Ukrainian Football This Weekend ahead- Kryvbas my Nemesis
My favourite 2 Vische Liha clubs do battle on Friday evening as Metalist take on Arsenal in Kharkiv and I'm faced with a bit of a conundrum on Sunday.
Dynamo take on Kryvbas and Obolon take on Prikarpattiya on the same day. I was unaware that Obolon were playing this weekend, as most of their games tend to be on weekdays, due to them being in the first division, although they are looking good for promotion. The only reason I found out was that I saw the Horse from the fan club in the street. However, I don't have any clue regarding the kick off time and a phone call to Andriy and a browse of their website didn't shed any light on the situation. Furthermore their ground is situated at the arse end of town and even the football daily Komanda prints kick off times for the Vische League wrongly, nevermind the first league. That said, it will test my resolve to go to Obolon and give Dynamo the elbow a bit if and when Obolon get promoted.
I find Dynamo pretty annoying, most of their fans tend to be football tourists coming from the sticks to Kyiv for a day out and taking photos with brand new scarves, so I'm hoping Obolon can get promotion and provide a decent alternative for when Arsenal are away. The plus side for Dynamo is that their stadium is situated a 10 minute bus ride away and to be honest I have had a season ticket for them in the past. Probably the biggest reservations I have about Dynamo's game this weekend is the fact that the opposition is Kryvbas.
Kryvbas have been hanging around in the top flight since the Ukrainian League started. They have reached the cup final once and once finished third, for the rest of the time they have hung around in mid-table. Their tactics seem to be that of a ficticious football club I read about years ago: try to win every home game 1-0 and get a 0-0 draw away. They have become my footballing nemesis. I have seen them on numerous occassions including on a trip to Metalist Kharkiv and I have never seen them concede a goal or score one. The trip to Kharkiv was before the express train was running so a round trip of 24 hours for no goals wasn't that great, on top of this me, Sean and Ewig probably encountered one of the worst 0-0 draws of all time when they took on Arsenal at the end of the first half of the season ( it wasn't actually the worst game I have seen that would have been back in 1997 when Torpedo Luzhniki took on Zenit in the Russian league, there were about 4,000 fans in a 90,000 stadium the police made me sit in the right seat and the game was so dull the journalist from Sport Express who was covering the match fell asleep- presumably he made the report up after, I doubt he sat through a video of it)
In fact the only 2 times I have had a chance of seeing any goals in a Kryvbas game have been denied me.The first was when we planned to go to Kryvyy Rih to see them take on CSKA, it was purely for football reasons, the town isn't known for its tourism. We had bought our train tickets only to be informed by the guy in the cloakroom at work that the game had been postponed for a week, so not only did we lose our money as we couldn't go on that day, but CSKA won 2-1. The second time was a fixture in Kyiv between the same 2 teams, this time Komanda and its dodgy kick-off information was to blame. The paper and infact the press office at CSKA told us the kick off time was 3 o'clock, so we met at 1:30 and had a few pints in the cheapo bar over the road. We then ambled over to the ground to find that the kick off time had been 2pm and CSKA were 3-0 up at half time, and that's how the result remained.
To be fair to Kryvbas they have been punching above their weight for years and continue to finish mid-table despite financial mishap after mishap, including almost being closed down in 2006.
My prediction is that Dynamo will beat them 2-0 on Sunday, although I doubt it will be pretty and hopefully I'll organise the trip up to Obolon and Andriy will get off his arse and come. At Obolon you can drink cheap beer straight from the brewery, when Kryvbas come to town you wish you had stayed in the pub, either way football is back and I might even get in 2 games in one day (maybe)
Dynamo take on Kryvbas and Obolon take on Prikarpattiya on the same day. I was unaware that Obolon were playing this weekend, as most of their games tend to be on weekdays, due to them being in the first division, although they are looking good for promotion. The only reason I found out was that I saw the Horse from the fan club in the street. However, I don't have any clue regarding the kick off time and a phone call to Andriy and a browse of their website didn't shed any light on the situation. Furthermore their ground is situated at the arse end of town and even the football daily Komanda prints kick off times for the Vische League wrongly, nevermind the first league. That said, it will test my resolve to go to Obolon and give Dynamo the elbow a bit if and when Obolon get promoted.
I find Dynamo pretty annoying, most of their fans tend to be football tourists coming from the sticks to Kyiv for a day out and taking photos with brand new scarves, so I'm hoping Obolon can get promotion and provide a decent alternative for when Arsenal are away. The plus side for Dynamo is that their stadium is situated a 10 minute bus ride away and to be honest I have had a season ticket for them in the past. Probably the biggest reservations I have about Dynamo's game this weekend is the fact that the opposition is Kryvbas.
Kryvbas have been hanging around in the top flight since the Ukrainian League started. They have reached the cup final once and once finished third, for the rest of the time they have hung around in mid-table. Their tactics seem to be that of a ficticious football club I read about years ago: try to win every home game 1-0 and get a 0-0 draw away. They have become my footballing nemesis. I have seen them on numerous occassions including on a trip to Metalist Kharkiv and I have never seen them concede a goal or score one. The trip to Kharkiv was before the express train was running so a round trip of 24 hours for no goals wasn't that great, on top of this me, Sean and Ewig probably encountered one of the worst 0-0 draws of all time when they took on Arsenal at the end of the first half of the season ( it wasn't actually the worst game I have seen that would have been back in 1997 when Torpedo Luzhniki took on Zenit in the Russian league, there were about 4,000 fans in a 90,000 stadium the police made me sit in the right seat and the game was so dull the journalist from Sport Express who was covering the match fell asleep- presumably he made the report up after, I doubt he sat through a video of it)
In fact the only 2 times I have had a chance of seeing any goals in a Kryvbas game have been denied me.The first was when we planned to go to Kryvyy Rih to see them take on CSKA, it was purely for football reasons, the town isn't known for its tourism. We had bought our train tickets only to be informed by the guy in the cloakroom at work that the game had been postponed for a week, so not only did we lose our money as we couldn't go on that day, but CSKA won 2-1. The second time was a fixture in Kyiv between the same 2 teams, this time Komanda and its dodgy kick-off information was to blame. The paper and infact the press office at CSKA told us the kick off time was 3 o'clock, so we met at 1:30 and had a few pints in the cheapo bar over the road. We then ambled over to the ground to find that the kick off time had been 2pm and CSKA were 3-0 up at half time, and that's how the result remained.
To be fair to Kryvbas they have been punching above their weight for years and continue to finish mid-table despite financial mishap after mishap, including almost being closed down in 2006.
My prediction is that Dynamo will beat them 2-0 on Sunday, although I doubt it will be pretty and hopefully I'll organise the trip up to Obolon and Andriy will get off his arse and come. At Obolon you can drink cheap beer straight from the brewery, when Kryvbas come to town you wish you had stayed in the pub, either way football is back and I might even get in 2 games in one day (maybe)
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