There Are More of Our People in Belgium

Fans of other sports will not be bored either. There will be many tennis tournaments in August, and the battle in the Formula 1 world continues. But let's take things in order.

SPORTS EVENTS SCHEDULE FOR AUGUST

ENGLAND

The football championship of this country starts on the second weekend of August. The first round alone will give fans an interesting spectacle in the form of matches "Arsenal" – "Newcastle", as well as "Everton" – "Manchester United". By the end of the month, English clubs will have played four rounds. A very interesting game is planned for August 20 – "Chelsea" – "Arsenal", for August 23 – "Arsenal" – "Fulham", and in the fourth round three duels immediately attract attention: "Newcastle" – "Manchester United", "Tottenham" – "Chelsea", and "Liverpool" – "Arsenal".

BELGIUM

The current Belgian championship is special for Ukrainian fans. As many as three domestic footballers will take part in it. Company for Oleg Yashchuk, who has long played for Anderlecht from Brussels (he has been in Belgium since 1996), and Sergei Serebrennikov, who moved to Brugge three years ago, was joined last year by 21-year-old Sergei Kovalenko, a native of Chernihiv. And this summer, 18-year-old Alexander Yakovenko, the son of Pavel Yakovenko, a former famous footballer of Kyiv Dynamo and the USSR national team, joined them.

Kovalenko, who played for the youth team of Turin's Juventus for a long time, did not break into the first team of the legendary club and, via the Roman club Lodigiani, ended up at one of the most famous Belgian clubs – Standard from Liège. Despite his relatively young age, the Ukrainian forward recommended himself in the best way and gradually proved that he could play in the first team.

Young Yakovenko, a graduate of the Kyiv Lokomotiv school, played for Kharkiv Metalist in 2004 and, together with this team, moved from the first league to the top league. But the departure of the head coach forced Yakovenko to leave as well, and he soon found himself at the Belgian Lierse, a fairly popular club. Interestingly, the agent of the Ukrainian midfielder is Andrey Golovash – the very one who also looks after two other well-known Ukrainians playing abroad – Andrey Voronin (Germany) and Ruslan Valeev (Holland).

The Belgian championship starts on August 6. On the very first match day, the teams of Kovalenko and Yakovenko – Standard and Lierse – will face each other (Brugge will play at home against Mouscron, and Anderlecht at home against La Louvière).

A week later, Brugge will visit FC Brussels, Anderlecht will visit Cercle Brugge, Standard will visit Waregem, and Lierse will play at home against Sint-Truiden. In the third round, Anderlecht will host Beerschot, Standard will host Sint-Truiden, Brugge will host Roeselare, and Lierse will play away against Beveren.

And finally, on August 27, another "Ukrainian derby" will take place – Lierse will host Brugge. In this round, Anderlecht will play away against Genk, and Standard will play away against La Louvière.

GERMANY

The start of the German football championship is scheduled for August 5. On this day, the two most decorated German clubs – Bayern and Borussia from Mönchengladbach – will meet in Munich. All the others will play the next day. Our Andrey Voronin's team, Bayer Leverkusen, will play its opening match in Frankfurt against local Eintracht. Among other matches, it is worth noting the meeting between Wolfsburg and Borussia Dortmund, as well as Schalke and Kaiserslautern.

In a week, the epicenter of events will be the match Bayer – Bayern, in which we will root for the Ukrainian forward of the Leverkusen club – Voronin. In second place in importance this round is the match Borussia (Dortmund) – Schalke.

A two-week break is scheduled between the second and third rounds of the German championship. After it, on August 27, the main attention of fans will be focused on the games in Bremen (Werder – Stuttgart) and Munich (Bayern – Hertha). Bayer Leverkusen will play against Wolfsburg.

GREECE

After several years, a Ukrainian footballer will once again play in the Greek championship. Oleg Venglinsky, a graduate of Kyiv Dynamo and a player for Dnipro from Dnipropetrovsk for the last three years, has signed a contract with the popular Athens club AEK. The Athenians have not been national champions for almost 10 years, but have consistently finished among the best teams in the league. And this season, as is tradition, AEK is tasked with winning the championship. The invitation of Venglinsky, as club fans believe, should play a significant role in solving this task. The first round of the new season in Greece will take place on August 28. AEK will play its first match away against the team Chalkidona. And the central match of the round will be the meeting of two giants of Greek football: Panathinaikos will host Olympiacos from Piraeus in Athens.

SPAIN

The traditional multi-stage cycling race Vuelta, which will run across the roads of Spain, will start on August 27 and last until September 18.

The first round of the Spanish football championship will take place on the last weekend of August. Most of the matches will be played on the 28th. One of the most interesting matches will take place in the Basque Country. Athletic Bilbao will host their main rivals from San Sebastián, Real Sociedad. A good game promises to be in Valencia, where the eponymous club will face Betis. Atlético Madrid will play at home against Zaragoza, while the traditional leaders of Spanish football, Barcelona and Real Madrid, will play their first matches of the new championship away. The Madrid side will play against Cádiz, and the Catalans against Alavés.

