edgar Madsen, who leads the U.S. arm of Family of Christ International. Madsen, a friend, said that "for them to come here and show a little bit of what they're like, I just think [soccer] is such a great connector of people. Because when you see all these different countries that are all focused on one sport and the way that it's all so strong, it's just phenomenal to me."

The tournament, Balazhinec said, is an opportunity to unfurl the now iconic colors representing a besieged but unbowed country. "First, it's showing the Ukrainian flag," which "is now one of the most famous in the world." When "we see the Ukrainian flag in America for us we're not forgotten spiritually and emotionally. For us, it's like, 'Hey, we are here, and they support us.'"

Second, continued Balazhinec, "more important, it's recovering from trauma. Joy, which gives you life; without joy, no life."

Madsen, living his faith through three trips to Ukraine, has seen some of that joy, and an even more profound emotion: hope.

Balazhinec and his fellow Ukrainians, Madsen said, "are planning for tomorrow, and next month, and six months, and a year from now and building those plans and saying, 'We think there is a future, we know that there's something coming, and that we can weather what's happening, and we need to start thinking about how we have to raise our kids and how to build.' "

As for Madsen, he'll continue to build upon the international ministry's work, too.

"What I want people to know is that here's a great group of people, not just these people, but all the people of Ukraine, they're just trying to defend their country, and they want to have hope," he said.

Using a biblical reference, Madsen said that America "is the city on the hill." As "a citizen of the U.S., part of my job is to do whatever I can to try to help people, whether that's in my community, whether that's in my country, or helping overseas."