HAMBURG, Germany -- Grasping for words, Sergey Kuz'min shaped his hand like a knife and cut the air in two.

"After revolution in Ukraine, there were two sides -- West, East," he said.

Then, soccer and the World Cup intervened.

He spread his arms wide, and slowly brought his hands together in a tight clasp.

"After win over Switzerland: one country," the banker from the Black Sea port of Sevastopol said.

Ukraine's unity after reaching the quarterfinals in its first World Cup will now be tested in Friday's match against Italy.

It may be for a fleeting moment, but soccer can overcome divisions, unite people.

"In politics, you can't agree, but football can unify and that's the most important," Ukraine coach Oleh Blokhin said.

Not only in Ukraine.

In Germany, it brings old East and West together in a common celebration of the flag.

From the Olympic Stadium in Berlin or the old Nazi parade grounds in Nuremberg, to the wooden homes deep in the southern Black Forest and the BMW-lined banks of Hamburg harbor, one theme dominates: the "Schwarz-Rot-Gold" flag is being waved with a new conviction.

"We have never seen our country in this way," said Lewe Timm, a 30-year-old chemistry student who was proudly wearing a Germany jersey during a shopping spree on the eve of the match against Argentina. "It is normally the German way to say we are so bad, we don't play good soccer. Now we say, 'This is nice."'

Whatever the outcome of the quarterfinal match, Germany will be able to show off its newfound pride as hosts until the July 9 final in Berlin.

For Ukraine, it's different. On Friday, the euphoria after a roller-coaster World Cup ride could suddenly end with defeat.

In its maiden World Cup, Ukraine was looking for a lift, but started out disastrously, losing to Spain 4-0. Back in Kiev, Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov, wearing a yellow-and-blue scarf, banged his fist in frustration on a table.

After the 2004 revolution, the Russian speakers faced off with the Ukrainian speakers. A divide ran across the country from those looking westward toward the European Union and those seeking to reinforce the traditional ties with Russia.

Bad soccer results would not help bridge divisions. Then, unexpectedly, things picked up in the next games with advancement to the second round and a penalty-shootout victory over Switzerland.

Suddenly, newcomer Ukraine was among the top-eight nations in the world and political bitterness made room for a mellow unity.

"After the win, from Sevastopol to Kiev, cars, buses honked all night. Flags were everywhere and everybody was singing," Kuz'min said.

He dressed up in the team colors and took the next plane for Hamburg to come see Friday's piece of soccer history.

Blokhin, a former forward when Ukraine was still part of the Soviet team, realizes what is at stake.

"I know that people are getting closer together in Ukraine because of our team's success and hard work here, because they are getting together for one hope," he said.

That sense of togetherness through soccer has been important in Germany since 1954. Still demoralized and battered after World War II, West Germany got a huge lift when it won the World Cup against all odds by beating the "Magical Magyars" of Hungary 3-2.

Now, Germany is united again and finds in the World Cup a way of expressing a new patriotism where East and West are blended perfectly. Two of the team's biggest stars, Michael Ballack and Bernd Schneider, come from the former East Germany, and the eastern fans are also falling in the World Cup fold.

"This is also for the people from the East, it is their country, too, now," Timm said.

While Germans long felt queasy about expressing national pride decades after the war, it comes unabashed and unburdened by history now.

"You would not normally see this," Timm said. "Normally, you don't show the flag, you don't sing the anthem. We want nothing to do with nationalism in our history. It is a new feeling. It is OK."

German President Horst Koehler said it showed that "the nation has normalized. That we can show our national flag without second thoughts."

There are limits to the power of soccer, though. The civil war in Ivory Coast is not solved because of its first participation in the World Cup and, famously, the 100-hour "Soccer War" in 1969 between Honduras and El Salvador following a World Cup qualifier claimed 2,000 lives.

And despite all the goodwill in Germany, the Bundesliga kicks off again in the fall, and German soccer unity will be just a warm summer feeling.

"When Bayern Munich comes to play Hamburger SV," Timm said, "we will be talking about 'those Bavarians' again."