On Sunday, the matches of the final round of the Ukrainian Premier League took place. The results of the tournament, which brought a lot of surprises, can probably be called natural. And yet, what will they turn into in the future?
"Dawn" - bronze medalist. Photo — zarya-lugansk.comAbout the main opening of the season
If for Shakhtar and Dynamo, who were solving problems of various nature during the past season, the results of the last round of the UPL did not have a serious tournament value, then Dnipro-1 and Zorya fought in absentia for a second ticket to the Champions League (more precisely — to the second qualifying round).
Which of them will take the silver—this was undoubtedly the main intrigue of the week. As a result, the Dnipro team finished higher, overcoming the resistance of Kryvbas (1:0) and, due to additional indicators, ahead of the Luhansk team, who defeated Mynay (3:0) in a parallel match.
The media in no way dispute the legitimacy or fairness of this alignment. Nevertheless, everyone notes - "Dnepr-1", unlike "Dawn", the second round was unconvincing. And some even talk about failure.
Pure arithmetic: after the winter holidays, Oleksandr Kucher's team was ahead of Shakhtar by two points and Zorya by five (potentially by eight, since they had a game in hand). At the finish line, it turned out - "minus five" with "Shakhtar" and equality with "Zorya".
Naturally, the press is trying to understand what is the reason? And in search of an answer to the question, he notes several key points.
In particular, we are talking about work on the winter transfer market:
“Here Dnipro-1, it seemed, gave up more than Shakhtar, which helped the Ukrainian transfer market with the transitions of Kelsy, Rakitsy, Riznik, Gocholeyshvili, Toirov.
For the size of the Dnipro-1 transfers, they looked larger - Єvgen Pasich, Matarrita, Peglow, Tankovsky, Pidlepenets, Hainer, Kaplienko.
Ale, as it happened, with the best of the best, do it at Zorya. Guerrero - on the other side of the season, Khakhlyov and Polegenko - garniture options for the exit to the replacement, Dryshlyuk - the unfortunate grave of the rotation " (Sportarena.com, 05/29/23).
The coaching factor is also actively discussed in the media. Everyone admits that Oleksandr Kucher showed himself excellently during the summer-autumn part of the season, but then, so to speak, the effect of surprise played its role. In the spring, the attitude of rivals to Dnipro-1 was already different - as to a contender for gold. And the team could not stand it - they lost absolutely all key matches, without scoring a single point in confrontations with rivals from the final top five.
Who is in demand? Naturally, from a mentor! “The point is not that Kucher is a physical education teacher, but that he is a coach with no experience. I think that he does not develop players", - the host of "TaToTake" Mikhail Spivakovsky issued a rather categorical verdict (Fanday.net, 05/30/23).
Here, of course, not everything is so simple. There was not enough experience - everyone admits this. Moreover, not only Kuchera, for whom it was the first season in the Premier League.
"Dnipro-1" having played the championship race for "Shakhtar" for kilkom directly: personnel, managerial and coaching. Girniks have a corny more chances of such duels on all levels. Play such an opponent badly, wanting, vrakhovuchi break the season, cover, " - specifies "SportArena" (Sportarena.com, 05/29/23).
But one can argue about the fact that Kucher "does not develop players". A number of sources draw attention to the fact that it was under the current coach of Dnepr-1 that Eduard Sarapiy and Valentin Rubchinsky opened up, and Artem Dovbik and Alexander Pikhalenok spent the brightest season in their careers, which is confirmed by their statistics (Dovbik with 24 goals became the best sniper of the tournament, Pikhalenok with 10 assists - the best assistant). And the second place is, in fact, an excellent result for Dnipro-1. Considering that this team spent only its fourth season in the Premier League...
Although, of course, it is also obvious that Kucher's competitors - Igor Jovicevich at Shakhtar and Patrick van Leeuwen at Zorya - did a better job.
Such an indicative moment: the Tribuna website, having compiled a rating of UPL coaches at the end of the season, ranked the Dnipro-1 coach only in fifth place. Lower than Viktor Skripnik (Vorskla) and Roman Grigorchuk (Chernomorets). But at the head of the list was van Leeuwen, pushing Jovicevich.
“League of Champions for Zoriya — it would have been a super-achievement. And yet, without a historical streak, the Luhansk team became the most balanced in the championship. With the praise of the vart, a series of hangings is possible, as a gift for the title, and those, like van Leeuwen "latav diri" at the warehouse, are a great aerobatics.
Here, impersonal applications are suggested - the transfer of the defender Batagov to the center of the defense, the victorious victorious Butka, which is not the grave of football, the transfer of the full-back Kiryukhantsev to the attack, and the winger Churka - to the center of the field. All experiments were successful.
After the winter break, a lot of new problems appeared - Danchenko, Churko and Kiryukhantsev flew through injuries, but even as a rank they managed to painlessly replace them. Rusyn and Antyukh have opened up in a new way, here you can see the extravaganza of the newcomer Guerrero.
So, the football of "Zorya" is not foldable, like Grigorchuk's "Chornomorets", but rather straightforward. But for all that, it’s so aggressive in the transitional phases, for which the high mark for this criterion is deserved, the first position in the rating, ”— so the authors of the material argued their choice (Ua.tribuna.com, 04.06.23).
