Bessmertny, Evpak, Rosul, Castro and Van Leeuwen’s first victory. All the personalities and figures of the 6th round of the first stage of the First League

Game program of the 6th round (report with video here)

It’s already traditional:

• Read soon on our website the symbolic team of the next round
• interview with the hero of the tour, which Sport Arena determines together with the PFL

And now – our individual nominations:

After a minimal defeat in Poltava, the Sumy team had a tough trip to Kyiv region in the middle of the week. FSK Mariupol had not lost to Viktoria for four years and had not even conceded from them after a full-scale invasion. Although the visitors, in addition to center-halves Dolinsky and Pokotilyuk, who had long been registered in the infirmary, did not have the main center-back Kravchuk, they managed to play in the most inconvenient way for the Azov team and largely neutralized the hosts’ trump cards: the striking power of their leading players, play on set pieces, the speed of transition of defense to attack. Viktoria itself, having opened the scoring in the 29th minute and secured it just before the break, then successfully managed the game through substitutions and brought the score to a crushing one thanks to the efforts of two “jokers” at once.

• Analysis from the All-Ukrainian Association of Football Coaches – Here.

Bessmertny made a great first substitution in the Boryspil match (he made a triple one in the 61st minute!). Of the three “jokers”, two scored goals, and the third helped Viktoria play to zero in a rather difficult away game. If Artem Danylyuk scored the fourth goal for the visitors after 21 minutes on the field, Maksym Yevpak scored the third goal for the Sumy team in the 15th minute of being in the game. In general, this striker strengthened Viktoria and helped the team get out of a situation where it lost Galenko and Shavrin in a row in a year, and Nych has not yet been able to get into his cruising form.

• SportArena statistics: 4 matches in the championship, 2 goals

Maksym Rosul, photo fcminaj.com

Assess the dramaturgy of the goalkeeper issue at FC Minaj: in the summer, Kemkin was sent to Karpaty, and on the eve of a tough match with Epicenter, they said goodbye to veteran Bandura. So 18-year-old Rosul got a chance to prove himself against a team that scored three goals against Zakarpattia in the summer, losing to them in the Four Tournament only on penalties. Maksym made seven saves and for the first time in his adult professional career played to zero, which helped FC Minaj not lose to an opponent who looked pretty decent in this away game.

• SportArena statistics: 2 matches in the championship, 2 goals conceded, 1 clean sheet.

And we had a lot to look at in this fast midweek tour! This was a long-range strike by the Carpathian Buchakchiyskiy, who suddenly caught the goalkeeper of Niva; several spectacular hits from Viktoria; and the masterpiece, which we will talk about later. We quote the report: “Already in the debut, having barely defended themselves after a flank pass from Zozulya, the visitors lost the rebound near the penalty area. Gabriel connected with Castro, and the Paraguayan hit the far top corner with a left-footed curling shot.”

The goal can be seen in the video starting at 0:49.

Read later on our website an interview with the player who scored twice and was involved in another early scoring combination with Kremne.

• SportArena statistics: 4 matches in the championship, 3 goals.

FC Minaj lost at home to Ternopil Nyva (0:2), and this gave rise to various rumors. In particular, about match fixing. “Before the game, I saw a strange movement in the odds for our game. I contacted our sports director. He passed the information on to representatives of the Ethics and Fair Play Committee, who assured him that there was no reason to worry. I can only confirm what Mr. Bilan said, that there is no talk of any internal investigation,” Zeljko Ljubenovic assured in an interview with the Ukrainian Football website.

The Transcarpathian club also said goodbye to its long-time main goalkeeper, Oleksandr Bandura, which again raised suspicions. “In football, the one who makes fewer mistakes wins. After two years at the club, I can say with confidence that this has not happened. From my experience, I can say that it is very difficult to throw a match without it being noticed,” the former goalkeeper Minaja answered categorically.

And here is the head coach’s explanation of the situation in response to a clarifying question:

– Whose initiative was it that Bandura left Minai?

– This is the management’s decision.

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Nothing is clear to us yet, but all this is very interesting. Meanwhile, FC Minaj has already rewritten the club’s history. How? More about this in the “Fact of the Tour” section below.

The eloquent reaction of striker Wendy Vava to YUKSA’s 5-0 victory over Kremne – a record for his team in the First League, photo facebook.com/fc.ucsa

Vladlen Yurchenko (Metalist 1925) becomes the author of the 100th goal of the current championship.

A few more interesting things:

• Minaj has not been able to win 4 matches in the First League (2 draws and 2 losses) – this is the club’s anti-record.
• Metalist 1925 consistently beats Metallurg in head-to-head matches. In particular, this is van Leeuwen’s first victory at the helm of the Kharkiv team.
• Artur Dumanyuk (Kudrovka) played his 100th match in the First League, Vladislav Danilenko, Evgeny Streltsov (both from Poltava), and Daniil Falkovsky (Metallurg) played their 50th.
• Vladimir Tanchik (Epicenter) made his debut in the 6th (!) First League club for himself, Artur Novotryasov (Viktoria) in the 5th, and Vadim Sidun (Niva) in the 2nd.
• Roman Tilokha (Kremin), Vladislav Babanin (Prykarpattia), Andriy Stolyarchuk (Podillia), and Golden Mafventa (Metalist 1925) made their debut in the First League.
• The 5th goal in the First League was scored by Dmytro Ulyanov (Viktoria), the 1st by Artem Danylyuk (Viktoria, in the 41st game), Vladislav Buchakchiyskyi (Prykarpattia, in the 39th).
• In the 2nd (!) First League club, Dmitry Ulyanov (Victoria), who had previously scored against Avangard’s opponents, and Alexey Sidorov (Metalist 1925) – against Metallurg, opened the scoring for himself.
• More interesting things – in the digital collection of the PFL, whose information partner is Sport Arena.

• Tournament table after the 6th round
• Group A

• Group B

• Bombers

• Assistants

• Goal+pass

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All calculations by Artur Valerko, SportArena.com. The material was written by the author in Ukrainian.