football rambles

Here's a video I found that was put together by Karpaty, it's a bit cheesy but worth a watch

Arsenal are playing Karpaty Lviv next Sunday, although I'm on holiday so hopefully I'll get to the Obolon game on Wednesday the weather is dreadful today, so it seems like an opportune moment to look at one of Ukraine's most famous teams. As I have stated before Karpaty were formed in 1963 as an alternative to the hated local army team SKA Lviv. They quickly gained popularity due to the fact that they only recruited local players and quickly became a symbol of Ukrainian nationalism in the most nationalistic of Ukrainian cities. To this very day they are seen as a symbol of nationalism and their president Petro Dymynskiy has called for a cap on the number of foreign players Ukrainian league teams can have. A fact that caused so much trouble with Metalurh Donestsk officials (their club has 20 foreigners on their books) that a deep animosity has grown up between the clubs. Karpaty were originally formed by members of Silmash club and they joined division 2 of the Soviet League

Dodgy keeping allows Kravets to make it 3-0

Aliev makes it 2-0 v Zorya Luhansk

The first really sunny day of the year and the start of 2 weeks that are nearly all made up of bank holidays should have seen a bumper crowd at Dynamo stadium and some entertaining football, unfortunately it saw neither. There are 2 results that I really hate. I hate 1-1 draws in general and when Dynamo win I really dislike 2-0 wins, this game was a 3-0 win for Dynamo but was like those 2-0s that are just a bit boring. The Dynamo website described the win as calm and sure, it certainly was that. Zorya didn't have a meaningful shot on goal and Dynamo just waited until the goals came. In fact Zorya were probably the poorest team I have seen in the Vishe Liha this season and as well as not attacking at all they looked pretty shakey in defence. Dynamo could have probably won by more, but didn't really get out of first gear and didn't really have to. Nobody played poorly, but nobody played that well either. Aliev was slightly irritating in that after a couple of good performane

Orthodox Easter conveniently clashes with May Day this year, so next week is a week off, here's a collection of tunes I'll be listening to over the holiday: 1. Men in Route - 23 Maggio A kind of ska/ reggae song taken from this unsigned Italian band's demo N-Demo 2.The Heavens - The Beautiful Machine Another unsigned band, this time from Leeds, think about The Brian Jonestwon Massacre meets Ride. They really are that good. 3.Boat Club - Warmer Climes Yet another indie pop band from Sweden and like most of the Indie bands from Sweden they are very good. 4. Edgar Jones - Sunshine A song taken from the soul/ funkster's album that came out earlier this year 5. The Jam - Running on the Spot If you haven't heard of this band then you don't like music 6. Judge Dredd - Up with the Cock A novelty song from the first British person to score a reggae hit in Jamaica 7. Talco - Tutti Assolti High-energy punk/ ska music from Italy's left-wing Talco. Taken from their first

You have to feel a bit sorry for Zorya, at the time of writing they are 3rd from bottom in the Vishe Liha and will play Shakhtar at home in a rearranged game on Wednesday before coming to Kyiv and taking on Dynamo on Saturday. Recent history has not been kind to Zorya at all, although this is a club with a once proud history. They were formed in 1923 as Zorya Vorisholograd, as Luhansk was know in those days and had close links with the railway unions. Their finest moment came in 1972 when they won the USSR Championship. The Ukrainian Championship has not been so lucky for them, however. They debuted in the Vishe Liha at its inception in 1992 and hung around the bottom of the league until finally being relegated in 1996. The rot had definitely set in by then, as they went on to be relegated the following year to the second division. They finally made their way back to the First Division in 2003-2004 and made a reappearence in the Vishe Liha last season where they finished a respectable

Well, I missed out on live football this weekend, but I'm glad I didn't miss out on one of the greatest derby games in livivng memory on the box. I met Rob, Bo, Sid and Rol at the new German bar on Lisenko. The game started off as tense as usual, and I have to admit in the first 10 minutes I thought that the Noses might even snatch one. However, what followed was beyond all expectations. Villa roled out 5-1 winners with 2 goals from Ashley Young, 2 from Big Bad John Carew and one from Gaby Agbonalahor. The whole game was a bit of a blur for me, as Derby games tend to be, although the serious drinking (of champagne) didn't get started until after the match, so I've been re-living it here: http://www.1000goals.com/aston-villa-vs-birmingham-highlights In Ukraine it was a good week for Kyiv's clubs with Milevskiy scoring twice and Shatskhi another against Naftovik away. Arsenal pulled off a surprise victory beating Dnipro 2-1 on Friday afternoon, with Selezinov scoring

