football rambles

Metalist are one of my favourite clubs in ukraine. they are a proper club with proper fans. I first came across them when they played CSKA in Kyiv in June 2001 and lost 1-0. The thing about the game that stuck in my mind though was the number of fans Metalist brought to Kyiv and at the time merchandisng in ukraine virtually didn't exist, however all of the Metalist fans had yellow shirts with Metalist on the front and Narodna Komanda ( The People's Team on the back. My next encounter was 11 months later when I had to go to Kharkiv for work and decided to contact the fans on their forum. This was how I met Vasya and Han and how this website was eventually born. The game was fairly poor, a 0-0 draw with Kryvbas, but I couldn't forget the passion and the hospitality of the fans there and I was really glad to return last March for the game against Vorskla. Dynamo will take on Metalist this weekend and finally I have an excuse to write a club focus on them. The club that is n

Shakhtar are really not popular in the West of Ukraine, mainly for political reasons, so they were probably glad to get their 2 games in Lviv out of the way. However, after losing to FK Lviv on the first day of the season and drawing with Karpaty at the weekend they have not had the best start to the season. Already, they have dropped valuable points in what looks like being an exciting season

Are Knyazha the most environmentally friendly team in ukraine or is Jim bowen their manager and only gives them their BFH (Bus Fair Home) when they lose? Either way you don't often see professional footballers travelleing home by public transport. The 3 lads in this picture all play for Knyazha, unfortunately I missed their game against Obolon, which they lost 2-1 on sunday, but spotted them travelling home from the game on the underground. Knyazha have lost their first 2 games since getting promoted, but at the same time they have had a relatively tough start playing away to yo-yo club Zakaparpattya, who just came down from the premier and a local derby against the perennially 3rd placed Obolon

Blogger wouldn't allow me to put the video on here, but the highlights can be seen here: http://101greatgoals.magnify.net/item/QQSF6K6QW705M10T

Yesterday Arsenal played Kryvbas and as usual it was a draw, although this time there were a few goals at least. Arsenal had most of the play in both halves of the match, but looked a little lightweight up front. vovo Lisi aka Volodymyr Lysenko scored in the 4oth minute to put Arsenal ahead and we were ecstatic, as we were so shocked that a goal had been scored in this fixture. That shocked that Ewig made me take a picture of the scoreboard to prove it wasn't an optical illusion. The lead was short lived though, as Arsenal scored just before half-time and then just as the second half started Kryvbas equalised through a goal that took a wicked deflection and looped over Reva's head into the goal. Arsenal really should have won this game, as the midfield totally outplayed Kryvbas and they managed to hit the inside of the post and the crossbar. However, on several ocassions they were guilty of trying to walk the ball into the net and midfield breakaways ended in nothing as there w

Champions League - You're having a laugh! The team that will play Dynamo Kyiv in the second qualifying round of the Champions League this season are Ireland's Drogheda United. Qualifying games tend to lack the pomp and glamour of the group stages, but I'v enjoyed previous qualifying games when Neftchi Baku played Shiroki Bereg of Bosnia and Dynamo took on Trabzonspor. This time it's the turn of Trabzonspor's sister club Drogheda. Drogheda got through a difficult first round qualifying game against Levadia, who at this moment are leading the Estonian League. It is only their second trip to Europe, last year they qualified for the UEFA Cup and beat HJK Helsinki 4-2 on aggregate in the first qualifying round before going out to FC Start of Norway on penalties in the second. Drogheda United were formed in 1919 and were always a non-league club. In 1962 another club from Drogheda, Drogheda FC were elected to the League of Ireland and in 1975 both clubs were joined togeth

I was surprised to see that Arsenal's game against Kryvbas on Saturday may be played at Bannikov. This seems strange, as Obolon were told it was too small for the Vishe Liha nevermind the new Premier League. I'm pretty sure that the game will be moved to Dynamo, but the fact that they are even considering it seems to suggest that relations between Arsenal and Dynamo have deteriorated and that the Premier League might be full of the double standards that have plagued Ukrainian football. After all the Premier League was the brain child of the Presidents of Arsenal and FK Kharkiv with Shakhtar and Dynamo allegedly joining in because they were sick of fines from the PFL. Either way it looks like I won't be able to go to the game, as I have a lot of work commitments this weekend, so I am hoping that the game won't be at Bannikov, as one of my last unfulfilled ambitions regarding watching Ukrainian football is to see a game at this stadium, well a meaningful one at least. Hop

I have always disliked lotto shirts. For some reason they look like the cheap copies you buy in Turkey or used to be on sale at Respublikansky market. Arsenal are supposed to wear red and blue, but over the years have worn plain red, white or blue kits. The new shirts look a bit weird to me. They might have looked good on the beach at Odessa last week, but I doubt they'll be a big seller. 10/10 for originality, at least it doesn't have the usual solar stripes a la the national team, but it still has thos annoying red patches on the sleeves that all Lotto shirts have. Maybe I'll like it when I get used to it, but some how I doubt it. In the picture Vitaliy Mandzyuk wears the kit in last week's victory at Chernomorets

Sunday was my birthday, but I didn't manage to get to Obolon v Prikarpattya, as the game for some reason was postponed until September 4th. The biggest shock of the opening week of the season was premier league new boys FK Lviv beating Shakhtar 2-0. Of the local clubs Arsenal managed a very respectable away win at Chernomorets Odessa, CSKA drew at home with Desna 2 (how depressing is that) and Knyazha who went up to the first division lost 2-0 to Zakarpattya who went to the first from the opposite direction.

