From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Sep 2026
Still nobody has beaten Livyi Bereh
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Illia Kvasnytsia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Livyi Bereh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sidnney 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Olaf Pawelczyk commits to Livyi Bereh for another 3 years.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Valerii Samar, and the manager let it.
Market21 Sep 2026
A stepping stone, not a home, for Trey George
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Livyi Bereh were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Market21 Sep 2026
Trey George is 20, and Livyi Bereh have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Market21 Sep 2026
Olaf Pawelczyk is 20, and Livyi Bereh have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Sep 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Match12 Sep 2026
5 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.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Livyi Bereh close the window on a squad of their own making
15 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Market14 Sep 2026
The offer from Zorya for Denys Ihnatenko 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.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Viktor Tsukanov 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Livyi Bereh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valeriy Bondarenko 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 ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.57, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 8.06 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match5 Sep 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Chernihiv, and it could have been more.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.61, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market7 Sep 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Livyi Bereh have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Viktor Tsukanov 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valeriy Bondarenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Illia Kvasnytsia 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
Ninety minutes of Dmytro Shastal at his very best
Marked 8.78. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Livyi Bereh.
Match5 Sep 2026
Livyi Bereh 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
Triumph
Match26 Aug 2026
A 3‑1 win over Kryvbas, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match29 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Victoriia Sumy, and it could have been more.
Market31 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.17 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 8.09 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Match29 Aug 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Livyi Bereh have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad31 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 Livyi Bereh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match22 Aug 2026
3‑0, and Illia Kvasnytsia took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Livyi Bereh tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market24 Aug 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 Livyi Bereh can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Livyi Bereh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valeriy Bondarenko 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Polissia pay $74.0K, 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dynamo Kyiv have kept their man, and Livyi Bereh go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Danylo Polonskyi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Illia Kvasnytsia was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.25. 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 dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Yevhen Buialskyi kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Polissia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Livyi Bereh is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Illia Kvasnytsia 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Valeriy Bondarenko 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chornomorets have kept their man, and Livyi Bereh go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Livyi Bereh
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Market17 Aug 2026
He is 20, and nobody at Livyi Bereh signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The dugout17 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.” Yevhen Buialskyi chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match8 Aug 2026
Feniks will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Livyi Bereh were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market10 Aug 2026
Polissia come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Livyi Bereh did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 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 Livyi Bereh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sidnney was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Livyi Bereh asked and Shakhtar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
At 23 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Roman Pikhalyonok 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Yevhen Tymoschuk 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Valeriy Bondarenko commits to Livyi Bereh for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Home is on Sidnney's mind
“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; Livyi Bereh are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Illia Kvasnytsia 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Livyi Bereh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valeriy Bondarenko 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
The phone has started ringing about Wendell again, and this time the name on the line is Victoriia Sumy. Livyi Bereh are listening politely and promising nothing.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Wendell did the work nobody counts — 6.50
9 combined actions and 6.50. 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.
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months and counting on Sidnney
Still no offer on the table, and Sidnney’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.