Why not an s on "speed" in "Ukraine speed to test new-look Germany defence"

This url links to an Australian article (sourced from Reuters) about a football team. The article has the following title:

Ukraine speed to test new-look Germany defence

I understand that the word "speed" is a verb here. However, why not "speeds"? Since "Ukraine" is a singular noun, I expect it to be "Ukraine speeds".

UPD. Thanks to the detailed comments and answers below, it turns out the question is not about collective nouns, but rather about "speed" being a noun and not a verb.

UPD2. As noted in comments replying to my UPD above: Not necessarily! If the rest of the article were in American English, yes, it would clearly be a noun. But the rest of the article is clearly written in British English or similar and "Ukraine" as an identifier for the team is a plural noun in BrEng. (We know it's BrEng because it says "Ukraine... are certain to test...") So it really could be either, the only way to be sure would be to ask the author their intent.

Now I'd really like to find out from the author!

Solution 1:

I think in this context, "speed" is in fact a noun;

(Given that headlines need to use as few words as possible)

i.e. [[Ukraine] speed] = [the speed of [the Ukraine football team]]

Solution 2:

There's no 's' because it is not a verb, it is a noun.

The sentence means

Germany's new look defence will be tested by the speed of the Ukrainian team

Not

The Ukraine team is in a hurry to test Germany's new look defence

This is evidenced in the article itself where it says

Ukraine, while outsiders, are certain to test the Germans' new-look defence with quick wingers Andriy Yarmolenko and Yevhen Konoplyanka

Solution 3:

Ukraine means in this context 'team Ukraine'.

In the same text it says

Ukraine, while outsiders, are certain [...]

So, here you see that the word "Ukraine" refers to the team with a plural word, as the verb "are" follows instead of "is".

There appear to be different conventions with regard to the collective noun team, which seem to differ between American and British (in this case Australian) English.

If plural verbs are not used regularly for the word team, which sports journalists appear to do, the writer might indicate that all members of the team are doing something that is the same but is done individually.

Good examples can be found with committees: "The committee has" vs. "the committee have"