Milevskiy makes it 2-0

Taras Mykhalyk (as the official website spells it) puts Dynamo 1 up in the second minute. When it was announced that it was the quickest goal in league history. I presume they were having a laugh, as this was the first match of the new Ukrainian Premier League

At the weekend the all new Ukrainian Premier League kicked off and I went to see Dynamo take on Illychivets, and despite shouty bloke on the tannoy getting all excited about it and the game kicking off with the national anthem being played (Dynamo actually started with 6 Ukrainians on the pitch) it was really hard to notice the difference. The crowd was low, celebrity loser Paramon was annoying the police dogs and the majority of the fans were more interested in semechki than football. In fact the only real difference was that the dugouts had been kitted out with comfy chairs like the ones Real Madrid have. As for the football, that was also as predicted. Mikhailyk put Dynamo ahead in the second minute and then Dynamo continued with a bombardment of the Illychivets goal without actually looking like reall putting the boot in. Bangoura was back in action and he had a lot of chances, but shots that would have been flying in in the first half of last season seemed to be attracted to the g

It's been a long time since I did one of these. The last one was a couple of months ago, whereas that one was full of happy go lucky songs this one is a bit more melancholy and in places angry anyway here's the track list. 1. Help She Can't Swim - Fermez La Bouche This comes from the band's debut album from 2004. Unfortunately they split up recently, if you like BYOP you're bound to like them. 2. The Seahorses - Happiness Is Egg Shaped John Squire's post Stone Roses band from the Brit Pop era hammering out some melodic guitar music 3. Mogwai - Portfolio Taken from the Scottish Post-Rockers 1997 album Young Team which was recently re-released in the US 4. The Manhattan Love Suicides- Kick it Back A band heavily influenced by C86 who still sound up to date 5. The Shortwave Set - The Downer Song Taken from the indie popsters recent album 6. Spiritualized - Don't Hold Me Close Taken from the ex- Spacemen 3's recent album Songs in A&E 7. Teenage Filmstars

I have been continuing my somewhat pointless interest in new shirts for this season and there seems to be another development in that clubs seem intent on celebrating anything. A couple of years ago there was the new trend of putting stars on shirts for any minor victory. This was obviously copied from Italy where it actually makes sense. Milan and Inter have a star for 10 Scudetti and Juventus for 2 for 20, but I have no idea why some other clubs have added stars, so it might come as no surprise that clubs are celebrating anything. This season Nike have made a copy of the 1989 Arsenal away shirt that was made by Adidas and even featured a shirt with Rocastle on the back at the launch. OK, it was a great victory 20 years ago at Anfield, but haven't Arsenal won a few things since? Nottingham Forest have also brought out a shirt celebrating 30 years since they won the European Cup back to back. This is perhaps a bit more understandable, as it is doubtful they will win the Champions L

Another strange thing about the Super Cup was that they chose to use a foreign referee for the match. I don't know why this was, but one of the aims of the new Premier League was to stop biased refereeing, so this may account for it. However, there are a lot of ironies at play here: 1. Shakhtar and Dynamo seem to profit the most from biased refereeing in general. 2. They chose quite a controversial referee in the German, Wolfgang Stark, for this match. To be fair the ref had a pretty decent game and didn't give any daft fouls or cards and allowed the game to flow despite a lot of diving in the box by both teams. May be he has calmed down a bit, as in 2004 he gave 3 red cards in a Champions League match between Celtic and Barcelona. Most controversial of all was when he officiated a game in the Under 20 World cup between Chile and Argentina in 2007. In this game he booked 7 of the Chile players and sent another 2 of them off. After the game the Chilean players had to be restrain

I was watching the Super Cup on TV the other night ( Shakhtar incidentally won on penalties) and I noticed that Evgen Selznev was playing fior Shakhtar and I also think I noticed Yarmash in the Dynamo squad. Despite them both being young Ukrainian stars who will probably go on to do well for the national team, both of them spent most of last season on loan. Seleznev was on loan to Arsenal and Yarmash to Vorskla. The thing that struck me was that where as in England Scott Carson ,when at Aston Villa wasn't allowed to play against Liverpool and similarly when Jermaine Defoe was on loan to Portsmouth he wasn't allowed to play against Spurs. However both Seleznev and Yarmash were permitted to play (and scored) against the clubs that owned them. Seleznev put in a spirited performance against Shakhtar, although Arsenal ultimately lost 4-2 and Yarmash almost ruined Dynamo's title hopes by putting Vorskla ahead in spectacular fashion near the end of the season. Dynamo ultimately