Artur Valerko spoke in a similar context, recalling that almost all the leading players left Zorya last summer, and after the first rounds, competitors bought Yegor Nazarina, Vladislav Kabaev and Denis Bezborodko from Luhansk players:
“Van Leeuwen is always full of injured and the question is how not to lose players with outgoing contracts. So. When the next coach with a decent budget and two equal squads starts complaining about the circumstances, show him with what resources van Leeuwen achieved the best results in Zorya's recent history. Let it tear up" (Fanday.net, 05/30/23).
Indeed, the crowd of performers gathered in van Leeuwen's Dawn initially seemed quite modest. But the trick is that almost all the players, playing under the supervision of the Dutch specialist, have noticeably improved their skills. This is especially true for Dynamo school graduates Vladimir Brazhko and Nazariy Rusin, who once again received flattering press during the reporting week.
“If the supporting player scores 7 goals, it’s an overperformance and an anomaly. Navit if three of them - from the penalty spot ... And Brazhko - not only about thunderbolts. Win miraculously wadding diagonals, plow the field, have top performances in single combats and counterpressing, are marked by high mobility. It’s not surprising that Dynamo ask Brazhok to pick up a ticket and, as soon as possible, add a lease to it.
...Rusin became more universal, and the quality of the winger became more effective, less like a forward. Adding brilliance and humility in the plan of dribbling and recognition of the positive, that I’m ready to practice without a ball and against the ball”, - we read in the material of Igor Yaslik (Ua.tribuna.com, 06/02/23).
In general, Zorya definitely became the main discovery of the Ukrainian Championship-2022/23, and the fact that it wedged itself into the showdown at the very top gave the tournament a twist. And now it will be very interesting to see this Zorya in the Europa League, where it will start from the playoff round.
On the main hope of the off-season
Meanwhile, Dynamo will go together with Vorskla to the Conference League qualification. At the end of the closing season, last Monday, the Kiev team defeated Veres (3:0), and in the final round they shared points with Metalist 1925 (1:1).
In the off-season, the white and blue, of course, will do everything to appear before their audience in their usual light in the middle of summer - one of the favorites of the new race.
In this regard, it is no coincidence that the increased attention of the media to reports about the early return to Dynamo from Zorya of his own pupils Buletsa and Brazhko - it is already known that both will go to the training camp together with other players from the capital club.
According to observers, these players are able to compete with veterans of the team Buyalsky and Sidorchuk. Perhaps this intrigue promises to become one of the main highlights of the coming months.
In the meantime... Attentive chroniclers of Dynamo continue to vividly discuss the vicissitudes of the completed campaign and, in particular, the last match of the team of Alexander Shovkovsky. The course of the game with "M-1925", they note, was significantly influenced by the decision of the referee Maxim Kozyryatsky, who left the Kyivans in the minority in the 32nd minute after the removal of Maxim Dyachuk.
“The arbitrator judged the forceful struggle with the Ostrov Mayzha between the free kick as a relief to the superman of the clear goal goal.
It should be respected, this episode was supposed to predict a similar moment in the match of the 16th round between Ingulets and Dynamo, if there were more obvious posts at the back of the same Dyachuk from the side of Sital, ignoring and arbiter Monzul, and їїcolleague on VAR Kovalenko , and the episode ended with a deadly goal at the gates of kyan, — draws attention to the key episode of the fight Vlad Mirenko (Footclub.com.ua, 4.06.23).
Thus, the public has to state another controversial decision of the referee and, as a result, a new reason for a wave of discussions on the sore subject of qualification and impartiality of Ukrainian football arbitration.
As for the quality of Dynamo's game, the media note that recently this team has begun to look more confident and integral. Before the meeting with Metalist 1925, the Kiev team won three major victories with a total score of 11:1. And in the game against Kharkiv, acting in the minority, Shovkovsky's wards had the initiative and could well have scored the second goal.
In this regard, journalists positively assess the work of the mentor, who temporarily replaced the capital's giant Mircea Lucescu on the coaching bridge.
"The coaching staff at grassroots gave more than an hour to young football players and the closest reserve, and also resuscitated the leaders after a long downtime", — says Mikhail Yukhimenko (Football24.ua, 05/29/23).
“It is very nice that Benito, Parris and Ramirez came to life. That young guys played in the internal competition - and the same Voloshin scores the third match in a row. In anticipation of the extension, Karavaev plays as if it were Dynamo five minutes before the championship. In the absence of Vanat, the people of Kiev score three goals per match on average... Shovkovsky is a great fellow who was not afraid to take responsibility and even scored 85.7% of the possible number of points, " - Artur Valerko wrote after Dynamo's victory over Veres (Fanday.net, 05/30/23).
And Georgy Groshev, summing up the results of the Monday match between Kiev and Veres, focused on the fact that the acting head coach of Dynamo had made successful substitutions not for the first time:
“Garmash, the leader, scored his exact blow on the back, scoring in the dotik following the pass of Dubinchak. Then, in a similar manner, scoring Voloshin, prote after assistant Karavaev. At the pouch, at once three people who walked along the course of the duel were designated as heads. Totally bad" (Ua-football.com, 05/29/23).
