Ukrainian Premier Soccer league Review

Champions League and UEFA candidates:

Dynamo Kiev



I believe everybody is familiar with Dynamo, but if you are not - shame on you! Dynamo's influence in Ukraine has always been enormous and so far only Shaktar have managed to compete with Kiev's giants. However, the team’s success in Ukraine didn’t help much in the Champions League. The 2007/2008 season demonstrated the inability of the team to compete against the top European sides. Dynamo lost all six group games and conceded nineteen goals.

This season is going much better and Dynamo have improved its results in the Champions League as well. Unfortunately, they didn’t qualify for a knock-out stage, but third place and UEFA Cup participation can be considered as progress.

To conclude, I can say that Dynamo are 99.9% certain of being champions of the 2008/2009 season. I am completely sure that any team won’t be able to steal their first position.


Metallist



Metallist’s domestic and European success is due, in the most part, to the coaching talent of Miron Markevic. The team is competing with Shakhtar Donetsk for second place which gives a chance to play in the third Qualifying stage of the Champions League. I think Metallist will finish in third place by the end of the season. It is exhausting for the players to play in the UEFA Cup and in the Premier League – they simply are not used to this pace unlike Dynamo or Shakhtar.


FC Metalurg Donetsk



The second Donetsk team doesn’t have a strong fan base, but the financing is solid. To attract more attention, Metalurg used to invite some ex-stars like Ailton (yes, the one who played in Werder and in Schalke) or “wannabe” stars like Jordi Cruyff/Cruijff (yes, the son of the legendary Johan Cruyff). The most notable one is Yaya Toure, who actually played and didn’t pretend unlike Babangida (ex-Ajax) or Ikedia (ex-Ajax again).

Prior to this season, the team decided to make some cleaning in the squad. They got rid of some unimportant and unknown foreigners and invited new ones such as Kingsley, Makrides (both played in Cyprus) and Dorde Lazic (ex-Partizan). The newcomers strengthened the midfield.

Although, Metalurg are a tough team to beat, they never managed to compete with Shakhtar and Dynamo. In conclusion, I can mention that Metallurg usually picks up points against the lower or bottom sides.


Vorskla



Ukraine has a lot of talented coaches and one of them, Nikolay Pavlov, is the head coach of Vorskla. This team has once won bronze medals and participated twice in the UEFA Cup. The squad is mainly consisted of Ukrainian players, but there are also three Albanian internationals: Dallku, Curri and Yanuzi.

The results are consistent enough – no downfalls and no sudden jumps. You will probably see Vorskla in the UEFA Europa League next season.


Shakhtar



The times are gone when Shakhtar have always been in the shadow of Dynamo Kiev. The team participates in the Champions League and in the UEFA Cup. Unfortunately, the “moles” still can’t get past the group stage in the Champions League due to the negligent and sometimes careless attitude of a few players. They often forget that you play until the final whistle. This season’s home Champions League game against Barcelona is the best example. Shaktar were leading 1-0 and players were already celebrating the historic victory when Messi scored two goals on 87th and 90th minutes. Shakhtar have to change its attitude if they want to get better results in Europe. What works in Ukraine, barely works in Europe.

The team draw too many games at the beginning of the season and even once they were out of the Top ten. Right now, everything is fine and I see Shakhtar as the silver medalists.


FC Metallurg Zaporozhye



Metallurg’s chairmen have been too stingy to invest in the team which has been relying on young guys coming from Metallurg-2. You can see a positive side, because the young players have a chance to grow and to get some experience in battles with top Ukrainian sides. However, sooner or later, they are usually bought by teams which can offer better conditions and higher salaries.

So far Metallurg didn’t sell anyone in midseason and they are comfortably placed on sixth position, five points ahead of Karpaty and Dnepr.


Dnepr (Dnepropetrovsk)

Dnepr are the regular UEFA Cup participants, but after the death of Evgeniy Kucherevskiy in 2006, the team’s play has not been exciting as it used to be before. Kucherevskiy was the man who led the team to new heights in domestic championship and in Europe. Dnepr have not qualified to the group stages for two consecutive seasons and this fact best shows how the atmosphere has changed in the team.

Dneprovetrovsk’s formation has been in Top five by the end of seven consecutive seasons, but I have serious doubts about Dnepr’s ability to reach at least the fifth place this season. Dnepr are nine points away from FC Metallurg Donetsk and I see no light at the end of the tunnel unless the management will make “the revolution” during the summer period.

