Marked for Anton Yashkov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Feb 2029
Kudrivka are in real trouble now
Position 16, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad12 Feb 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Feb 2029
A 3‑1 win over Ahrobiznes, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Oleksandr Bieliaiev 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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
“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 ratings12 Feb 2029
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.69 on the card, and the Kudrivka support went home talking about one name.
Market12 Feb 2029
Everyone has stopped pretending: Epicentr will make the call about Jorge Fontemachi this week. Kudrivka have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad12 Feb 2029
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Kudrivka told Artem Liehostaiev something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Market12 Feb 2029
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Kudrivka has been clear about where Vladyslav Klymenko stands, which is more than many ever get.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces22 Jan 2029
The mood at Kudrivka has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match20 Jan 2029
Beaten 0‑4 by Oleksandriya, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market22 Jan 2029
Yevhen Morozko has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kudrivka they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Maksym Lopyrionok 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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Bieliaiev 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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Boardroom22 Jan 2029
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Player ratings22 Jan 2029
Ten men and a goalkeeper behind him, and it still finished in the net. He knew before anybody told him, and nobody at Kudrivka needed to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Jan 2029
The wait goes on for Kudrivka
23 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.
Market8 Jan 2029
“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.
Match6 Jan 2029
No clean sheets in sight for Kudrivka
6 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Maksym Lopyrionok 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.
Match6 Jan 2029
Dynamo Kyiv left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad8 Jan 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Harold Sandoval commits to Kudrivka for another 4 years.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Bieliaiev 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.
Squad8 Jan 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anton Yashkov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings8 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Dec 2028
No end in sight to Kudrivka's wait for a win
20 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kudrivka has to find a result from somewhere.
Match18 Dec 2028
Every point is an argument now for Kudrivka
Position 16 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match16 Dec 2028
Nowhere to hide for Kudrivka
0‑3 against Polissia, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad18 Dec 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kudrivka may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market18 Dec 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jorge Fontemachi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kudrivka the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad18 Dec 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Oleksandr Bieliaiev 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.
Boardroom18 Dec 2028
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Dec 2028
18 matches without a win for Kudrivka
The run now stands at 18, and the questions being asked around Kudrivka are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Oleh Tymchyk recited it perfectly.
Market4 Dec 2028
“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 Kudrivka, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kudrivka may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market4 Dec 2028
Mykhailo Kulyk has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kudrivka they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Anton Yashkov commits to Kudrivka for another 2 years.
Squad4 Dec 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match2 Dec 2028
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Nov 2028
No end in sight to Kudrivka's wait for a win
16 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kudrivka has to find a result from somewhere.
Match20 Nov 2028
Kudrivka are in real trouble now
Position 16, 6 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market20 Nov 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jorge Fontemachi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kudrivka the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad20 Nov 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Oleksandr Bieliaiev 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.
Match18 Nov 2028
A bad afternoon for Kudrivka against Rukh
1‑2 to Rukh, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Oct 2028
No end in sight to Kudrivka's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kudrivka has to find a result from somewhere.
Match23 Oct 2028
Every point is an argument now for Kudrivka
Position 16 and 5 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.54, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match21 Oct 2028
Kudrivka leaking at the back
8 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Market23 Oct 2028
Kacper Kasza hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kudrivka can pretend not to have heard.
Market23 Oct 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kudrivka they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anton Yashkov, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Oct 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alan Zalazar and Kudrivka agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Oct 2028
11 matches without a win for Kudrivka
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Kudrivka are no longer polite ones.
Match14 Oct 2028
Nowhere to hide for Kudrivka
1‑4 against Shakhtar, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market16 Oct 2028
“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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad16 Oct 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kudrivka may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match14 Oct 2028
No clean sheets in sight for Kudrivka
7 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Maksym Lopyrionok 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 Oct 2028
Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Bieliaiev 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.
Boardroom16 Oct 2028
Nobody left the Kudrivka dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Sep 2028
Beaten 0‑6 by Dynamo Kyiv, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match23 Sep 2028
8 matches without a win for Kudrivka
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Kudrivka are no longer polite ones.
Match25 Sep 2028
Every point is an argument now for Kudrivka
Position 15 and 4 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market25 Sep 2028
“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 Kudrivka, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad25 Sep 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kudrivka may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad25 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match23 Sep 2028
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Kudrivka and Dynamo Kyiv, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksii Khakhliov 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Aug 2028
1‑5 to Karpaty, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad28 Aug 2028
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market28 Aug 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kudrivka can pretend not to have heard.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Maksym Lopyrionok 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.
Match26 Aug 2028
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Kudrivka and Karpaty in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Bieliaiev 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces7 Aug 2028
Anger at Kudrivka spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad7 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Thomas Castagne
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kudrivka lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad7 Aug 2028
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market7 Aug 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kudrivka is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Yevhen Morozko has agreed terms with LNZ for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad7 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Aug 2028
João Nuno is a better footballer than he was
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.
Match5 Aug 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Oleksandr Bieliaiev. 2‑1 against Rukh, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Ninety minutes of Artem Liehostaiev at his very best
Marked 8.11. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Kudrivka.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Jul 2028
Thomas Castagne damages knee ligaments — 29 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 29 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Maksym Lopyrionok 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Samuel Nicodemos Bernhed is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Kyrylo Prokopchuk has improved at 30, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Boardroom31 Jul 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Kudrivka
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Market31 Jul 2028
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Pavlo Tsygankov 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.
