football rambles

Obolon played Dnipro Cherkasy on Sunday needing a win to stay in the chase for promotion to the Vishe, soon to be renamed and rebranded as the Premier League. The game was exciting enough, with Cherkasy trying their best to spoil the party in much the same way Vorskla attempted to when they played Dynamo at the end of the Vishe Liha's season. In fact the first 20 minutes were all Dnipro, so much so that Obolon made a couple of early substitutions in an attempt to put some bite back in their attack. The result was a fairly balanced game for the most part with both team's forwards squandering chance after chance. It was difficult to imagine why Cherkasy were just above the relegation places and on 75 minutes they went ahead with a brilliantly well taken goal drilled in from the right wing. Finally Obolon woke from their slumber and 4 minutes later they drew level with another well taken goal. This prompted a last 10 minutes of wave after wave of attack and dive after dive in the ...

Obolon's opponents on Sunday are Dnipro Cherkasy, and it is a must win for both teams. Dnipro are 1 place above the drop zone and Obolon are losing ground in the promotion race with FK Lviv going 3 points clear in second place after Obolon lost on Tuesday. One strange thing of note about Dnipro is that I was able to find information about them in English, whereas usually I have to rely on my rudimentarty translation skills. Anyway, here's the lowdown. The club were formed in 1955 on the 10th anniverssary of the second World War finishing. they turned professional in 1958 and have remained so since apart from a disruption in the 2002-2003 season when they temporarily lost their status. Most of their history has been spent in the lower reaches of the Soviet and Ukrainian Leagues and they were promoted to the first division in 2006. If they aren't careful, and they do have a difficult run-in they might find themselves back in the second division. Their original name was Burevi...