U-21 Championship: unexpected leadership of Alexandria and loss of Dynamo and Shakhtar

20.09.2018 15:00

Photo by fco.com.ua

For five rounds of the youth championship of Ukraine, which share this review and tentative, the leader has not changed. And, much to the surprise of many fans, he remains "Alexandria".

However, experts in the field of youth football of Ukraine will say that this is an objective reality. After all, in the district center of Kirovohrad region they managed to build a fairly stable and strong club structure. In 2017, it will be recalled that her U-19 team led by Igor Kostyra became the vice-champion of Ukraine, and in 2018 the U-21 team led by Andriy Kuptsov won bronze.

During these five rounds, the Alexandrians clearly showed their strength in matches with the Grands. Kuptsov's team in Chapayevka, on the basis of Dynamo, defeated the hosts - 2: 1, although the last half hour was in the minority, and parted ways at home at Olympus with Shakhtar - 0: 0. Who can now say that "Alexandria" happened to be at the top of the standings?

Only Arsenal managed to put the leader on the shoulder blades in the 4th round, and on the road - 2: 1. The second Kyiv club of the Premier League scored the most points in this part of the tournament distance - 12 out of 15. Yuriy Len's wards are followed by Oleksandriya and Karpaty (10 each), Shakhtar (8), Dynamo and Mariupol (7 each). However, on September 25, when Mariupol and Dynamo finally play their postponed match of the same 4th round, their points may become more significant.

Dynamo, coached by Yuri Moroz, after the defeat of "Alexandria" in the 5th round suffered another loss, and a very unpleasant one. In Odesa, the guests beat Chornomorets 69: 3 in the 1th minute, and in the 77th minute the hosts lost a player due to a withdrawal. However, Albert Kovalev's charges found strength in themselves and scored 82 goals in the 83-3 minutes, thanks to which they saved the match - 3: XNUMX.

Kyiv did not give more such gifts to rivals: in two games - two victories with a score of 3: 0, over "Karpaty" at home and over "Zorya" away. And Lviv, which occupies the third place in the table, in turn can boast of a devastating victory in the meeting with "Arsenal" (4: 1).

But Shakhtar can't find their game. In the 4th round Valery Kryventsov's wards were defeated by Vorskla (0: 2), in the 6th round they lost two points in a duel with Olimpik (3: 3), and in the 8th round - with Oleksandriya ( 0: 0). Only two victories in five rounds is clearly not a championship schedule. Although it is too early to draw conclusions, because there are still 14 matches of the first stage and 10 - the second.

The standings after the 8th round

Scorers: Daniil SUKHORUCHKO (Arsenal), Timur VELIEV (Arsenal), Dmytro SAUTIN (Karpaty), Oleksandr GLAGOLA (Shakhtar), Denis USTYMENKO (Alexandria) - 4.