KIEV, Ukraine - Suddenly, all the old divisions don't seem so important. Ukrainians - bitterly split over language, politics and whether they belong in the West or with Russia - have been savoring a rare taste of unity with their country's gritty advancement to the quarterfinals of the World Cup.

When the team steps onto the field on Friday against Italy, this nation of 47 million - Russian-speakers and Ukrainian-speakers; those who considered the 2004 Orange Revolution an explosion of democracy and those who deride it as a coup - will all be rooting in unison, "Ukraina (oo-kry-EE-nah)!"

"It's caused a wave of patriotism and it doesn't matter if you're orange or blue, we're all Ukrainians," said Andrey Myshkovsky, 19, referring to the country's color-coded politics (orange are supporters of the pro-Western bloc, blue backers of the pro-Russian party), just one of many ways that this ex-Soviet republic divides itself.

Politicians are salivating over how to capitalize on the unusual sense of unity, but also grumbling that it took a soccer team to do what they could not. For others, it's another chance to show the world that Ukraine is more than just the location of the world's worst nuclear accident or home to the president whose face was badly scarred in a still-unsolved poisoning.

"It's a huge breakthrough ... millions of people all over the world, some of them for the first time are hearing about Ukraine in a positive light," said Vice Prime Minister Vyacheslav Kyrylenko. "They saw that we have cool boys who can play soccer."

Torn apart by competing empires throughout much of its history, Ukraine has spent the last 15 years of independence trying on different identities. It has yet to settle on one. The pro-European outlook that fits so easily in the country's west, where Ukrainians are nationalists and view Moscow as a former occupier, angers the ethnic Russians who people Crimea and the industrial east.

Even the 2004 mass uprising that captured the world's attention won the support of only about half the country.

"Ukraine has had some problems with patriotism, with forging one national identity," said Ivan Lozowy, president of the Kiev-based Institute of Statehood and Democracy.

Soccer could be a chance to bridge the gap.

Serhiy Varenyk, 43, was in a train car headed to Kiev when Oleg Gusev scored the deciding penalty kick against Switzerland. Listening by radio, the car, filled with Russian-speakers from eastern Ukraine, erupted into a roar so loud it shook the windows, he said.

Across the country, in the nationalistic west, a similar cheer went up as Lviv fans set off fireworks and bellowed out the national anthem.

"Such victories unite people and lay the groundwork to create a normal nation," said Yevhen Kushnaryov, a former regional governor who was accused last year of encouraging eastern Ukraine toward separatism.

The timing is also good. Ukraine's political life remains unsettled, three months after a parliamentary election ended indecisively; a majority coalition was formed only last week.

Success on the soccer field "is just what Ukraine needs," said 57-year-old lawyer Vitaliy Yenin, as he joined a protest Tuesday against rising electricity, gas and transport costs.

Ukrainians fear the rising prices will widen the gulf even further between living standards here and in the club of nations they aspire to. But when it comes to kicking around the soccer ball, this country ¡ª making its first appearance in the World Cup ¡ª is daring to dream that they belong.

Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov put it simply: "We believe in you," he wrote in a telegram to the team.

Of course, a little bit of smugness also helps. Some Ukrainians can't resist the chance to taunt giant neighbor and regular sparring partner, Russia, whose team didn't make it into the World Cup. Critics accuse Russia of trying to punish Ukraine for its turn westward with higher gas prices, and for refusing to drop the idea of Ukraine as the little brother.

"Ukraine is the soccer country," said lawmaker Serhiy Polyshchuk. "Let Russia play ice hockey."