League One: Rukh's ambitious plans and news from the quarterfinalist camps of Ukraine

02.02.2019 13:03

Rukh FC President Grigory Kozlovsky congratulates on the appointment of new team leader Leonid Kuchuk. Photo by fcrukh.com

Negotiations between FC Rukh President Hryhoriy Kozlovsky and well-known specialist Leonid Kuchuk lasted for four months. And on February 1, the birthday of the club boss, a long-term contract was signed.

"It was the best gift for me," said Hryhoriy Kozlovsky. - I am very glad that Kuchuk will lead Rukh, because I consider him the best coach who will work in Ukraine.

In turn, Leonid Kuchuk noted that for him this is another challenge. Rukh's plans are ambitious: this season - to keep a residence permit in the first division, and in the next - to rise in the class. The new leader of Vynnyky does not hide that he is satisfied with his return to Ukraine, where he previously headed Kyiv's Arsenal and Stal from Kamyansky. Especially since his relatives live in Lviv.

Ivan Fedik, Vitaliy Milyutin and Yevhen Ivanov, who were his assistants in the previous club - Rostov, will help Kuchuk. It is already possible to predict that in "Rus" will not do without serious personnel perturbations, because at the moment 12 players have left the team. So far, only Maksym Kalenchuk, who once played under the leadership of Leonid Kuchuk for Stal, has joined its ranks.

By the way, in the second part of the season, Rukh players will host their rivals not in Vynnyky, where repair work will begin at the stadium. Bohdan Markevych, and in the Lviv arenas - the University of Physical Culture and "Ukraine".

Meanwhile, other first-league teams are gradually getting involved in the training process after a long vacation. The quarterfinalist of the Cup of Ukraine, Dnipro-1, still tipped the scales in their favor in the sparring with Kremen - 1: 0. Igor Litvinenko scored the decisive goal in the 73rd minute. On February 3, Dmytro Mykhaylenko's wards will leave for Turkey.

Another first-league representative in the cup draw, Ingulets, was pleased with the performance in the control matches. First, Serhiy Lavrynenko's wards defeated Kryvyi Rih's Girnyk - 6: 2, and then defeated Kremen - 3: 1. The ranks of the team from Petrovo were joined by goalkeeper Roman Herych from Kalush (he is to replace the experienced Gennady Ganev, who decided to get a job abroad) and station wagon Artem Shchedry, who once played for Zirka from Kropyvnytskyi.

The players of Ingulets finished the first stage of training with a sparring match with Kremen, in which they celebrated the victory - 3: 1. Photo by ingulec.com

The control matches with the participation of Prykarpattia players, who are at the training camp in Yaremche, also turned out to be productive. At first, Volodymyr Kovalyuk's wards lost to Chernivtsi's Bukovyna - 3: 5, and then rehabilitated in the confrontation with Kalush - 4: 2. Note the return to "Prykarpattia" of the scorer Roman Kuzmin, who last fall played for one of the German amateur teams.