Marked for Arinaldo Rrapaj
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Sep 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Kolos close the window on a squad of their own making
15 in and 18 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Tempers go at Kolos
Elias Telles was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad13 Sep 2027
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Match11 Sep 2027
Kolos cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Match11 Sep 2027
Dynamo Kyiv left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Arinaldo Rrapaj, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
The clock did what Prykarpattia would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Squad13 Sep 2027
8 new faces, and Kolos are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Artem Husol has become a man the manager trusts
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The dugout
The plan did not have a place for Yurii Klymchuk
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Aug 2027
No end in sight to Kolos's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kolos has to find a result from somewhere.
Market23 Aug 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market23 Aug 2027
Kolos get their man
The chase for Alan Matturro ended with $3.1M changing hands and Shakhtar out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nyva have kept their man, and Kolos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Ibrahim Kané beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Marked 8.01 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Kolos
Andriy Tsurikov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match21 Aug 2027
Kolos caught on 90 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Karpaty scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
The cruellest goal, and it is Arinaldo Rrapaj's
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Kolos will not try tonight.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Jun 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kolos will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market28 Jun 2027
Karpaty come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Kolos did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market28 Jun 2027
Rukh pay $1.4M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Zurab Rukhadze is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Metalist wanted more than $170.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market28 Jun 2027
Dmytro Matsapura has left for Kryvbas in a $210.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad28 Jun 2027
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Artem Cheliadin falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yurii Klymchuk
121 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kolos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match22 Feb 2027
Kolos finish in position 7
39 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Market22 Feb 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Kolos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Kolos
Elias Telles was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
Kolos asked and UCSA said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market22 Feb 2027
The name of Dmytro Matsapura has come up in conversations Kolos were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Nair Tiknizyan was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match20 Feb 2027
Level with 86 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Kolos had all but put away. Obolon will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Serhii Kiblytskyi has agreed terms with Epicentr for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Kolos
Nair Tiknizyan and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match23 Jan 2027
Yurii Klymchuk scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Zorya, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Market25 Jan 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Pavel Rassolko has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Kolos.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Looking ahead25 Jan 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Karpaty in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market25 Jan 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kolos know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Kolos
Nair Tiknizyan and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Kolos
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Cheliadin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Nair Tiknizyan asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Oleksandr Makarenko was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Kolos dressing room was either.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match26 Dec 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Metalist defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Kyrylo Osypenko is on it.
Looking ahead28 Dec 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mykyta Burda’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Kolos needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kolos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andrii Poniedielnik. 2‑0 against Poltava, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.33, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Ardit Tahiri gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Loan watch14 Dec 2026
“I did not go to Metalist to sit and watch. I want to come back to Kolos and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
Looking ahead14 Dec 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Veres in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market14 Dec 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kolos know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
A brace, and Yurii Klymchuk takes the afternoon — 9.12
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yurii Klymchuk provided it, and the 9.12 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kolos may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Denys Ndukve has a hand in both — 7.81
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.81, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Kolos
Elias Telles and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match14 Nov 2026
Kudrivka made Kolos work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces16 Nov 2026
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match14 Nov 2026
Kudrivka blown away early
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Kudrivka tried to reorganise, Kolos did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Kolos
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Cheliadin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match4 Nov 2026
Kolos through in the cup
A 3‑3 win over Epicentr, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match4 Nov 2026
Anton Salabai had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Epicentr were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The match ball belongs to Anton Salabai, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Enoch Dzeble, 19, steals the show — 7.68
Marked 7.68 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Viktor Tryhub: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kolos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Kolos
Nair Tiknizyan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match7 Nov 2026
At last: Kolos win one
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Obolon. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match31 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Kolos's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kolos has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Kolos
Nair Tiknizyan and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match31 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oleksandr Demchenko, and the manager let it.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Oleksandr Makarenko left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A mark of 4.83 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kolos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marked 8.35 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Kolos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Cheliadin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Ardit Tahiri gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Metalist to sit and watch. I want to come back to Kolos and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Match17 Oct 2026
Kolos and Karpaty take a point apiece
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Oleksandr Makarenko after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
When it matters, Artem Husol plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Sep 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Artem Husol, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.96
A mark of 7.96 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Kolos
Nair Tiknizyan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
Kolos supporters have found a favourite in Artem Husol
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Artem Husol has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Oleksandr Makarenko kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad28 Sep 2026
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Yurii Klymchuk has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Artem Husol, 20, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where Kolos would like this to lead.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Montevideo City Torque is saying, and nobody at Kolos is enjoying the guessing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Arinaldo Rrapaj and Kolos agree another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Elias Telles in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kolos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dynamo Kyiv have kept their man, and Kolos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Taras Mykhailychenko is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Denys Zinchenko is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Maksym Vanat has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Volodymyr Mykhailychenko has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.