February 4, 2021

Ukrainians contend for best save in UEFA Champions League

More

www.fcdynamo.kiev.ua

Ruslan Neshcheret, who plays for Dynamo Kyiv, is among eight goalkeepers vying for best save of the UEFA Champions League group stage.

shakhtar.com

Shakhtar Donetsk coach Luis Castro presents Anatoliy Trubin the “Player of the Year” award for his 2020 season with Shakhtar Donetsk during a training camp session.

PARSIPPANY, N.J. – Dynamo Kyiv’s Ruslan Neshcheret, 19, and Shakhtar Donetsk’s Anatoliy Trubin, 19, are among eight contenders for the title of best save in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League (UCL). An online vote is being hosted on Instagram (www.instagram.com/championsleague), where viewers can vote for their favorite goalkeeper of the UCL group stage. The direct website link for the vote is: www.instagram.com/p/CJnv4DxDVUx/.

Neshcheret (who was 18 at the time; he turned 19 on January 22) made headlines with his debut performance in the UCL on November 4, 2020, against Barcelona, to set a three-way UCL record of 12 saves in a single match. Despite Dynamo losing 1-2 against Barcelona, Neshcheret blocked shots from renowned strikers Lionel Messi, Ansu Fati and Ousmane Dembélé.

The young Dynamo goalie was the lone available goalkeeper for Dynamo during the November match against Barcelona, as four other Dynamo goalies (Denis Boyko, Heorhiy Bushchan, Denis Ihnatenko and Valentyn Morgun) were unable to play due to COVID-19 regulations. Neshcheret later tested positive for COVID, as announced by the Dynamo club on November 11, 2020, which prevented him from joining the U-21 Ukrainian national team in the Euro-2021 qualifiers against Malta (November 13) and Northern Ireland (November 17).

In what was dubbed by observers as a duel between two goalkeepers, with Barcelona noted for its higher class of outfield players and Dynamo deserving of “the highest praise for their performance,” noted the website Futbolnyi Klub, Neshcheret outshone his Barcelona counterpart, Marc-Andre Ter Stegen.

Neshcheret, who hails from Mukachevo, Zakarpattia Oblast, is a product of the Youth Sportive School Mukachevo (2010-2014) and later the Dynamo Kyiv Academy (2014-2019), having played seven games in the UEFA Youth League where he kept four “clean sheets” (matches where zero goals were scored against that particular goalie). While representing the Ukrainian national and youth teams (Under-15, 2017; U-16, 2017-2018; U-17, 2019; and U-21, 2019-present), Neshcheret has five appearances to his credit. He made his inaugural appearance with Dynamo Kyiv in the Ukrainian Premier League on October 31, 2020, against SC Dnipro-1, but was shown a red card in the December 5, 2020, match against Mariupol.

www.fcdynamo.kiev.ua

Ruslan Neshcheret, who plays for Dynamo Kyiv, is among eight goalkeepers vying for best save of the UEFA Champions League group stage.

While preparing to return to training during the winter break, Neshcheret told the FC Dynamo Kyiv website on January 12 that he looks forward to the training restart. His rest period included two weeks off and on January 25 he began doing individual training programs. He refrained from even watching soccer matches on television, but admitted to catching a few English Premier League matches. Dynamo will resume training at a new location for the team in the United Arab Emirates and, he noted, “I think it will be good for us. It’s always nice to see new places.” He is aiming high for the second part of the season, focusing for Dynamo to win the UPL and maintain Dynamo’s position in first place in the UPL standings, win the national cup and to reach as far as possible in the Europa League.

Other contenders in the best save category included Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich, Germany), David De Gea (Manchester United, England), Caoimhin Kelleher (Liverpool, England), Peter Gulacsi (Leipzig, Germany), Yann Sommer (Borussia Monchengladbach, Germany) and Edouard Mendy (Chelsea, England).

Dynamo was relegated from the UCL to the UEFA Europa League Round of 32 after the club finished in third place in Group G of the UCL; Shakhtar experienced a similar fate in its own UCL group stage, finishing in third place in Group B.

In the Europa League, Dynamo is scheduled to play against Club Brugge (Belgium) on February 18 and 25, while Shakhtar Donetsk plays against Maccabi Tel-Aviv on those same dates.

Darijo Srna, Shakhtar’s director of football and Croatian soccer legend, told Futbol 1: “I’m happy with the draw; it could have been much worse. Maccabi Tel-Aviv played well in the Europa League group stage and we have lots of respect for our opponent. But Shakhtar are the favorites in this tie as we were semifinalists last season.”
Trubin helps Shakhtar shine

Trubin, a Donetsk native who stands at 6-foot-6, earned praise for his coming-of-age performance against Internazionale Milan, in a scoreless match on December 9, 2020, to knock the Italian club out of the competition. While yellow-carded during the match, he made four saves that night (three from within the penalty area, three punch saves), and he started the match ahead of 36-year-old Andriy Pyatov – the Shakhtar stalwart goalkeeper. Among the notable saves included a shot from Romelu Lukaku in the second half that went over the crossbar.

Reportedly, English clubs Arsenal and Chelsea have taken a keen interest in the Ukrainian who was voted “Player of the Year” for 2020 by Shakhtar club fans and Trubin earned 32.1 percent of the votes cast. In 2020, he played in 20 matches with clean sheets in eight games, averaging 3.14 saves per match. Other nominees for the award were Tete (26.7 percent) and Manor Solomon (26 .4 percent). Pyatov was named Shakhtar’s best player in 2019.

Speaking with Shakhtar News, Trubin said that winter training camp has been intense with two training sessions a day and three friendly matches held during the camp. When asked how he plans to recover during the short period of rest in between training camp sessions, he said: “I will spend some time with my family, relatives and friends – that’s the best rest after a long separation. In such conditions, you rest first of all mentally, getting distracted from external circumstances. Two days is just enough to regain your fitness and stay with loved ones.”

Making his professional debut in a 4-0 Ukrainian Premier League (UPL) win against Mariupol in May 2019 (with 16 appearances, five in the UCL for 2020-2021), Trubin’s soccer experience began at Azovstal-2 Mariupol (2013-2014), before joining the Shakhtar Donetsk Academy in 2014 until 2019. He played for Ukraine’s youth national teams with a total of 13 appearances (Under-17, 2017-2018; U-19, 2018-present, and U-21, 2019-present). Additional credits for Trubin with Shakhtar include winning the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 UPL championship as well as the 2018-2019 Ukrainian Cup.

Comments are closed.