football rambles

Milevskiy makes it 2-0

Taras Mykhalyk (as the official website spells it) puts Dynamo 1 up in the second minute. When it was announced that it was the quickest goal in league history. I presume they were having a laugh, as this was the first match of the new Ukrainian Premier League

At the weekend the all new Ukrainian Premier League kicked off and I went to see Dynamo take on Illychivets, and despite shouty bloke on the tannoy getting all excited about it and the game kicking off with the national anthem being played (Dynamo actually started with 6 Ukrainians on the pitch) it was really hard to notice the difference. The crowd was low, celebrity loser Paramon was annoying the police dogs and the majority of the fans were more interested in semechki than football. In fact the only real difference was that the dugouts had been kitted out with comfy chairs like the ones Real Madrid have. As for the football, that was also as predicted. Mikhailyk put Dynamo ahead in the second minute and then Dynamo continued with a bombardment of the Illychivets goal without actually looking like reall putting the boot in. Bangoura was back in action and he had a lot of chances, but shots that would have been flying in in the first half of last season seemed to be attracted to the g...

I was thinking of going to see Chernomorets take on Arsenal in Odessa for the first game of the season, but it looks more realistic that I'll be watching Dynamo take on the newly promoted Illychivets. After a solitary season in the first division Illychivets are back in the top division. The previous 10 seasons up until last season they had competed in the Vische Liha and were known as Metalurh Mariupol until the winter break of 2002-2003, although before debuting in the Vische Liha they went under the guise of Azovets Mariupol. The first time that I saw them play was in October 2000, when they lost 2-0 to Dynamo, I suspect the result will be similar this time. Up until getting relegated in 2007 they were a steady mid-table team, although they also had some fairly good cup runs and also managed to finish in 4th twice and 5th twice, and also enjoyed a brief run in the UEFA Cup in 2005. Strangely the season before relegation, in 2005- 2006 was probably their most successful, as they ...