Teams which exist but don’t need anything

Zorya (Lugansk)



Zorya are one of the oldest team in Ukraine, they were founded in 1922. They have won USSR Championship in 1972, but that was the first and the last time this team has known any success.  Since the independence of Ukraine, Zorya played in the lower leagues but they were promoted to Ukraine Premier League in 2006/2007 season.

Note: Zorya have been linked to fixed games during two past seasons, but it was impossible to prove anything.


Chernomorets (Odessa)



By the time when I decided to write the short previews about Ukrainian clubs, Chernomorets still had twenty points. Now the team from Odessa has fourteen. The six point’s deduction is a punishment by FIFA for the club’s inability to respect the contract of George Indjic, one of the ex-players. It’s a shame to see one of the oldest teams (Chernomorets is founded in 1936) to go through different problems caused by the team’s management.
I believe that after this incident, the team will wake up, because the wind from the first League is blowing. The team has enough resources to get back on track. I also expect some crucial goals from Alexander Kosyrin, the best player of Chernomorets in the first part of the season.


Karpaty (Lvov)



Five or six seasons ago Karpaty have been fighting for the place in the UEFA Cup, but the strange decisions and swindles by the chairman of the club, Petr Dimisnkiy, led the formation to the bottom of the table. The team was more involved in discussions with the managers of the Premier League than in the actual play on the pitch.
The squad is quite young, but experienced enough to finish in the Top ten by the end of the season.


Kryvbass (Krivoy Rog)


Kryvbass are one of the poorest teams (in financial terms) in the Premier League and God knows what would have happened to this team if Oleg Taran were not a head coach. Taran’s experience has been saving Kryvbass from relegation for the past few seasons. The team from Krivoy Rog is consisted from players on loans and it’s difficult to have any plans for the future (like a participation in UEFA Cup, for example), because the guys come and go every season.

Relegation battle:

Arsenal Kiev



Arsenal may be the team which has fewer supporters than any other team in Ukraine. It’s difficult to gain some attention when you play in the same city with Dynamo. Moreover, the team doesn’t have its own stadium and always asks Dynamo to rent Lobanovskiy Stadium or they sometimes play at Olympic Stadium (It’s funny to watch 5000 people sitting at the stadium which has 70000 seats).

Arsenal Kiev is two points above safety from the relegation zone, but there is still a lot of work to do. The team signed contracts with four players from Dnepr and the overall quality of squad is solid enough not to be relegated.


Tavriya (Simferopol)



The place which Tavriya occupies right now is due to the atrocious start of the new campaign: one win in twelve games. The team has a new coach, Sergey Puchkov, and few new players. Their best striker, Vladimir Gomenyuk, was sold to Dnepr, but I believe that Tavriya will soon move away from danger of the relegation. The team has some experience midfielders, including Ukraine international, Denis Golaydo. The midfield is the main strength of this Crimean team and this is what will help in the second part of the season.

Note: Tavriya were the first ever Ukrainian champions since the independence of the country in 1991.


Illichivets ( Mariupol)



The team does not have a lot of players and the financing is quite poor, but Illichivets manage to survive so far. Illichivets are still alive in the Premier League and have good chances not to be relegated. The team must be grateful to its goaltenders (Glushenko and Shuhovtsev), who have been very reliable, despite the thirty allowed goals in seventeen games.


FC Lviv



Lviv, which was founded in 2006, is doing not that bad for the team which has been promoted from the first Ukrainian League last season. FC Lviv is not very rich and they develop and rely on local young players (all players on the roster are Ukrainians). The inexperience of the players may be the first cause which may lead to the relegation. FC Lviv have the second worst attack with only eleven goals and the team has not bought any players to improve that component. I can’t really predict which of the two teams (Illichivets or Lviv) will be the second loser by the end (FC Kharkov is the first one), but I slightly favor Illichivets to stay in the Premier League.


Arsenal Kharkov/ FC Kharkov

 

It’s difficult to imagine how the second Kharkov’s team will manage to stay in the elite division. Arsenal have not won a single game (nine draws and eight losses) so far and the management didn’t acquire any good players to strengthen the squad (Fc Kharkov signed contracts with six players, but they have always been playing on loans in lower divisions). With the worst offense (ten goals in seventeen games), this is a guaranteed candidate for the inevitable relegation at the end of the season.

Tarasius