The Canadian national men’s soccer team is set to meet Ukraine in the opening match of the Canadian Shield Tournament on June 7 at 3:30 p.m. in Toronto. Team Canada coach Jesse Marsch says the contest offers an opportunity for Canada to show its support of Ukraine in the face of Russia’s three-year-long invasion of its territory.
The match is even more meaningful to four families who fled the conflict in their home country and have now begun new lives in Ottawa. The families were all from different parts of Ukraine but have now connected at Ottawa South United Soccer Club, where their talented 11-year-old boys have found healing through soccer, new friends, and a community motivated to support them through all their challenges.
By Dan Plouffe
The parking garage had become a regular living area for the Pankov family. When sirens sounded, Mykola and Iryna would quickly descend to the basement of their building from the 15th floor to take cover with their three children. They’d spend the next several hours gripped with fear, not knowing whether they might be hit by the latest round of Russian missile attacks.
“Sometimes when it is at night, you have to just take the kids and go there, and sometimes you cannot prepare any food, you just take snacks and some water. And you’re just sitting and waiting and reading news about where there have been explosions,” recounts Iryna Pankova. “I didn’t want my children to live in such a place.”
Comparatively speaking, the Pankovs’ city of Vinnytsia in Central Ukraine hadn’t been hit as hard as other parts of the country during Russia’s assault. But on the day an attack left nearly 40 civilians dead and over 100 injured, the Pankovs decided they could no longer stay in their home.
They were prepared to move anywhere on the map that offered safety. Thanks to the government’s program to accept Ukrainian refugees, that place would end up being Canada – a country to which they had no previous connection.
When the Pankovs arrived in Ottawa in January 2023, they experienced a wild mix of emotions, but depression was the strongest.
“We came here just with three suitcases, and we didn’t have any friends or relatives here. We knew nobody,” Pankova recalls. “It was quite a challenge. It was overwhelming. Stressful. Because you need to start a new life, and you don’t know where to start.
“It was really very difficult. It was difficult to find a house, a place to live. We didn’t have jobs at that time, so we had to start everything over from the very, very beginning.
“You come to a new place and you do not have anything to live. I mean, even no bed, nothing, and the kids are hungry and they want to eat, and you will go find a supermarket, but you don’t have a car, and you get there and at least buy something to eat, but you don’t have a way to cook it. And so on.
“This was the most difficult time.”
Maksym Pankov, right back
After spending their first two weeks in a hotel, the Pankovs slowly began to piece together what they needed. Pankova’s daughter’s teacher at Chapman Mills Public School helped them immensely to get setup in their new surroundings.
She’d learned that their middle child Maksym was very passionate about soccer, despite not getting to play much recently because it had become too dangerous to even play outside during the last days in their homeland.
Maksym, who initially followed his older brother’s footsteps into football at age 3, had been part of an academy in Ukraine. The teacher at Chapman Mills had heard that Ottawa South United Soccer Club was working with groups helping Ukrainians settle in Ottawa to do what was needed to get young players on the field.
When Maksym entered his new OSU Force Junior Academy, there was already another Ukrainian player in the program. Ihor Rakhubovskyi had arrived under similar circumstances a few months earlier, and suddenly he found a teammate who could translate for him and show him the way.
Maksym would eventually get to pay it forward and provide the same assistance to two more players with Ukrainian roots who joined OSU later.
Ihor Rakhubovskyi, central midfielder
The Rakhubovskyi family had first escaped to Poland from Kyiv in June 2022 before they ultimately landed in Canada under the same refugee program. Ihor’s father Anton had anticipated that his son’s development would suffer in a land where the sport isn’t quite as ingrained in the national psyche as other parts of the world.
But instead, he’s discovered that soccer fields are constantly filled, Canadians have an ever-rising fervour for the beautiful game, and his son is thriving in his new environment, now three years later.
“We thought that it’s a hockey country, not soccer,” Rakhubovskyi explains. “I was stressed about this because he was very eager to play soccer, and he’s played soccer since he was five years old, but we were surprised that in Ottawa we have OSU and it’s a very good club with a good system, lots of teams and levels, and we take part in good tournaments.”
Andrii Mogylevskyi, striker
The Mogylevskyi family arrived in summer 2023 with a similar mentality and level of dedication.
“Of course first it was find houses, find jobs, but I started searching for an academy on our second day in Canada,” signals Oleksandr Mogylevskyi, who quickly discovered that there was a different name for the sport of football in North America.
The reason Mogylevskyi wanted so badly to seek out a place for his son Andrii to play was because he felt he shouldn’t pay the price for adults’ problems.
“They lost all their friends. New place without any friends, new language, and he was in a big depression,” Mogylevskyi outlines. “And if you’re not training, your level goes down. So those parents problems can’t stop his dream.”
Mogylevskyi remembers waking up one morning to the sight of Russian soldiers walking through the streets in his city. Their family grabbed two bags and got to the border as quickly as they could.
There remains residual impact from living in a war zone, Mogylevskyi notes. The sound of airplanes can be scary to many Ukrainian children because they associate it with bombings.
But touching down safely in Ottawa was the first step towards healing, and then stepping back on a soccer pitch provided the next huge leap.
“Here, it was just the light at the end of tunnel,” Mogylevskyi underlines. “Because when my son went to soccer, he was totally into soccer and forgot about problems. This was the was most difficult thing that OSU [helped him overcome] – he forgot about bad things in Ukraine.
“Now Canada is like his second home. It was important to us that he relaxed. Finally, he relaxed. And he’s stopped asking, ‘When will we go back?’ This year, he forgot about this question finally.”
