Manuel Veth –
This week’s Futbolgrad match of the week takes us to Kyiv where the Ukrainian champion and current Ukrainian Premier League (UPL) leader Dynamo Kyiv will host third placed Zorya Luhansk on Sunday in the round of 19 of the UPL.
For Dynamo Kyiv, recently eliminated by Manchester City in the round of 16 in the UEFA Champions League, this will be an important matchup as they are currently just three points ahead of their eternal rival Shakhtar Donetsk. Shakhtar were supposed to face Metalurh Zaporizhya, but the club was excluded from the league due to financial problems on March 18, and it now appears that Shakhtar will simply be handed the three points.
Dynamo will be under pressure to collect the points
Dynamo will be under pressure to collect three points on Sunday, as they want to maintain their three-point advantage over Shakhtar Donetsk. Furthermore, it will be interesting to see how Dynamo’s squad will respond after being eliminated from the Champions League.
Zorya Luhansk has been forced into exile due to the war in the Donbass – Image via RT
Meanwhile Zorya have been one of the biggest surprises of this season’s Ukrainian Premier League. Luhansk is located deep in the Donbass, and the current conflict between Ukraine and Russia has meant that Zorya have been forced to play their home matches in exile at the Slavutych Arena in Zaporizhya. But Zorya has responded well to playing all their home games away from home. The club finished fourth in the 2014-15 UPL season, and narrowly missed out on reaching the group stage of this year’s Europa League—Legia Warsaw eliminated Zorya in the playoffs.
Zorya has, however, shaken off the disappointment of not making the Europa League group stage, and are now on track to reach the Europa League. Ukraine has two Europa League third-round qualifying spot, and as Zorya is currently third in the Ukrainian Premier League, seven points ahead of fourth placed Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, which have been banned from participating in UEFA competitions next season, and ten points ahead of fifth placed Vorskla Poltava, they are therefore in a comfortable position to qualify for the Europa League.
Zorya Luhansk Coach Yuriy Vernydub has done an excellent job
Zorya Luhansk coach Yuriy Vernydub has done an excellent job at forming a young and exciting team that is not afraid to attack—Zorya has scored 37 goals this season, only Shakhtar (54 goals), and Dynamo (41 goals) have scored more. At the same time Zorya has also been able to keep a tight ship, as the club has only conceded 15 goals in 18 matches—only Dynamo (seven goals conceded) has been better in defence this season.
Yuriy Vernydub – Image via Shakhtar.com
Furthermore, with an average age of just 25.7 years old, Zorya has the youngest squad out of the top four Ukrainian Premier League teams. In fact many of the young players in the squad have recently been called up to the Ukrainian national team for the friendlies against Cyprus (March 24), and Wales (March 28). Zorya will be sending five players to the national team next week—keeper Mykyta Shevchenko (23 years old), defender Mykyta Kamenyuka (30), midfielders Oleksandr Karavayev (23), and Ivan Petryak (22), as well as striker Pylyp Budkivskyi (24).
The call-ups have been a testament to Vernydub’s work as the manager, and his ability to turn all these young players into national team material. At the same time only Mykyta Kamenyuka’s contract is actually owned by Zorya Luhansk, as the other four players are on loan from Shakhtar—Shevchenko, Karavayev, and Budkivskyi were loaned from Shakhtar to Zorya before the season started, and Petryak was purchased by Shakhtar in the winter but will remain with Luhansk until the end of the season.
Dynamo Kyiv vs Zorya Luhansk or Dynamo Kyiv vs Shakhtar Donetsk II
In fact Shakhtar has two other players—striker Denys Bezborodko, and midfielder Dmytro Grechyshkin—parked at Zorya. Indeed Zorya Luhansk have a close relationship with Shakhtar Donetsk, and Zorya more or less acts as a farm team to Shakhtar—this is not an uncommon practice in Ukrainian football as Dynamo has their own farm team in Hoverla Uzhhorod.
For the most part this relationship has been mutually beneficial, as Shakhtar can expose its most talented players to much needed first-team experience in the Ukrainian Premier League, and the recent call up to the national team highlights this strategy has been successful.
For Zorya this arrangement means that the club has access to talent that would otherwise be out of reach for such a small club. Furthermore, Shakhtar pays the wages of the players out on loan, meaning that Zorya can maintain a competitive squad on a small budget. The relationship with Shakhtar does not come without its drawbacks, however. In Zorya’s second fixture against Shakhtar last season, Shakhtar manager Mircea Lucescu did not allow Zorya to use their on-loan players.
Yevhen Khacheridi will be just one of the stars Zorya will be facing on Sunday
The fact that Zorya has several players on loan from Shakhtar will also add some spice to Sunday’s fixture against Dynamo Kyiv, as Shakhtar’s players on loan at Zorya will be especially motivated to play their best game against the biggest rival of the club that owns their contract.
Another added incentive for Zorya could be the fact that coach Vernydub is one of the candidates rumoured to replace Mircea Lucescu—the Romanian could retire—at Shakhtar Donetsk next season. A win against Dynamo would give Shakhtar a bigger chance to qualify straight for the UEFA Champions League group stage—only the champion qualifies directly for the group stage.
The strong ties between Shakhtar Donetsk and Zorya Luhansk will provide an interesting background to Dynamo Kyiv vs Zorya Luhansk. Furthermore, the fact that Zorya has been one of the most interesting teams to watch this season, and has several young and exciting prospects in the squad should provide for an interesting encounter in the round of 19 of the Ukrainian Premier League on Sunday.
A young Zorya squad will surely want to show what they can do against a Dynamo squad of the likes of winger Andriy Yarmolenko, defender Yevhen Khacheridi, and Ukraine’s goalkeeping legend Oleksandr Shovkovskyi. At the same time Dynamo should have the experience to win this match, as Futbolgrad predicts a narrow win for Dynamo on Sunday.
Manuel Veth is a freelance journalist, and PhD candidate at King’s College London. Originally from Munich, Manuel has lived in Amsterdam, Kyiv, Moscow, Tbilisi, London, and currently is located in Victoria BC, Canada. His thesis is titled: “Selling the People’s Game: Football’s transition from Communism to Capitalism in the Soviet Union and its Successor States”, and will be available to readers later this year. Follow Manuel on Twitter @homosovieticus.
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