Marked for Ivan Tymchyk
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Mar 2028
60 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Oleksii Sych and Karpaty agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Alen Zahirović gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alen Zahirović has just signed for Karpaty, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Oleksandr Kemkin 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.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
Karpaty release $2.4M for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Market6 Mar 2028
The loan was meant to give him football. 0 games and 0 goals later he is back at Karpaty no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Feb 2028
Obolon come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Karpaty did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad7 Feb 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Karpaty may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Xeber Alkain 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.
Market7 Feb 2028
Fabiano attracts admirers
The name of Fabiano has come up in conversations Karpaty were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Vladyslav Babohlo 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.
Loan watch7 Feb 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Karpaty, and 0 appearances in 26 say he has earned the hearing.
Match5 Feb 2028
Victoriia Sumy left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Stênio
“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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Doors closed at Karpaty
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Jan 2028
Chiapas come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Karpaty did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match8 Jan 2028
10 unbeaten for Karpaty
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Karpaty did not have in the autumn.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Xeber Alkain 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Vladyslav Babohlo 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.
Loan watch10 Jan 2028
“I watch every Karpaty game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Feniks runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
A mark of 7.73, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Jan 2028
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.
Match8 Jan 2028
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match11 Dec 2027
Karpaty cannot stop winning
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Xeber Alkain 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 Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match11 Dec 2027
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Karpaty and Ahrobiznes in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match11 Dec 2027
Three points for Karpaty, 4‑2 the final word against Ahrobiznes in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladyslav Babohlo 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
13 shut-outs and counting. Goalkeepers are only noticed when they fail, and Oleksandr Kemkin has given nobody the chance.
Loan watch13 Dec 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Karpaty, and 0 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad13 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oleksandr Kemkin, and the manager let it.
Match11 Dec 2027
Karpaty keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market15 Nov 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.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
Vitalii Kholod pops up at the right end — 7.95
7.95, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Xeber Alkain 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 Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Illia Kvasnytsia 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.
The terraces15 Nov 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Vitalii Kholod 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.
Match13 Nov 2027
Prykarpattia made Karpaty work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
Ninety minutes of Yaroslav Karabin at his very best
Marked 8.19. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Karpaty.
Squad15 Nov 2027
10 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
Loan watch15 Nov 2027
“I watch every Karpaty game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Feniks runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match16 Oct 2027
Whatever happens, Karpaty do not lose
13 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.
Match16 Oct 2027
Karpaty leave it late against Nyva
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and Nyva spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Market18 Oct 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Karpaty can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Xeber Alkain 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 Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Illia Kvasnytsia 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.
Match16 Oct 2027
Karpaty get the job done against Nyva
A 1‑0 win over Nyva, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
A performance of 8.54 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad18 Oct 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Karpaty know it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market20 Sep 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Karpaty can pretend not to have heard.
Match18 Sep 2027
Nobody wants to play Karpaty right now
4 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.
Market20 Sep 2027
Igor Neves wants European nights
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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Xeber Alkain 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 Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dmytro Forsiuk is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladyslav Babohlo 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Xeber Alkain
“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.
Match18 Sep 2027
A 2‑0 win over Probiy, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
One of those days for Stênio
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.11, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 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.
Match31 Jul 2027
The wait goes on for Karpaty
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Xeber Alkain 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.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
Graduation day at Karpaty
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Vladyslav Babohlo 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.
Market2 Aug 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ivan Tymchyk is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market2 Aug 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Dmytro Malynovskyi 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.
Market2 Aug 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Anton Shaparenko 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.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
A performance of 8.10 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.