Market31 Jul 2028
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vladyslav Buialskyi 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.
Market31 Jul 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Vladyslav Stepanenko is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market31 Jul 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mykola Shevchuk 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 May 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market8 May 2028
“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.
Squad8 May 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Anton Yashkov commits to Kudrivka for another 2 years.
Squad8 May 2028
Eugenio Olivera 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.
Squad8 May 2028
“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.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Khoma 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces17 Apr 2028
Anger at Kudrivka spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad17 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anton Yashkov, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Apr 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kudrivka may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market10 Apr 2028
“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 Kudrivka, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Maksym Lopyrionok 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Feb 2028
The wait goes on for Kudrivka
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.
Market14 Feb 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kudrivka can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Eugenio Olivera 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Artem Macheliuk
“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.
Loan watch14 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 Kudrivka, and 0 appearances in 27 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad14 Feb 2028
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Match12 Feb 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Eugenio Olivera 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.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Jan 2028
$2.5M from Puebla for Jair Collahuazo. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
Match31 Jan 2028
Kudrivka sink to position 14
18 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market31 Jan 2028
“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 Kudrivka, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces31 Jan 2028
Supporters turn on the $2.5M sale of Jair Collahuazo
He is going to Puebla, the club has $2.5M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market31 Jan 2028
The phone has started ringing about Eugenio Olivera again, and this time the name on the line is Vorskla. Kudrivka are listening politely and promising nothing.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Eugenio Olivera ran the middle of the pitch — 6.53
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 18 combined actions and a mark of 6.53, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Match29 Jan 2028
The wait goes on for Kudrivka
4 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.
Match29 Jan 2028
The goals have deserted Kudrivka
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Kudrivka can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Maksym Lopyrionok 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Jan 2028
“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.
Market17 Jan 2028
The name of Jair Collahuazo has come up in conversations Kudrivka were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Maksym Lopyrionok 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.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
22 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eugenio Olivera 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.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.60 on the card, and the Kudrivka support went home talking about one name.
Squad17 Jan 2028
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad17 Jan 2028
The manager makes an example of Oleksandr Kozak
“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.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Jan 2028
“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 Kudrivka, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market10 Jan 2028
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Atletico Nacional moved on, Eugenio Olivera reports back to Kudrivka, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 Jan 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kudrivka may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad10 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Eugenio Olivera 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.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Anton Yashkov dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Dec 2027
15 matches without a win for Kudrivka
The run now stands at 15, and the questions being asked around Kudrivka are no longer polite ones.
Market20 Dec 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Eugenio Olivera 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.
Match18 Dec 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad20 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anton Yashkov, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Match4 Dec 2027
13 matches without a win for Kudrivka
The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around Kudrivka are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
15 combined actions and 6.62. 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match4 Dec 2027
Eugenio Olivera scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Karpaty, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Eugenio Olivera 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 watch6 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 Kudrivka, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad6 Dec 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Kudrivka are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Nov 2027
The wait goes on for Kudrivka
12 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.
The terraces29 Nov 2027
The mood at Kudrivka has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
Pressure builds in the Kudrivka boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match29 Nov 2027
Kudrivka are in real trouble now
Position 15, 9 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market29 Nov 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 Kudrivka can pretend not to have heard.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Myroslav Serdiuk: 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.” Kudrivka have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Maksym Lopyrionok 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eugenio Olivera 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Nov 2027
The wait goes on for Kudrivka
11 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.
Match20 Nov 2027
Beaten 0‑3 by Oleksandriya, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad22 Nov 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kudrivka may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market22 Nov 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 Kudrivka can pretend not to have heard.
Squad22 Nov 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Jair Collahuazo 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.
Boardroom22 Nov 2027
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Nov 2027
10 matches without a win for Kudrivka
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Kudrivka are no longer polite ones.
Market15 Nov 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 Kudrivka can pretend not to have heard.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Maksym Lopyrionok 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eugenio Olivera 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.
Match13 Nov 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad15 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Oct 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Oleksandr Kozak
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kudrivka lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match2 Oct 2027
Beaten 1‑4 by Zorya, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match4 Oct 2027
Kudrivka are in real trouble now
Position 14, 6 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market4 Oct 2027
Diego Ramírez hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kudrivka can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Kudrivka
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Artur Dumaniuk pops up at the right end — 7.85
7.85, 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.
Match2 Oct 2027
No end in sight to Kudrivka's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kudrivka has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Anton Yashkov commits to Kudrivka for another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Oleksandr Kozak
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kudrivka lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Kaya Makosso breaks a bone — 47 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 47 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad30 Aug 2027
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match25 Aug 2027
The small margins put Kudrivka out
Out, 0‑1 to Karpaty, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match28 Aug 2027
No end in sight to Kudrivka's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kudrivka has to find a result from somewhere.
Market30 Aug 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 Kudrivka, and it is not being withdrawn.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Oleksandr Kozak
73 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kudrivka lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Kaya Makosso breaks a bone — 63 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad16 Aug 2027
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market16 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kudrivka may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match14 Aug 2027
5 matches without a win for Kudrivka
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Kudrivka are no longer polite ones.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Aug 2027
Oleksandr Kozak damages knee ligaments — 81 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 81 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match7 Aug 2027
4 matches without a win for Kudrivka
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Kudrivka are no longer polite ones.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Eugenio Olivera 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andrii Storchous and Kudrivka agree another 2 years.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
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.