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The Rediff Special/ You betcha, that's my boy! June 22, 2006 The father of Andriy Rusol, who stroked Ukraine's first goal in their 4-0 World Cup rout of Saudi Arabia, won nearly $445 - three times the average monthly wage in the ex-Soviet state - after betting on his son. "I don't really like betting. But an hour before our game with the Saudis I finally decided to go to the bookmakers," Anatoly Rusol told the daily Fakty. "I put 30 hryvnias ($6) on Andriy scoring the first goal. And another 50 hryvnias ($10) that he would score at some point. Excellent! I knew it! I collected 2,250 hryvnias." Rusol scored in the fourth minute of Monday's game, followed by Serhiy Rebrov, Andriy Shevchenko and Maksim Kalinichenko.
The daily said Rusol's father lived in Kirovograd, a small town in central Ukraine. Though large cities in Ukraine boast luxurious shopping centres, fancy office buildings and plush restaurants, rural regions lag far behind. At least a third of its 47 million live in poverty 15 years after the collapse of communism. More Specials
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