From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
Marian Faryna 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 Nov 2026
Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Casarini 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“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 watch9 Nov 2026
“I watch every Kudrivka game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Probiy runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad9 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Marked 9.46 — 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Juan Casarini 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 ratings2 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Anton Hlushchenko at his very best
Marked 9.07. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Kudrivka.
Match31 Oct 2026
Veres made Kudrivka work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Lucas Bernal 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 Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 170% of everything Kudrivka earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
At 22 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sebastián Ybares, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Oct 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Denys Nahnoinyi 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Eryk Szymański gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Eryk Szymański has just signed for Kudrivka, and for once the answer mattered.
Match24 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Kudrivka
3 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Poltava left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 34, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
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 Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Juan Casarini 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 ratings19 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 20, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Oct 2026
Denys Nahnoinyi 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Artem Macheliuk and Kudrivka agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Casarini 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
0‑2 to Oleksandriya, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“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 Oct 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
There were 11 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Juan Casarini, 38, rolls back the years — 8.71
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.71 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A defender's afternoon for Kaya Makosso
Defensive actions: 23. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad5 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 Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
286% of the income goes out in wages at Kudrivka
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.93, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Marian Faryna 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Oleksandr Kozak. 2‑0 against Epicentr, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.87 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Anton Hlushchenko 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 ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match26 Sep 2026
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Casarini 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Kaya Makosso 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 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 Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Juan Casarini 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Oleksandr Kozak scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Obolon, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Juan Casarini, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Oleksandr Kozak was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.28. 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
Market21 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Oleksandr Bieliaiev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 5.76, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Sep 2026
Polissia left with the points after a 3‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match12 Sep 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Kudrivka and Polissia, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.88, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Lucas Bernal 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.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Anton Hlushchenko 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Yaroslav Kysil 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 ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.07, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Federico Marín 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match5 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Kryvbas spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A defender's afternoon for Kaya Makosso
Defensive actions: 24. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Juan Casarini 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Lucas Bernal 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 Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
270% of the income goes out in wages at Kudrivka
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Marian Faryna 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. 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
Match26 Aug 2026
Chornomorets ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Anton Hlushchenko 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 ratings31 Aug 2026
22 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A performance of 9.31 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match29 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Oleksandr Bieliaiev. 1‑0 against Karpaty, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.06 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑3 by Zorya, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Match22 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 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 Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market24 Aug 2026
Poltava pay $140.0K, 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valerii Rohozynskyi 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
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
Uneasy
Squad17 Aug 2026
Anton Hlushchenko 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Casarini 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 terraces17 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Anton Hlushchenko 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Anton Hlushchenko at his very best
Marked 8.74. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Kudrivka.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
33 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market17 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Kudrivka will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Match15 Aug 2026
Kudrivka and LNZ 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Anton Hlushchenko 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Kudrivka have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Valerii Rohozynskyi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.55. 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrii Storchous, and the manager let it.
Market10 Aug 2026
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Match8 Aug 2026
A 2‑2 draw with Rukh leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces3 Aug 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 5 of the 24 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kaya Makosso and Kudrivka agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 Aug 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 Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Victoriia Sumy have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alban Taipi. The answer from Kudrivka has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marian Faryna, and the manager let it.
Match1 Aug 2026
Kolos left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valerii Rohozynskyi 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.