The Other Side of Football





If Saturday's trip to Chapaevka was all about disenfranchised football, tjhen the trip to Boryspil to see Knyazha take on Veres Rivne represented the other side of the coin.


Knyazha Shaslive started out in the village of shaslive in 2005 and have been heavily bank-rolled by the Vienna Insurance Group. They are now at the top of division 2 A and will take part in the first division, probably at the expense of CSKA next season.


The whole match experience was in sharp contrast to the CSKA game on Saturday. CSKA play in a modern area out of the town, Knyazha play in a stadium that is good enough for the Premier League, and indeed was used in the Premier League by Borysfen, before they went bankrupt last year in a town which is still remeniscent of the Soviet Period. CSKA have loyal fans and Borysfen rent fans from wherever possible.


As for the football, Knyazha are a very good team for this level they played an entertaining brand of football with fluid passing and were unlucky to win only 1-0. Veres didn't really create any chances at all, but were kept in the game by their maverick goalkeeper, who not only managed to keep the ball out of the net, but also to psyche the Knyazha forwards out.
Notes on photos from top to bottom:
A statue of Lenin: Quite unusual to see nowadays in the ex-Soviet Union, but one of many of the past relics of the Soviet Union in this town
The entrance to the stadium 'Kolos'
Where the visiting VIPs sit
Spot the ball: Yet another corner for Knyazha that is cleared by the Veres keeper.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Boca Juniors shirt history

Image
The first game that I will be at on Sunday sees Boca Juniors take on Paris Saint Germain. I have always wanted to go and see Boca Juniors and I can't see me getting over to Argentina any time in the near future, so I am going to have to make do with seeing them in North London. On my travels I have met plenty of Boca fans, but funnily enough they have all been Russian or Ukrainian. I am a bit disappointed that Martin Palermo has now retired, but I am still looking forward to it. Obviously to do justice to the club history of Boca Juniors I'd probably have to write a book, so here's a quick history of their kit and colours instead. When Boca were formed in 1905 they originally played in pink, but obviously came round to thinking that this was a bad idea and changed to a light blue colour later in the year. They didn't stick with this shirt for very long either and for the 3rd time in a year decided to change the shirt colour, this time to black and white stripes. The fol
Read more

shirt history AS Roma

Image
Roma were the club that I followed in Italy and although they are most famous for wearing red and yellow, hence the nickname giallo rosso the club didn't always wear those colours. AS Roma were formed in 1927 by a merger between SS Alba-Audace and Fortitudo-Pro Roma SGS with Italo Foschi being the driving force behind the merger. AS Roma could also trace their lineage back to FBC Roma who were formed in 1901 and who wore red and yellow, but the first shirts they wore took the red, white and blue of Fortitudo-Pro Roma. Roma soon established themselves at the top table of Italian football and in 1931 finished runners up to Juventus and by now had settled on red and yellow as their colours. However, you'll have to take my word for it because the picture below shows Attilio Ferraris in black and white. In 1942 Roma went one better and won their first Scudetto with Amadeo Amadei scoring 18 goals to help them secure the title. Pictured below he is wearing the change shirt with a repl
Read more

Sud Tribune, Dortmund

Image
The Sud Tribune at Westfalen is famed for the noise and support that it gives the BVB team. They started up early and carried on until well after the match had finished despite the poor result. At the end the team looked suitably disappointed when they thanked the fans. Nobody apart from the Hannover fans probably expected 96 to win. Hopefully better times for the Sud Tribune are just around the corner.
Read more