ITALY

The football championship of this country does not yet have a calendar. The reason is that one of its participants, Genoa, has been disqualified for involvement in match-fixing and bribing opponents. And two more clubs cannot provide the financial guarantees required by the league. Football Italy continues to be in turmoil. Last year, the league's management artificially expanded the list of championship participants, tailoring their decisions to the popular club Fiorentina from Florence. And this summer, one of the country's oldest clubs, Genoa, found itself at the center of negative news.

In Italy, from August 30 to September 4, the World Mountain Bike Championship, one of the cycling disciplines, will be held.

On August 25-26, a major football festival will take place in Monte Carlo, the program of which includes the UEFA Super Cup match between Moscow CSKA and English Liverpool, the presentation of various prizes and awards, as well as the draw for the group stage of the Champions League (August 25) and the first round of the UEFA Cup (August 26).

In Moscow, on August 25, the World Sailing Championship for 49er class yachts will begin. The tournament will end on September 6.

The Super Final of the World Water Polo League will be held in Belgrade. Dates: August 11-14.

In Anaheim, from the 15th to the 21st of August, the World Badminton Championships will take place. And on August 29, at the Flushing Meadows courts in New York, one of the last very serious tennis tournaments of the year will begin – the US Open. It will, as usual, stretch over two weeks and end on September 11. Last year’s winners were Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova (who defeated her compatriot Elena Dementieva in the final) and Swiss Roger Federer – the world's strongest tennis player of recent years.

The US Open will be preceded by a large number of tournaments that will take place in August in the States and Canada. Such tournaments will be held in San Diego, Los Angeles, Washington, Toronto, Montreal, New Haven, Cincinnati, and Forest Hills.

The historical capital of Turkey, Istanbul, will debut in the Royal Races and on August 21 will host one of the stages of the World Championship. Interestingly, this is the only Formula 1 Grand Prix in August (on July 31, drivers will compete in Hungary, and on September 4 – in Italy). Let us recall that everything is heading towards the young Spaniard Fernando Alonso from the Renault team becoming the world champion this year. He has built up a good cushion and is unlikely to allow his two main pursuers – Finn Kimi Räikkönen from McLaren and German Michael Schumacher from Ferrari – to catch him.

At the end of July, the draw for the next qualifying rounds of the UEFA Cup and the Champions League took place in the Swiss city of Nyon. At this stage, three more domestic clubs enter the fray, who will keep company with Kyiv Dynamo, which has already started in the current European season. Thus, Donetsk Shakhtar got a very strong club as an opponent – Italian Inter from Milan. The first meeting will take place on August 9 or 10 in Donetsk, the return match on the 23rd or 24th in Milan. However, fans of the Ukrainian champion need not worry about traveling to this match. As is known, due to the riots at the Giuseppe Meazza stadium caused by Inter fans last season, the home arena of this team has been disqualified for several matches. The Milanese will play Shakhtar behind closed doors.

The bronze medalist of the Ukrainian championship, Donetsk Metalurh, got Hungarian club Sopron as its opponent in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Cup, which got into European competition only by winning the Hungarian Cup. In the championship of its country, Sopron finished seventh and is unlikely to pose serious competition to the Donetsk team. The first match (August 11) will take place in Hungary, the return match (August 25) in Donetsk.

At the same time, Dnipropetrovsk Dnipro will face its opponent – Armenian Banants. The first match will take place in Armenia, the return match in Dnipropetrovsk.

In mid-August, on the 15th-17th, Kyiv will host the first international tournament in Ukraine with the participation of national teams – the Valeriy Lobanovskyi Memorial. For two years in a row, this tournament took place in May, and its participants were clubs from Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Georgia, and Moldova (both times the Kyiv Dynamo players won). In 2005, the format was slightly changed: the dates were moved to August, and national teams from Serbia, Poland, and Israel received invitations. On August 15, the matches Ukraine – Israel and Poland – Serbia are scheduled. Two days later, two more matches will take place. In one, the losers of the preliminary matches will meet, in the second, the winners. All four matches will be held in Kyiv.

The capital of the country, Helsinki, will host the World Athletics Championships. It will begin on August 6 and end a week and a day later, on the 14th.

The French football championship started in the last days of July, and four rounds are planned for August. By tradition, one match of a round takes place on Friday, the majority of matches on Saturday, and one or two more on Sunday. So, in the first weekend of August, the matches Lens – Marseille, Monaco – Auxerre, and Rennes – Nantes attract attention. In the third round, the central match will take place on Sunday, August 14 – Marseille will host the country's champion of the last four seasons, Lyon. A week later, the clashes Bordeaux – Monaco, Lens – Auxerre, and Rennes – Marseille promise to be interesting. And on the last weekend of August, you should watch more closely the matches Auxerre – Lyon and Monaco – Lens.

In Gothenburg, the European Team Chess Championship started back on July 29 and will end on August 8.

In the city of Gifu, from August 28 to September 4, the World Rowing Championships will take place.