International Career
Shovkovskiy is well known for his blunder during the EURO 2000 qualification game where Ukraine faced Slovenia where Shovkovskiy on 68th minute in the first match in Maribor, went out almost to the corner flag to kick the ball away, which resulted in the open net and Milenko Acimovic scoring from 40 meters out, which proved to be crucial to Ukraine not qualifying for EURO 2000 in Netherlands/Belgium.
Shovkovskiy was the first-choice keeper for Ukraine at the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Notably, he saved two spot kicks in the penalty shootout against Switzerland in their second-round match, which sent Ukraine through to the quarterfinals, becoming the first goalkeeper in FIFA World Cup history not to concede a goal during penalty shootout; Shovkovskiy was subsequently awarded the man of the match award. Also more recently Oleksandr was voted player of the tournament in early 2008, in a Channel One Cup in Israel, which was won by Dynamo in a notorious game against the club's top rival Shakhtar Donetsk. During this game in a series of penalty kicks, Oleksandr Shovkovskyi saved 3 kicks and almost single-handedly won the match. Oleksandr Shovkovskyi also holds a record for being the third most capped player in the Ukrainian national team after Andriy Shevchenko and Anatoliy Tymoshchuk. His goals against average for the national team is .86 with a bit short of 100 games mark on his count (86).
In September 2012, Shovkovsky announced his retirement from the Ukraine national football team.
Read more about this topic: Oleksandr Shovkovskiy
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