Some of the journalists are even in a hurry to see Shovkovsky as the head coach of Dynamo without the prefix "interim". But the mentor himself tactfully avoids discussing this topic, correctly emphasizing that his work proceeds in close conjunction with Mircea Lucescu:
“Mircea Lucescu turned, he was on the militia, but constantly he changed from the team at once, he tried to fight, he kept the process, we were with him all the hour in the languor ... Today I am a shoe-slinger, and I work everything in order to lads, like walking on the field, were victorious by those who could, and those who wanted to see them by the coaching staff " (Fcdynamo.com, 05/29/23).
As expected, Shovkovsky continues to demonstrate his subtle understanding of the principles of team spirit, when the interests of the club come first. Here is his press conference after the game with Metalist 1925, he concluded with the words about the future of Dynamo:
“We have a detailed analysis in front of us - it’s necessary to think about the new season already” (Sportarena.com, 06/04/23).
Naturally, the press is also trying to catch the contours of the new season for Dynamo, believing that a generally good finishing segment should inspire optimism in its fans.
In this context, the deep analytical material of Dmitry Vatras deserves attention, who claims that the current resources of the Dynamo team are quite enough to fight for the championship next season.
“It's simple—internal reserves were pulled up, explains the author. — For the next 2022, Voloshin and Tsarenko did not get much praise from the grown-up football. Nazar is now behind the fate of Yuriy Vernidub's school in Kryvbas, during the winter months he took up practice in the Premier League for Dynamo, and Anton from birch has become a non-priority option for Buyalsky's support.
Dyachuk didn’t do anything, we’ll finish the U-19 championship, and then we’ll play in Oleksandriya and stand against Dovbik and Traore in the other half of the season.
Brazhko in the current campaign, becoming one of the best defensive players in the first place. Well, we can see Bulets, who is residually fixed at the status of a respectable citizen of the UPL.
Perris and Lonwijk adapted — the Dutchman periodically gave good signs of autumn, and stunned in the recent matches of another stake.
There is no reason why they could radically change the situation at the start of the season, but the faith is strong, because the stench of the buildings is at the price of the offensive campaign. In what way will they be helped by the leaders, such as Dynamo are unlikely to lose such an obligation, like the past fate " (Ua.tribuna.com, 06/02/23).
It’s hard to disagree with Vartas: there is every reason to believe that Dynamo will retain key players in the offseason. After all, the most prepared candidates for moving to reputable clubs, Georgy Bushchan and Nikolay Shaparenko, have barely recovered from serious injuries and operations, they have yet to return to the level of their former playing condition.
As they say, there would be no happiness... It turns out that the return of such cool and motivated performers to the start of the new season is a very serious help in the realities of the UPL.
“So, what can I do at this stage—the youth and the legionnaires adapted, Buschan and Shaparenko are left behind, and the leaders of Zorya turn into the status of winners of the first place. The rest of the time to re-equip the warehouse is literally a couple of dotted signatures, which still won’t hurt, ”— submits his CV Vartas (Ua.tribuna.com, 06/02/23).
Rebrov is authorized to declare
In conclusion, about matters of no less importance. After all, after the finish of the two-round UPL tournament, not everyone went on vacation.
For example, "Ingulets" and "Veres" still have transitional matches with the third and fourth teams of the first league - LNZ (Cherkasy) and Metallurg (Zaporozhye), respectively.
Much more serious tests await the national team of Ukraine — on June 8, it will go to Bremen, where it will begin preparations for a friendly match with the German national team (12th) and Euro 2024 qualifying matches against North Macedonia (16th) and Malta (19th). th).
The topic of the main team of the country will undoubtedly dominate the media in the coming days. In the meantime, the press is actively replicating the confessions of Sergei Rebrov, who finally confirmed the information that in the near future he will sign a contract with the UAF and become the head coach of the national team.
The task of this stage for him is to secure the consent of Al-Ain, which Rebrov has headed for the past two years. The fact is that his agreement with the UAE club expires on June 30. And although the season in the Emirates is actually over, it is necessary, so to speak, to settle the formalities.
What Sergei Stanislavovich told on the air of the Saturday program "Snіdanok z 1 + 1":
“I’m going to Kiev and, without a doubt, on the 6th I will be in the capital of Ukraine. I respect and agree that we will finish everything with Al-Ain. So, if everything will be kind, I agree, we will sign a contract. yuvati .
The choice of Ukraine—there is already great evidence, so I started working on it with my headquarters and now I’m getting ready to go to these mountains, the stones are already important for our country. Tim is more at the hour ... " (Obozrevatel.com, 03.06.23).
It remains to be hoped that the issue of his relationship with Al-Ain outlined by Rebrov will be resolved in the shortest possible time and the Ukrainian national team will go to Germany with a full-fledged head coach who will not be scattered over several “fronts”, but will focus entirely on the team.
In matches against North Macedonia and Malta, she definitely needs to take six points. Unless, of course, we seriously apply for a ticket to Euro 2024.
Victor ZHURAVLEV
