3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Brian Lopez 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.
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.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Matvii Ponomarenko. 2‑0 against Zorya, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
11 combined actions and 7.31. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Shakhtar next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
Brian Lopez 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Dynamo Kyiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Volodymyr Brazhko 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.
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.
Nobody at Dynamo Kyiv will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dynamo Kyiv, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Zorya in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dynamo Kyiv know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
3‑0, and Brian Lopez took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Dynamo Kyiv tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A brace, and Brian Lopez takes the afternoon — 8.69
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Brian Lopez provided it, and the 8.69 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Matvii Ponomarenko did not need any: 8.08, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Oleksandr Shaparenko on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Oleksandr Tymchyk and Dynamo Kyiv agree another 4 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dynamo Kyiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
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.
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 Oleksii Sych is on it.
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Matvii Ponomarenko decided nobody was going anywhere. Kudrivka had no time left to answer.
Two goals and a mark of 8.46 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dynamo Kyiv have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kostiantyn Vivcharenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Ruslan Neshcheret knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
A brace, and Brian Lopez takes the afternoon — 8.63
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Brian Lopez provided it, and the 8.63 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Brian Lopez 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.
At 17 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Oleksii Sych 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dynamo Kyiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 23 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Nazar Voloshyn was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 4‑0, Oleksandr Shaparenko could afford to be generous.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Two goals and a mark of 8.64 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Dynamo Kyiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Volodymyr Brazhko 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.
Brian Lopez 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Volodymyr Brazhko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Dynamo Kyiv asked and Polissia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Oleksandr Shaparenko chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Polissia.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dynamo Kyiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Dynamo Kyiv will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Squad17 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Dynamo Kyiv 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.
It needed Matvii Ponomarenko to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Kryvbas, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Dynamo Kyiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksii Sych 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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Dynamo Kyiv have paid $10.5M for Brian Lopez, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Shola Ogundana had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
A mark of 8.12 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.03 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Dynamo Kyiv have gone to Metalist with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.6M — a club that wants Illia Krupskyi enough to be asked twice.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mykola Shaparenko and Dynamo Kyiv agree another 4 years.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Admira Wacker had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. La Equidad have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Dynamo Kyiv paid $10.5M and La Equidad took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Daniel Castillo’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to La Equidad.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Santos 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of David Santos
Dynamo Kyiv have gone to La Equidad with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The offer from MFK Ruzomberok for Shola Ogundana was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ruslan Neshcheret and Dynamo Kyiv agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Oleksandr Pikhalionok 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dynamo Kyiv, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Still no offer on the table, and Mykola Mykhailenko’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
The offer from Stade Rennais for Duvan Valencia was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Add another name to the list: Dynamo Kyiv have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Brian Lopez. The answer from La Equidad has not changed — yet.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at La Equidad heard it as anything else.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Gabriel Moreno 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Brian Lopez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Diego Diaz after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.