Obolon Overdose




Obolon played Dnipro Cherkasy on Sunday needing a win to stay in the chase for promotion to the Vishe, soon to be renamed and rebranded as the Premier League. The game was exciting enough, with Cherkasy trying their best to spoil the party in much the same way Vorskla attempted to when they played Dynamo at the end of the Vishe Liha's season. In fact the first 20 minutes were all Dnipro, so much so that Obolon made a couple of early substitutions in an attempt to put some bite back in their attack. The result was a fairly balanced game for the most part with both team's forwards squandering chance after chance. It was difficult to imagine why Cherkasy were just above the relegation places and on 75 minutes they went ahead with a brilliantly well taken goal drilled in from the right wing. Finally Obolon woke from their slumber and 4 minutes later they drew level with another well taken goal. This prompted a last 10 minutes of wave after wave of attack and dive after dive in the area. However, Dnipro stayed cool (sort of) and the ref remained icy cool, despite several penalty appeals and pressure being put upon him from squad members standing behind the goal. They didn't get the goal they craved in the end and the game finished 1-1. Luckily for them they were let off the hook as it transpired that FK Lviv had lost 1-0, leaving Obolon trailing them by 2 points.


The experience wasn't so enjoyable this time, although the football was of a high level. There were several incidents that left us leaving short changed. I don't want to sound like a moaning ex-pat or a fan of a certain non-league club that I can't mention for the risk of receiving abusive E-Mails ( I wasn't even aware that people read this crap), but really the Obolon officials need a bit of a kick up the pants. Firstly there was their point blank refusal to give us programmes, despite the fact that they had a big bag full and were handing them out to even the police on duty and alcoholics who had just wandered into the ground, for some reason we were deemed not worthy. The worst thing was just the blatant lying that they had none, as they handed some out with the other hand. The big nose stadium official and his pomposity has annoyed me in the past, especially as he seems to provoke the fans of opposition teams with his deployment and instructions to the police. The Cherkasy fans were peaceful, but this was definitely the case in the games against Desna and CSKA. Then there is the big stand, what is the point of it? It is now complete, has a safety certificate, but everyone is crammed in the near side while a few major shareholders of the brewery and their hangers -on occupy the main stand. At this game roughly 1200 on the small near side and 10 in the main stand. Again this matter was worse when the crowd is bigger, but was bad enough today. Mind you, maybe this is understandable when you see the state of the crowd, quite a number seemed to have been on a 3 day bender and didn't seem to know who they were never mind that they were in the stadium. You have to wonder what is going on when people leave a game 10 minutes early when it is 1-1 and the home team desperately need a goal. Then there are the toilets, which are portacabins that usually overflow, so you have to wade through piss to get out of the stadium. I don't know why I have suddenly noticed this, maybe it's because the Stadium Manager winds me up so much, maybe it's because I hadn't even had a pint or maybe it's because Obolon are usually a side attraction to the top league teams rather than the main attraction as they have been for the last few weeks, or maybe just because Tatarchuk is usually there to smooth over the edges. Anyway, despite Phil's protestations about going to Dynamo 2 next time, we'll probably be back for the last home game of the season.


After the game we met up with the Arsenal lads in Bochka for the Germany v Poland game and a good time was had by all, although my sleep deprivation during the Euros has already began. I watched Holland thump Italy last night despite getting home after 1 am on Sunday in a taxi with 4 other people, that was even more crammed than Obolon's second stand.
Notes on photos:
Top- The teams lin up at the start of the game.
Middle- Cherkasy celebrate going 1-0 up
Bottom- Yet another last ditch attempt to find a winner by Obolon

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