Let's get one thing straight, Villa and Blues haven't always been the biggest rivals, as Villa's traditional rivals have been West Brom up until recent times. When I was growing up Villa were hardly ever in the same division, so the hatred was pretty one way coming from Small Heath. At the time Villa's main local rivals always seemed to be Coventry, and although it didn't feel like a Derby to the Villa fans it certainly was seen as such by the Coventry fans. That was all to change when Blues came up in 2002-2003, when things got really nasty on and off the pitch. In this season Blues won both games 3-0 at the sty and 2-0 at Villa Park, and the only highlight for Villa was seeing Dublin nut Savage (see picture above), and even he got sent off. in fact the first few year's of Blues return to the Premier League were not happy ones for Villa with the games ending in draws (0-0 and 2-2) the following season and Blues winning both encounters in 2004-2005 (2-1 and 2-0)

I wouldn't have minded some lower league stuff this weekend, but I wasn't aware that there was any on Saturday, until after I had agreed to work on that day. I already knew that Arsenal were playing Dnipro on Friday, so that ruled me out. It looks like I might have to console myself with watching the Birmingham Derby in the pub and plotting some stuff for the week off that's coming up and Big Phil's football frenzy in May and June. I also feel gutted at the moment about Tolya writing to me inviting me to the cup final, which will be between Dynamo and Shakhtar, just for a change and knowing that I won't be able to go. He also mentioned the UEFA cup, which Metalist are now sure of a place in, again mid-week games and it doesn't look like Villa will be in it. All in all it has not been a good day in general, and my mood is getting worse

Last week we had a look at a football player with a band named after him, now let's have a look at a football team with a band named after them. Saint Etienne, the band are Bob Stanley, Peter Wiggs and Sarah Cracknell. Stanley and Wiggs had been friends at school in Croydon and had made music together there. However, it wasn't really until 1988 that Saint Etienne were formed as a band. They signed to Heavenly in 1988 and released their debut album, Fox Base Alpha in 1990. They had already had success in nightclubs with their debut single Only Love Can Break Your Heart, which I remember was still a favourite in the Hacienda in 1991, and this album added to their popularity. Their concept was to be a band that fused 60's London pop with the Italo House style that was popular at the time. They did this with some success on Fox Base Alpha and their second album So Tough , to much critical acclaim. However on Tiger Bay , their 3rd album they changed their style and lost a lot

On Saturday I went to the match between Dynamo and Tavriya with Andriy and Asya, it was the first time it had been just us 3 at a match since Dynamo beat Newcastke in the Champions League. This was obviously a long time ago as the thought of Newcastle playing in the Champions League and Dynamo actually winning a game in it feels like a distant memory. Things might be about to change at least in Kyiv, although probably not on Tyneside, if recent performances are anything to go by. Out have gone oldies, such as Bielkevich, Gavrancic and Rebrov and some of the more useless signings like Markovic and in have come emerging youngsters like Aliev and Kravets. It seems that Semin could really be the man to change Dynamo's fortunes around. It should be remembered that Dynamo are the reigning champions, but in the first half of this season there were several lacklustre performances. They are now top of the league, but going into the winter break were in third and didn't really show any p

Ivan Campo is a Spanish footballer and a music group from the North West of England. The group play music which is often called nu folk or folktronica. Their influences include Devendra Banhart, Arcade Fire and The Coral. They also state that one of their influences is one of my favourite writers, Haruki Murakami. To me they sound a bit like I am Kloot mixed with Tunng. Good stuff indeed. They have written 50 songs since 2003, which are collected in the mythical Book of Campodia, or so they say. Either way getting hold of their stuff apart from what is on their My Space page is a bit of a nightmare, unfortunately. Ivan Campo the footballer was born in San Sebastian in 1974, he started his career at Deportivo Alaves and remained there for 2 and a half years. He was then sold to Valencia, but spent most of his time on loan, first to Vallodolid and then to Mallorca. He then signed for Real Madrid, where he won the Champions League in 1998, before going on loan to Bolton in 2002. He was ex

There' s no pleasing some people is there? A lot has been made of the FA Cup being devalued in recent years, with many people citing when Man U decided to take part in the World Club Championhips instead of the FA Cup in 1999 to 2000 as one of the main reason for this. Then they moaned about the competition becoming too boring as the big four dominated it in the last few years and the competition becoming too predictable. Then, this season we have had giant killing aplenty, with non-league Chasetown knocking out Port Vale and Barnsley disposing of both Liverpool and Chelsea, and now they aren't happy because no big teams are involved in the final. In my opinion Portsmouth, who are in 7th,afterall v Cardiff is a throw back to when the FA Cup was more fun. I used to love the FA Cup as a kid and wanted Villa to win it more than I wanted them to win the League, although maybe that was because I am lucky enough to remember Villa winning the League, something I doubt I will see again

This week's visitors to Kyiv will be Tavriya who take on Dynamo on Saturday evening. At the moment Tavriya are celebrating their 50th anniversary, although they were formed from the old club Lokomotiv. Their nickname translates as the Crimeans, which is pretty apt, as the autonomous republic only has 2 other professional teams, lower division Igro Servis and Krimteplytsa, who were formed only in 1999, and despite starting the season well in the 1st League, have now faded from being promotion contenders. Tavriya hold the record of being the first club to win the Ukrainian League in 1992, and remain the only club to have won it other than Shakhtar and Dynamo. After this initial victory in the league they have faltered, though, usuallly finishing mid-table. Last season they finished 5th, which is just outside the positions needed to compete in Europe. This was their highest finish since 1993-4, when they also finished in 5th. They look set to repeat this feet this season, as they see

Here's Kosyryn's second. I wasn't far from where he runs to, unfortunately his celebration is cut short on this video

Here's that goal from Saturday.

