Kill Your Television


Things are hotting up in the lower divisions with just 4 games left in the first and second division. CSKA take on Illichevets today, but I'll be at work. The next game I'll be able to go to is Obolon v Dnipro Cherkasy on Sunday.


There was no live football this weekend, so I was out in the sticks, which isn't my favourite place to be, to be honest. We came back to Kyiv on sunday morning and I was tempted by the Beach Football in Hydro Park, but the inclement weather put me off. One of the strange things is that Ukraine are quite adept at beach football. I say strange, as obviously Ukraine isn't exactly known for its sun, sea and samba. The Crimea might be famous in the former USSR, but even there all the beaches are pebbles.


In the evening I watched Ukraine v Sweden on TV. Mikhailechenko put out a young team and there was no Shevchenko, Tymoschuk or Voronin, but quite a few of the youngsters got a go. I was particularly glad to see Arsenal favourite Evgen Seleznev ( I know I can't settle on a correct spelling for him in English) get a start. Unfortunately after heading the scoring charts at Arsenal all season it looks like he's been called back to shakhtar, where he'll probably be warming the bench with a hell of a lot of Ukrainian talent. Anyway, the winner was scored by Nazarenko, a spectacular goal infact 7 minutes before the end.


Talking of football on TV, and in general I don't like to because I don't like armchair fandom. There has been a debate amongst the top teams lately about how to make televised football more appealing to fans, well Nash Futbol on the First Channel doesn't seem to have a clue. You might think out of season and no rights to the national team they might pull the plug on it for a week at least. Some of it was interesting, there was more information on Knyazha's work for charidee, and some beach football, but the main part was taken up by a report on all the Ukrainian professional players who had been killed in traffic accidents, depressing watching indeed. There was also a bit on the Euros, which kick off on Saturday.


My favourites for the competition are Germany, they seem to have the strongest team and almost have home advantage. I also think Spain will do better than usual, as they have finally got rid of the eternal troublemaker Raul and have players who can mix it up a bit. At every major tournament though I start off by watching every game and then OD by the time the important games come around. I think I'll try pacing myself this time.
The photo shows Evgen Seleznev taking on Olaf Mellberg in the tie between Ukraine and Sweden. Two players I have a lot of time for

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