Marc El Hamouche, winger
The last member of the young quartet with Ukrainian roots is Marc El Hamouche. He met Ihor playing in the schoolyard near their homes downtown, and it wasn’t long until OSU welcomed another talented youngster.
El Hamouche was born in Ukraine and used to live just outside Kyiv. His mother’s hometown of Donetsk is now occupied, although the family was living in Marc’s father Dany’s home country of Lebanon when Russia invaded.
El Hamouche says he’s enjoyed connecting with players from all kinds of different backgrounds with his new soccer club.
“In Ukraine, there’s like no people from other places, like Nigerian, Canadian, Lebanese. Here, there are people from all around the world,” highlights El Hamouche, while noting that they’ve felt very supported by their coaches as well as their teammates.
Much like the large group of first- and second-generation Canadians leading the men’s national team, the OSU Force Junior Academy is a mosaic of many different cultures.
“This group in particular is quite unique. It’s pretty cool. English is like the second language as a group,” indicates coach Roberto Di Nuzzo, who’s learned to say hello in almost a dozen languages. “There’s a reason why they call it the beautiful game. It’s one of the very few sports that you’ll find in every single country.
“For me, the biggest piece in coaching has always been recognizing the true power of the game and its ability to connect.”
Finding community
Particularly when each first arrived at the club, Di Nuzzo says it was fairly obvious that the four players from Ukraine had been through more than the average boy from Barrhaven.
Their intensity and competitiveness was top-notch from the get-go, but Di Nuzzo has seen great growth in his players’ abilities to now channel their frustrations in a positive direction when something goes poorly.
“On one hand, for sure there’s an extra level of compassion for them. I think that’s just part of being a good human,” Di Nuzzo notes. “But what we try to do is: this field, I view it almost like it’s a sacred place.
“Everybody has different challenges that they may have went through and different things going on, but what we can all say is that when we step on the field, this can be a great experience.
“We actually don’t really chat about it much here, because this is a place where the only thing we care about is everybody’s welcome, let’s have a great time, and let’s look forward to the next time we see each other. It’s almost like a therapeutic escape.”
Friendships forged
On the sidelines during training, the four 2013-born boys smile and joke with each other, and the playful chirps and challenges fly frequently among them too, further showcasing their comfort and camaraderie.
They say they love the challenging atmosphere of the Force Academy and they appreciate the competitive drive within their group of teammates.
There is a natural connection stemming from the boys’ shared experiences and mutual language, but coaches also marvel at the on-field chemistry between four players who never trained together previously.
Pankova says it’s been “fantastic” for the boys to have met others from their country, and the same goes for the families “because we also can share maybe some common pain, and support and help each other.”
She’s grateful for the efforts of Di Nuzzo and other coaches, and to the club that’s backed them throughout.
“What was also very important for us was the help of other families on the team,” Pankova adds. “For the first couple of months, we didn’t have a car. We couldn’t buy it. We had no credit history, no permanent jobs. That was a challenge because the training and games are held across the city.
“So I would also like to say thanks to those families, because without them, it would not be possible.”
Humbling honour
Last autumn, Pankova’s son Maksym was chosen as his squad’s most valuable teammate, in recognition of his attitude and passion. For the Pankov family, that award represented much more than a little trophy for the mantle.
“I was so happy. It was such an honour for us. It was like a pool of his efforts,” Pankova highlights. “You know, this is the place where he started to smile again. This is the place where he got relaxed, he was on the field, he’s within the team, with people that share the same interests as he does.
“It’s the most amazing thing.”
Di Nuzzo and OSU say the four players have inspired an extra little bit of motivation and responsibility to ensure they’re doing their very best to help the young crew reach their full potential.
“The level of intensity and the sheer passion they have for the game is evident in everything they do,” Di Nuzzo underlines. “The impact they’ve had on the program is massive, because that passion rubs off on everybody.”
There is almost a magical element to the story: that four families who never knew each other in Ukraine all landed in Ottawa, and all had highly talented soccer-playing boys of the same age.
“To be honest, there’s certain things that I would say there’s no real explanation for,” Di Nuzzo reflects. “We’ve embraced it as a blessing. It’s really, really neat.”
Canada-Ukraine a dream meeting
When Team Canada kicks off the Canadian Shield Tournament in Toronto alongside Ukraine Saturday afternoon, it will be a special moment for Rakhubovskyi, who has tickets to the match.
Some feelings of sadness and nostalgia may surface, he expects. There will be memories of beloved soccer traditions back in Ukraine. Like the elation on the streets he remembers from Dynamo Kyiv winning UEFA Cups in years past. And when every Saturday, men of all ages would play soccer together and then gather to watch matches.
Blended into those recollections are the events of more recent years – matches starting and then getting paused due to bombings, and having to host Ukrainian national team home games on foreign soil.
But mostly Rakhubovskyi is eager to have his son with him to watch two sets of heroes – such as Real Madrid’s Andrii Lunin and Arsenal’s Oleksandr Zinchenko for Ukraine, and star striker Jonathan David of Ottawa and Inter Milan’s Tajon Buchanan for Canada.
“Children see these great football players, and of course, they’d like to be like these players,” says Rakhubovskyi. “It’s very exciting. After the war began, we lived in Poland and we got to see Ukraine play when we were there, but it’s really special to have the chance to attend a game now that we have a new home in Canada.”
For Pankova, she says soccer has acted as the engine that’s lifted them up from the depths, from the times when they were huddled underground fearing the worst. It’s provided their critical link to a new life.
“For us, soccer is not just simply a sport,” she underlines. “For us, it became a bridge to a new community. Here we made new connections, new friends, and we have support. Might you need anything, you can ask for help, and there are a lot of people who are ready to help you.
“This is where you feel like you’re at home.”
Excellent article, Dan, and wonderful to read a good news article!