The first league: sold-out in Turkey, ambitious plans of the president and eight newcomers of "Nikolaev"

28.02.2018 17:40

Arsenal have made peace with one of Kazakhstan's leading clubs - Aktobe. Photo by arsenal-kyiv.com

Kyiv's Arsenal and 10 other first-league clubs are currently working on a training camp in Turkey.

The rivalry in the second part of the first league championship will resume on March 18, and the central match of the tour will be the confrontation between the leaders - "Arsenal" and "Poltava". So far, the participants are training hard, and the highlight of this year's final winter stage of training is that 11 representatives of the second strongest division have chosen Turkey as their location, which indicates their fairly strong financial rear.

Arsenal has a new president

After all, given the weather conditions, it is now in Belek, Side or Antalya that it is possible to conduct quality training in the fields with a grass lawn and have worthy sparring partners. Of course, it is safe to say that the coaches of the teams in the spring will rely on those performers who are currently under their control in Turkey. After all, there is no time for experiments with the composition…

However, Arsenal manager Serhiy Lytovchenko did not hide after the last control match against Aktobe (Kazakhstan) that there are still enough flaws in the actions of his wards, but there are a few weeks to correct them. Kyiv lost twice during the match, but managed to avoid defeat after a shot by Semchuk, who came on as a substitute - 2: 2. And before that, our compatriots won over FC "Backa Topala" from Serbia thanks to a well-aimed shot of the Argentine legionnaire Aguirre - 1: 0.

By the way, a few days ago the new president of FC "Arsenal" was a former player of this team Ivica Piric, who does not hide that he will take care not only to ensure that Kyiv gets a ticket to the elite division, but also to create a strong club academy.

"Ingulets" continues to grow

After winning the tournament for Victor Pozhechevsky's prizes, Poltava footballers went to a training camp in good humor in Turkey, where they have already played two sparring matches: first, thanks to Bashlay's accurate shot, they defeated one of the leaders of the Turkmen championship, Shegadam, - 1: 0 , and then parted ways with "Zhetysu" (Kazakhstan) - 1: 1. Our guys opened the score after Savin completed a multi-pass combination, but at the end of the match an annoying mistake in the hedge helped the opponents to escape defeat.

Ingulets continues to strengthen its squad, which does not hide its ambitious plans to rise in the class this year. The club from Petrov signed a contract with an experienced midfielder Doroshenko, known for his performances for Donetsk "Olympic". Last fall, he defended the colors of the Belarusian Torpedo-BelAZ. In Turkey, Serhiy Lavrynenko's wards celebrated victories over the reserves of the local Alanyaspor - 6: 0 and (with the same score - 1: 0) over the Serbian "Proleter" and "Dnipro-1". Experienced goal scorer Akimenko proved himself well in these matches at the forefront of the attack.

Kolos: everything is fine with protection

So far, the players of Kolos and Desna have been in Turkey for the longest time. Footballers from Kovalivka only in sparring with the Polish "Warta" could not press the opponent, although they had a game advantage - 1: 1. But Ruslan Kostyshyn's wards have three victories at once: over Kaiser from Kazakhstan - 2: 0, Georgian "Shukura" - 1: 0 and FC "Kyzyl-Zhar" from Kazakhstan - 2: 0. It should be noted that the team from Kyiv region makes a good impression with reliable actions in defense.

As for the Chernihiv team, they signed a three-year agreement with the experienced universal player Slinkin, a pupil of Odessa football who recently played in Moldova. As is usual in such cases, the newcomer said that he would try to help "Desna" already this season to win a ticket to the Premier League.

Helios is playing with varying success in Turkey, which was recently strengthened by midfielders Chepurnenko (Desna) and Kotlyar (Veres). After the victory over the Hungarian "Gyor" (4: 1) Igor Rakhayev's wards lost to the Armenian "Alashkert" - 1: 2 and drew with AGMK (Uzbekistan) - 0: 0 and "Tobol" (Kazakhstan) - 2: 2.

"Volyn" does not betray tradition

Volyn, which continues to be active in the transfer market, remains true to itself. Another newcomer from Luhansk was the midfielder from Iran Khazanari, who previously played for Stryi's Skala, and the pupil of Dnipro Korobko, who has already played not only in Ukraine, but also for clubs in Russia, Belarus and Georgia. By the way, it was from the transfer of Khazanari that his new teammate Klak scored the winning goal in the sparring with Merani (Georgia) - 1: 0. Volyn also drew with Nestved (Denmark) - 1: 1 and lost with the same score (1: 2) to Turkmen "Shegadam" and "Dili" from Georgia.

Obolon-Brovar, which relies on the pupils of its own sports school, is also in Turkey these days. After the victory over Kiran from Kazakhstan - 5: 2, Volodymyr Pyatenko's wards lost to another team from this country, Akzhayik, - 0: 1, missing at the end of the match after an accurate shot by former Karpaty midfielder Khudobiak.

So far, Vinnytsia's Rukh, whose rivals were clubs from Kazakhstan, is playing undefeated in Turkey. After the 4: 1 victory over Kiran, the Galicians failed to tip the scales in their favor in the matches with Tobol - 1: 1 and Taraz - 0: 0.

Zabransky remains a coach

Among the teams which have decided to prepare for new tests at home, we will note personnel activity of IFC «Nikolaev», which has already signed eight recruits. All of them proved themselves well in the Dnieper Cup draw, where Mykolayiv lost to Metalurh Zaporizhya in the final only after a series of post-match penalties. It should be noted that Ruslan Zabransky, who was going to become the club's sports director after the autumn part of the championship, continues to be at the helm of the "citizens".