Shevchenko shares the Ukraine spotlight with fellow scorers
(AP)
Updated: 2006-06-20 09:09

HAMBURG, Germany _ Andriy Shevchenko may be the international soccer superstar, but on Monday he was just one of four Ukraine strikers being feted.

shevchenko
Ukraine's Andriy Shevchenko runs on the pitch during their Group H World Cup 2006 soccer match against Saudi Arabia in Hamburg June 19, 2006. [Reuters]
With four scorers leading Ukraine to a 4-0 victory over powerless Saudi Arabia, Shevchenko shared the spotlight with man-of-the-match Maxim Kalinichenko and defender Andriy Rusol, as well as former Dynamo Kiev strike partner Serhiy Rebrov, who scored one of the tournament's top goals so far.

"Lots of people in the world know only Shevchenko from Ukraine. Today I think everybody showed a strong performance and everybody showed Ukraine is not only Shevchenko," said Rebrov, who once formed a lethal partnership with Shevchenko at Ukraine's most prestigious club in the late 1990s, leading the team to the Champions League semifinal.

"I always enjoy playing with him and today at the beginning of the game I tried to find him a lot. He is the best forward in the world," he added. "But today we all were good performers," said Rebrov.

Shevchenko, just weeks from his 30th birthday, is recently returning from a knee injury and was clearly lacking match practice during Ukraine's 4-0 loss to Spain in its World Cup debut last week.

"I'm not going to blame my players or praise them individually, except in private," Ukraine coach Oleh Blokhin answered when asked about Shevchenko's performance so far in Germany.

Shevchenko, who will play for English champion Chelsea next season, says he has yet to regain full match fitness.

"I'm not 100 percent yet," Shevchenko said. "I'm optimistic I can get better soon.

"I hope tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or against Tunisia I will be fully fit. I am happy the team won today and that's enough for me at the moment."

Rusol scored Ukraine's first World Cup goal from a corner kick by Kalinichenko in the fourth minute.
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