Obolon v Kryvbas (24/04/10)




Another cancelled plane led to another bonus match. I should have been grateful, but my final match in Ukraine saw Kryvbas visit Kyiv and as I have already documented in several places on this site they always do something to annoy me. Usually Kryvbas finish mid-table and their strategy for away games seems to be to kill the game and pick up a draw away every time. However, this time they were already relegated by a long way, so things seemed to have changed. In contrast Obolon were guaranteed to finish mid-table, but the game against Dynamo didn't see them have a shot on target and earlier in the week I had been to Andriy's house to see Obolon play Tavriya away, which had seen both teams play out a 0-0 draw without much enthusiasm, which was strange at least on Tavriya's part as they are going for a place in the Europa League (which unlike in England is quite a big deal).

On the day of the match I met Andriy who had an awful hangover and to be honest I should have been feeling worse for wear after a really heavy vodka session on Friday night at Ewig's house and going out on the Saturday. We had VIP passes to the posh seats, as Shurik had had to go to the country to plant potatos, but there was nothing very VIP about us. Our hangover cure of drinking yet more beer perhaps wasn't the best, but when in Obolon...

The game itself was fairly entertaining, although paradoxically it was Kryvbas who were doing the entertaining. Maksimov the Kryvbas coach had been the Obolon coach up until the winter break and despite his move to Kryvbas being clearly only motivated by money he had something to prove.

By half time Kryvbas were 2-0 up through goals by Morozyuk on 37 minutes and Andriyenko on 41. Andriy made excuses about Obolon playing an experimental side as they had already finished mid-table, but some how he didn't even seem convinced.

I had already found my figure to balme in the shape of Obolon midfielder Valeyev, who seemed too weak and to have no sense of positioning. Needless to say he scored on 55 minutes.

Obolon should then have been spurred on, but a lack of fire power was their undoing and the match finished 2-1 to Kryvbas. So another disappointing game against Kryvbas, but this time it wasn't their fault. Obolon really need to get a couple of forwards if their long term ambition is in this division.

That was the end of my football adventures in Ukraine on this trip and we finally flew out on the 27th April.

The top picture shows the impressive VIP entrance to the strangely named Obolon arena, the other 2 show some match action

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