Ukrainian U-19 Championship: new season - according to new regulations

22.07.2021 15:07

Photo by shakhtar.com

The jubilee, 10th season of the Ukrainian U-19 Championship, which starts today, July 22, will not be quite usual, because for the first time the Ukrainian U-21 Championship, which has been reduced, will not be played in parallel. And this led to some adjustments in the rules of the championship among 19-year-olds.

So, for the first time, senior performers will play alongside footballers who are not more than 19 years old. This is a kind of compensation for the loss of U-21 teams, where 20-21-year-old reservists and football players, who were recovering from injuries, received playing practice.

In the 2021/2022 season, three players born in 2000-2002, one even older player, as well as at least seven players born in 2003 (and younger) will be able to be on the field. 

The number of participants is also increasing - up to 16. The last time the same number of teams went to the start was in the 2015/2016 season.

The debut season will be held by the U-19 team of Kharkiv Metalist 1925, led by Roman Melnyk, a well-known specialist in children's and youth football. There is information that during the off-season the coaching staff of Kharkiv reviewed more than 100 candidates for a place in the application.

Chornomorets (coach Anatoliy Didenko, who previously led Mykolayiv-19 in the second league) and Veres (the newly formed team was entrusted to Rivne football legend Bohdan Samardak) have returned to the number of participants in the U-2 championship. After a short break due to the uncertainty of the future of the main teams of their clubs, the junior teams "Desna" and "Minaya" resumed training, finishing the previous season in 13th and 14th places out of 14 possible, respectively.

Significant achievements and the fight for prizes from these five are hardly to be expected at the moment. Although "Chornomorets" four times in its history took places in the top 6 (2014, 2015, 2017, 2018), and Odessa football school (as, incidentally, and Kharkiv) has always been among the best in Ukraine.

Despite this, the favorites of the 2021/2022 season in the U-19 championship should be considered those who regularly win medals - Dynamo and Shakhtar. It is especially interesting to look at Kyiv, because Igor Kostyuk's team did not win gold medals for the first time after five years of hegemony. It is worth expecting revenge from the capital's footballers.

And the U-19 team was joined in the summer by players not only from the graduating class of the academy born in 2004, but also in 2005 (for example, central defender Yegor Syzonyuk, who is predicted to have a great future). By the way, football players born in 2004 played in the U-19 team last season: Artem Benedyuk, Arseniy Filatov, Vladislav Yeremenko, Anton Tsarenko, Artem Slesar, Dmitry Melnichenko, Igor Gorbach. Some (Tsarenko and Gorbach) even made their debut in the U-21 team.

These guys from Dynamo should be more motivated also because in the final tournament of the Elite League among the U-17 teams in the penalty series they also lost to Shakhtar, which is headed by the former coach of the Kyiv Academy - Oleksandr Sytnyk.

The Pitmen's team, born in 2004, as well as Dynamo, is very strong. And its representatives - Andriy Buleza, Danylo Udod, Ivan Losenko - also played in the U-21 championship. They also competed in the U-19 championship, and together with them - Alexander Rosputko, Roman Savchenko, Oleg Chuyko, Ivan Borisenko, Anton Glushchenko, Kirill Sigeev, Denis Pochapsky and a young man born in 2005 Alexander Yushchenko. The Orange and Blacks have regained the title of Ukrainian U-19 champions after five failed attempts and are unlikely to agree to give it up right away.

Who will be able to compete with the two grandees? Last season, Zorya was among the top three winners, but Vasyl Baranov's team included many players born in 2002 who will no longer be able to play the same big role in the new championship. And Luhansk residents have not had their own school since they were forced to move from their hometown. Therefore, much will depend on the quality of the off-season equipment players born in 2004.

Instead, Lviv's Rukh, which last season signed a wonderful team of Lviv Karpaty players born in 2004 under the leadership of Vitaliy Ponomarev, finished fourth in its debut season in the U-19 championship. And he did not lose the key players of this team. And the boys of Ponomarev under the flag of KZ CYSS "Karpaty" (Lviv) spent a very decent season 2020/2021 in the Elite League U-17 and won the match for third place at the Dnieper DVUFK. Bohdan Slyubyk and Andriy Stolyarchuk were recognized as the best defender and midfielder of the final tournament, respectively (the best goalkeeper is Denis Barchenko from Shakhtar, the best striker is Igor Gorbach from Dynamo, the best player of the tournament is Anton Glushchenko from Shakhtar).

It can give a strong season to Vorskla, which has never fallen below 10th place, and last season was fifth. This summer, Pavlo Rebenok joined Vitaliy Kosovsky's coaching staff and ended his playing career.

Kolos continues to develop, where Oleksandr Pozdeyev works effectively. Ambitious statements were made by the leaders of "Alexandria", but there this summer there was a change of coach: Yuri Gura headed the main team, and his assistant Alexander Karpov began working independently with the U-19 team. The school of Alexandrians (as well as blacksmiths) is not included in the Elite League, so much will depend on the quality of selection work. Although a little less than in "Dawn".

You can expect a breakthrough from "Mariupol" or "Dnipro-1" - these are clubs in which the training system is stable. The Lviv School also always provides promising students. Even Ingulets, for which last season in the U-19 championship was the premiere, in the fall of 2020 sensationally took second place in the standings. Therefore, with him, despite the lack of elite CYSS, will have to reckon.