That was a week ago when the Ukrainian national soccer team upset Scotland to move one step closer

to making the world cup this fall. And right, Thompson, you have spent the last month or

so covering Ukraine, the soccer team, as Ukraine, the country is literally fighting for

its existence. So why are things like sports and world cup qualifying even worth dwelling

on right now?

The war as much as anything is about memory and identity and Russia trying to erase the

very idea of Ukraineness. Sports at its core is an expression of tribalism and of identity.

And so, you know, the reason it matters, if it matters, is probably two-fold. One, it's

a pleasant distraction. It's a win for a place that sure could use a win. It's also a way

to stand up and say, Ukraine does exist. And the reason I know that is because we are

playing in the world cup and you're not.

Coach Petr Koff, who's the head coach, 64 years old, the war started and his children begged

him to leave Kiev and he refused. He said, I was born here and I'll die here as a boy

grew up fishing on the banks of the river that runs to the middle of the town. His favorite

thing in the world to do is just to walk to all the old churches and monasteries and

think of the jewels that are all over the city center and to go and sit in a quiet bench

and just think he loves his city and he refused to leave it. And he tried to go join the army

and they were like, look, man, we don't need 64-year-old privates. You don't know anything

about fighting. You do know about football. What you can do is go coach your team. You can

take us to the world cup. I mean, he took this job as seriously as it could be taken

and he saw it as his duty. He has been trying to make it to the world cup and do it in a

very pro-Ukrainian way. The lingua-frank of the Ukrainian football community has always

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