football rambles

I have to admit the rise of Knyazha Shaslive completly passed me by. In my defence they play in the second league, which usually has midweek fixtures and despite their name have moved to Boryspil, which is 40km from Kyiv. In fact I probably wouldn't have visited their game last week if the premier league hadn't finished early due to the Euros. Well, why would I? Both Arsenal and Dynamo play at stadiums within walking distance of my flat afterall. It's also easy to be a bit cynical about Knyazha, they were formed in 2005 and formed in the village of Shaslive, which had been devoid of football since Obolon got their new ground, their second team moved to Boridyanka amd CSKA 2 became effectively CSKA. In their original press release there is no mention of the Knyazha Finance Group, who are part of a much bigger Austrian Company being involved, which is indeed suspicious. I initially assumed it was the vodka company of the same name, as this type of sponsorship is one way that ...

Obolon are sponsored by a brewery and Desna come from Chernihiv that is famous for its brewery, so guess what yesterday's pre, during and post-match entertainment included? Yep, beer and lots of it. There was no poncey kashtanchik, no go-go girls, just good honest ale. which was just aswell, as although the game was billed as a promotion challenging match it was rather disappointing. To be fair Desna brought a lot of fans who made a lot of noise and dominated for most of the game. However, it was Obolon who went ahead on the 38th minute and then who finished the game off with a penalty early on in the second half. The weather was sunny and it was probably Obolon's biggest crowd of the season, but for some unknown reason only a few big wigs were allowed in the main stand. We eventually got programmes, although I think we annoyed Tatarchuk in the process and we did get to meet ex-CSKA legend and now member of Desna, Mamadi Sangare. Ex-Dynamo and Ukrainian National Team manager Jo...

Obolon's opponents today are Chernihiv Desna, unfortunately unlike most of the other teams I have written a focus on they have quite an unremarkable history. In fact one of the most important facts is that when they were formed in 1960 they had a young goalkeeper known as Viktor Bannikov between the posts. He later became one of the best goalkeepers in the USSR and was a visionary when he was a director of the Football Federation of Ukraine. His influence was so great that now the training pitches for the underage Internationals (and sometime venues) are named after him at the House of Football. There is also a tournament named after him. for more details see some previous posts: http://footballrambles.blogspot.com/2008/03/bannikov-training-complex-and-house-of.html http://footballrambles.blogspot.com/2008/03/entrance-to-bannikov-training-complex.html http://footballrambles.blogspot.com/2008/03/house-of-football-and-banniko.html Anyway, as I was saying Desna have not had the most g...

Although I am biased to CSKA I wondered how the 2 experiences of the weekend matched up against each other, and will try to remain disinterested: The Football Unfortunately, there is no competition here, Knyazha are on an upward march and CSKA are on a downward spiral. We were happy to chat during the CSKA game, but the Knyazha match held our attention from beginning to end CSKA 0 Knyazha 1 The Stadium Although Chapaevka holds a certain charm it's still a training camp and has plastic pitches. The ground at Boryspil is fit for the Premier League and the seats are in a lot better condition than at most Vische Liha grounds. CSKA 0 Knyazha 2 The Fans The CSKA fans are a bunch of nutters and have some misguided views, but they are friendly, know their football and get behind their team. One Knyazha fan actually asked us which team was Knyazha, which would have been daft enough even if it didn't have it written on their shirts. CSKA 1 Knyazha 2 The Atmosphere The CSKA boys made some...

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 o...

The term in England is associated with FC United and Wimbledon, in Ukraine it can easily be applied to CSKA Kyiv. Whereas the term in England seems to convey a bunch of idiots who think they invented non-league football and who have a God given right to have promotion every year the Ukrainian model is somewhat different. Yeterday, me and Phil travelled to Chapaevka to see CSKA take on PFK Sevastapol. In 2001 they were flying high in the top half of the Vishe Liha, doing well in Europe and playing in their own stadium, yesterday they were playing at Dynamo's training ground and were relegated to the third level. It wasn't all doom and gloom though, unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries so I don't have any pictures, but the place is quite eye catching. There are 3 pitches with stands for people to watch the football from set in an ancient forest and the skyline yesterday was indeed dramatic. There's also a shop next to the ground and over the road a restaurant that...

Sevastapol is a complicated city and so is its football history. For most of the period when the Soviet Union was in existence it was a closed city, due to the fact that it was the country's ship building and naval base. It became Ukrainian when The Crimea was given to Ukraine by Krushcev, but it has always seen itself as a Russian city. This is true of most of the Crimea, but even more so of Sevastapol, perhaps because it is also geographically the closest city in the region to Russia. It has led to political problems up to the present day, infact only last week Yuri Luzhkov, the mayor of Moscow became persona non gratis in Ukraine for suggesting that the city was Russian. Well, their team plays in the Ukrainian League, so they must be Ukrainian in my opinion. However, the history of football in the city mirrors the complicated nature of the region itself. According to the official website the history of football in Sevastapol began in 1912 when the Russian Football Union was form...