SK Poltava loses its leadership, Virt wins for the first time, Kovalets makes his debut in his home club. Personalities and figures of the 15th round of the first stage of the First League

Game program of the 15th round (video report here)

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:

One can imagine how difficult it is to motivate a team when there are long debts on salaries and bonuses. In addition, not everyone declares to play in such conditions – in particular, the most stellar, authoritative and skillful football players. However, FSK Mariupol, in an away match with one of the leaders – Sumy Victoria – pulled out a confrontation with a minimal score in the end, although the most highly qualified midfielders Bogdanov and Demchenko could not take part in the Cherkassy away match, and the guests arrived even without a reserve goalkeeper. The way the team fights for the existence of the club confirms that #Mariupol must live.

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

In the reporting round, several players entered the game well. Ivan Demidenko managed to provide an assist in the match against his ex-teammates, but did not convert any of the chances at Minaya’s goal; Roman Barchuk scored against Niva, but this did not save Prykarpattya from defeat in Ternopil; Sergei Stan significantly enlivened the game in the Mlynovo area, but his cross was still ricocheted by the referee and the assist was not recorded (Metalist 1925 won with Moura’s double). But we have a hero who came out and solved it. Wendy came off the bench and eventually scored the winning goal against Kremin. For his team, this victory is incredibly important: it retained third place for YUKSA and reduced the gap to the new duo of leaders to a minimum.

• SportArena.com statistics: 9 league matches, 5 goals, 1 assist.

Although Ivan won our most important individual category (see below), he is only 21 years old – so, of course, he will also take the age category for himself. For work – and honor!

• SportArena.com statistics: 12 league matches, 3 goals, 2 assists.

This round is full of ordinary goals, but among them there is this nice (and important in the tournament plan) hit. We quote the report: “During one of the attacks, Gavrushko passed the ball from the corner of the penalty area to the center to Tolochko, and Roman’s shot with a ricochet delivered the ball to the corner left of the goalkeeper – 1:1. The midfielder’s third goal with two assists this season and 10 for his entire time in the First League.”

The goal can be seen on video from 3:32

Read later on our website an interview with a player who scored twice against a recent UPL participant – FC Minaj – and earned a penalty against the guests

• SportArena.com statistics: 12 league matches, 3 goals, 2 assists.

Who would have thought that the first goal of Podolia under the leadership of Kovalets would come as a “crossbow” from the opponents! We quote the match report: “Shavrin connected Stolyarchuk on the right flank, whose cross, complicated by a ricochet from Barilyak, was unfortunately missed between the legs by goalkeeper Pidkivka.” Video pfl.ua

Epicenter scored four goals against FC Minai – just like in the summer playoffs, where it lost to Transcarpathians on penalties / photo cepicentr.com.ua

• Epicenter, following Agribusiness, qualified for the Champion group. Three more teams in both groups have a chance to do so in the next rounds.
• FC Kudrovka defeated SK Poltava, caught up with it on points and displaced it from the first place of Group B. 12 rounds, since the 2nd round Sysenko’s charges have not lost the lead.

A few more interesting things:

• Sergei Kovalets’s debut game as the head coach of Podolia. Vitaly Kostyshin has worked in this position since 2017.
• Niva won for the first time under the leadership of Yuri Virt (after a series of 7 games without victories: 3 draws and 4 defeats)
• 50th coaching match of Igor Klimovsky (Kremin) in the First League.
• Prykarpattya suffered its 180th away defeat in the First League.
• SK Poltava scored the 50th home goal in the First League (author Odaryuk).
• FC Kudrovka scored the 50th goal in the First League (1st goal of the match – author Kvasov).
• FC Kudrovka won the 5th match in a row on the road and scored the 10th away victory during their performances in the First League.
• YuKSA won its first victory in 5 rounds (six matches, including the cup).
• Kremin lost his sixth match in a row and has not scored for 481 minutes.
• The 50th match in the First League was played by Oleg Veremienko (Podolia), Dmitry Plakhtyr (SK Poltava).
• The 45th goal in the First League was scored by Roman Barchuk (Prykarpattya), the 10th by Roman Tolochko (Agribusiness)
• Metalist 1925’s 100th match in the First League, including the 50th at home
• Metalist 1925 won their 30th home victory in the First League.
• Ari Moura’s scoring streak (Metalist 1925) continues in the championship with 5 matches – 6 goals.

More interesting things in the PFL digital selection, whose information partner is Sport Arena.

• Tournament table after the 15th round
• Group A

• Group B

• Bombers

• Assistants

• Goal+ass

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