Championship of Ukraine U-19. Results of the season: "Rukh" won gold medals without losing a single match

08.06.2023 14:10

Photo by fcrukh.com

According to the results of the 2022/2023 season, "Rukh" became the fourth champion of Ukraine U-19 — after "Dynamo", "Metalist" and "Shakhtar".

Physically, the Lviv team was first in the standings last season as well, but after 18 rounds. Officially, that season was ended early due to the full-scale aggression that the Russian Federation launched against Ukraine. The prize-winners were not recognized or approved, only the participants of the European Cups were determined. And it was "Rukh" that won the right to represent Ukraine in the 2022/2023 UEFA Youth League, where reached to the 1/8 finals, winning against the Polish "Zaglembe", the Turkish "Galatasaray" and the Italian "Inter".

In the 2023/2024 season, the team of Mykhailo Dyachuk-Stavitskyi, who replaced Vitaly Ponomarev as head coach of "Rukh" U-19 (after he led the club's first team), will again play in the UEFA Youth League. But already as a full-fledged person champion Ukraine.

Almost to the finish line, the players and coaches of "Dynamo" tried to compete with "Rukh". But Lviv players, who scored 21 penalties during the season (realized 18), did not lose a single match. And in the spring they allowed themselves only two draws — with Dynamo (0:0) and Metalist (2:2), which, by the way, compared to the last review the only one who improved his tournament position (from 12th place to 10th place).

"Rukh" in the last nine rounds (plus play-offs) scored 28 points out of 30 possible, but guaranteed the championship only in the penultimate round. After that, "Dynamo" conceded in the match with "Metalist 1925" on the last day of the game, and the distance between the two teams increased to eight points. But before this defeat, Ihor Kostyuk's wards won eight out of eight possible matches.

Including Shakhtar (3:2), which after the winter loaned out to UPL clubs a group of key players, including Vladyslav Pohorily (he remained in first place in the U-19 championship scorers' ranking), Andriy Buleza , Kyrylo Sigheev and Roman Savchenko, was looking for a replacement for the center forward for a long time. And, in addition to the aforementioned defeat against "Dynamo", Oscar Ratulutra's team lost points with "Kolos" (1:1) and "Zorya" (1:1). But football players, who are currently 16-17 years old, got a chance to prove themselves.

During the last nine rounds (plus playoffs), the top 7 teams by the number of points scored, in addition to "Rukh" (28), "Dynamo" (24) and "Shakhtar" (20), included "Alexandria" (17 ), "Metalist" (15), "Dnipro-1" and "Veres" (14 each).

The Rivne team of 2023 pleasantly surprised. In autumn "Veres" U-19 scored only seven points (15th result), and in spring - 27 (fifth).

Standings

Scorers: Vladyslav POGHORILY (Shakhtar) — 16, Ivan DAVIDENKO (Alexandria) — 14, Vitaly LOBKO (Zorya) — 13, Ramik HADZHIEV (Dnipro-1), Ihor HORBACH (Dynamo), Ilya KVASNYTSYA ("Movement") - 12.