Ukraine, having already suffered from a lack of good players, lost two promising young players during the winter intermission : Stepan Betsa and Oleksiy Sasko, who perished in a car accident. Unable to secure a contract with Valeriy Lobanovskyi, Ukraine appointed another head coach, former forward of Dynamo Kyiv Oleh Bazylevych. He made his debut with the national team in the spring of 1993 in Odessa during a friendly against Israel. Their expected win was cancelled out in a 1–1 draw just 10 minutes before the end by Serhiy Konovalov. Less than a month later Ukraine finally celebrated its first victory in Vilnius in an away friendly against Lithuania that resulted in a 1–2 win (goals scored by Viktor Leonenko and Dmytro Mykhaylenko). During the summer they played one away game against Croatia, losing 3–1, with a goal scored Andriy Husin and one of the Croatian goals scored by Davor Šuker. In October 1993, Ukraine went on their first tour to the United States where they played three games against the US and Mexico. Their game against Mexico in San Diego, resulting in a 1–2 loss, was attended by over 50,000 spectators. During the winter break Ukraine was seeded in Group 4 of the UEFA Euro 1996 qualification.