Saturday started off as the perfect day for football, the sun was shining, there was a light breeze in the air and it seemed as if Spring had arrived in Kyiv. That was up until 2 minutes before kick off when it started to rain, which developed into a full scale storm by half time. Luckily it was yet another excellent game with goals a plenty. The first goal came on 3 minutes for Metalurh from Fernandes, but that was soon cancelled out on 10 minutes when Bangoura scored yet another goal. Strangely, not long after he was substituted, as was the other forward Kravets. Bangoura gave his shirt to some kid in the crowd, which was a pretty good present. There has been a debate on the Dynamo site recently about who should play up front for Dynamo, and it seems in this game Semin decided to try all his options out, as Bangoura and Kravets were replaced by the promising youngster Aliev and the once promising youngster, but usually pedestrian, Artem Milevskiy and later in the game Shatskih was al

More music and football. Cruyff in the Bedroom are a Japanese Shoegaze band, who many people believe were heavily influenced by My Bloody Valentine, but who in my opinion have a much wider dimension to their music. They were formed in Shimikitizowa in 1998, which was the same year that Japan held the World Cup jointly with Korea. I don't know why they chose this name for the band, but we can safely assume that it was influenced by the former Dutch player, Johan Cruyff. I think that they are probably football fans, as one of their early EPs, Shoegazer of Happy Valley, featured a picture of a football pitch on the cover. Their debut album was Perfect Silence, which was released in 2002(see link below). Since then they have continued to release more music and are responsible for the only feedback club nights in their home town and the Only Feedback record label. Johan Cruyff is obviously one of the biggest names in World football, from 1964 - 1973 he spearheaded the Ajax team who won

I was walking in the park above Dynamo stadium a week ago, and looking at the seats with 1927 written on them, and I was thinking that that isn't that old. It then occured to me that I couldn't remember how football had started in Ukraine. It isn't that long a story as it happens, although there are stories of impromptu kick-abouts in various places, especially in Odessa, where British sailors would turn up with a football the first official match on Ukrainian territory wasn't until 1894. It took place in Lviv, which at the time was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The game was organised as part of an exhibition by Sokil Sports Club and featured a team from Lviv and one from Krakow. It was decided that the game would be played until the first goal was scored, so it only lasted 6 minutes, with the team from Lviv winning. It was obviously a good springboard, as after that teams from Lviv won titles in the Polish and the Hungarian Leagues. Surprisingly Lviv's most

..... or Metallurg Donetsk in Russian ( see what I mean about the spelling nightmares?) The very name summons up images of those great Soviet teams that were formed for working men, like Lokomotiv and Torpedo Moscow, Shakhtar Donetsk and Metalist Kharkiv. So it will come as a surprise that the club has no such history. The club has its roots in Antrasyt Kirovske, who after the formation of the Ukrainian League started off in the 3rd division. In 1993 they finished 3rd and were promoted to the second division. They moved to Shahtarsk and became Medita Shahtarsk. 2 years later they became Metalurh and the rest is recent history. They survive on pretty low crowds, as Shakhtar are their neighbours and they haven't really been able to get any of the casual support in the town, unlike Arsenal in Kyiv and like FK Kharkiv. In fact, so much so that a few years ago the club actually paid people to go to away games and support the team, which didn't make them many friends, particularly at

I have just noticed that I have been spelling Shakhtar as both Shakhtar and Shakhter. The reason is the first variant is the transcription from Ukrainian, which is used in most official documents and on websites, where as Shakhter is the transcription from Russian, as used by Komanda and the club's fans. Changing the writing from cyrillic to latin letters is always a headache, and I don't even know the real spelling of some of the foreign players in the Vische Liha, due to only ever seeing their names written in cyrillic. The Ukrainian dimension also leads to further headaches, as when they write names using the latin alphabet there seems to be about 20 more 'y's than you would expect. Is it Kyiv or Kiev and Krivoy Rog or Kryvyy Rih? I think I need to make a decision here somewhere along the line. I'll probably write Shakhtar as Shakhtar from now on, but leave the tag as Shakhter and try to keep to the Ukrainian variant with other names. Mind you I'm not alone,