Sunday is my birthday and Obolon will take on Prikarpattya in a re-match of last season's double-header when Obolon won 2-0. Prikarpattya at the moment are really Fakel Ivano Frankivsk, but it has been decreed that only the best team in the town will have the title Prikarpattya. Fakel took on this mantle when it was bestowed upon them by the mayor nearly exactly a year ago on 17th July 2007. Last season they finished just above the drop zone in 17th place, so obviously the competition for the title of being called Prikarpattya isn't that high. The club who were previously known as Prikarpattya were Spartak Ivano Frankivsk, who went into liquidation after losing their sponsors Lukoil (who have also poured loads of money into Spartak Moscow over the years). Whoever seems to take on the mantle of Prykarpattya seems to also gain a pretty big fan base and they should bring quite a few fans with them, despite the 13 hour train journey.

I don't know why, but I've been paying quite a bit of attention to the new shirts coming out for clubs in the upcoming season. It might be because there is nothing else for a football fan to do at the moment other than look at transfer rumours, and to be honest I am sick and tired of hearing about Ronaldo and Barry and which world Class star Man City are going to sign this week (having said that they probably will get Ronaldinho now). So it is nice to see some clubs dumping the sponsorship on their shirts from some on-line gambling site or major brewery in order to promote a bit of charity. Obviously Barcelona, who have always been aginst sponsorship on their shirts started the ball rolling a couple of years back with their association with Unicef. Then last season Ajax joined with Dance 4 Life. This season has seen Aston Villa join up with the kids' charity Acorns and Brondby also do a deal with unicef. Sheffield United will be wearing and selling shirts for and with the s

Well that must go down as the shortest break in football ever, but the new super Premier League kicks off next week, with unless a miracle happens me going to watch Dynamo v Illychivets and hopefully the chance of a birthday match with Obolon on Sunday, although the games might clash. Also early on in the season Knyazha take on Obolon in Boryspil, so it should be a fairly interesting start to the season. The curtain raiser for the season takes part with the Super Cup being played between shakhtar and Dynamo (who else?) in Poltava on wednesday. Platini was in town this week and it spurred a bit more deassembling work to the shopping centre outside Respublikansky and a few more seats were taken out of the stadium. So I suppose Arsenal will be back to playing at Dynamo fairly soon. whether the work will continue now the fat French one has gone remains to be seen. At least the Polish have come out and said that they will continue to work with Ukraine in an official statement, despite growi

Joining Illychivets in the Super new Premier League are FK Lviv and as I wrote in the article below they have exactly the same kits as Knyazha (or Kniazha as it is usually written in English letters, but just doesn't look right to me). It would appear that the similarities don't end there. Both clubs are owned by Kniazha Vienna Insurance group and the rise of both clubs share some startling resemblances. Both clubs were formed roughly 3 years ago with Knyazha ultimately taking the place of Borisfen as a Kyiv oblast team. They are still called Knyazha Shaslive, but now play at Borisfen's old stadium. FK Lviv, on the other hand took the place of Lviv Oblast team FK Hazovyk - Skala Stryi. There was a club previously called FK Lviv, but they went bankrupt in 2002 and are not related. Knyazha were probably earmarked to play at a new stadium in Shaslive, which has now been given to local kids before the stadium in Boryspil had become available. Lviv, play in a specially made stad

Now don't get me wrong, but I'm against the callous marketing of football shirts that goes on, such as Man United bringing out a new shirt for Christmas (as they have in the past) or Borussia Dortmund's ridiculous number of shirts that they brought out last season, but Ukraine perhaps represents the other extreme. The new Premier League is supposedly being started up in order for the clubs to make more of marketing opportunities, well that is one of the aims. In the past the only place to buy a Dynamo shirt was a fake one off Petrivka market, for example. Some of the clubs were even kitting out their players in fake shirts. I know for a fact that when Obolon were in the premier their Nike shirts were actually fakes too. At the same time about 6 or 7 years ago nearly every club had a bog standard adidas kit, so any derivation was interesting. If we fast forward to 2008 it still seems that most of the clubs are lingering in their chances to catch up on the marketing front. Dy

I was thinking of going to see Chernomorets take on Arsenal in Odessa for the first game of the season, but it looks more realistic that I'll be watching Dynamo take on the newly promoted Illychivets. After a solitary season in the first division Illychivets are back in the top division. The previous 10 seasons up until last season they had competed in the Vische Liha and were known as Metalurh Mariupol until the winter break of 2002-2003, although before debuting in the Vische Liha they went under the guise of Azovets Mariupol. The first time that I saw them play was in October 2000, when they lost 2-0 to Dynamo, I suspect the result will be similar this time. Up until getting relegated in 2007 they were a steady mid-table team, although they also had some fairly good cup runs and also managed to finish in 4th twice and 5th twice, and also enjoyed a brief run in the UEFA Cup in 2005. Strangely the season before relegation, in 2005- 2006 was probably their most successful, as they