1992 Ukrainian Cup

Like the championship, the first edition of the Cup had a tight schedule as the Football Federation of Ukraine was given just several months to present the best national clubs to UEFA for the European competitions with the minimum required matches played. The competition started on February 10 and the final was played on May 31. It was the first National Cup edition replacing the previous competition of the Ukrainian SSR Cup, which was organized as a regional qualification competition for the Soviet Cup. The last winner of that Soviet competition FC Temp Shepetivka was eliminated in the very first preliminary round by Kremin Kremenchuk. Simultaneously, three of the participating Ukrainian clubs were still competing in the Soviet Cup. The very first trophy was won by Chornomorets Odessa thus qualifying to the qualification round of UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.

Due to the political issue with the status of Crimean peninsula no Crimean clubs were represented in this edition of the Cup. The Russian Federation had intention to rebut the 1954 Soviet administrative division reform when Crimea was re-subordinated to the Ukrainian administration as an oblast. In 1991 Crimea was declared a republic and afterward the Russian State Duma planned to annex it as a part of the Russian federate subjects claiming that the 1954 Crimean transfer is in conflict with the Constitution of the Russian SFSR. Even long after Ukraine gained its independence for unknown reasons several Russian high-officials kept their privately owned vacation estates in the National preserve areas that were awarded to them by the Soviet administration.

Organization

In this edition participated almost all of the clubs (except SC Tavriya Simferopol, FC Okean Kerch, FC Zirka Kirovohrad and FC Mayak Kharkiv) that have competed on the professional level in the previous season of the Soviet competitions (from all Leagues). Okean, Zirka, and Mayak lost their non-amateur status, while Tavriya chose not to participate. Only one newly reformed amateur club Azovets Mariupol was allowed to participate. It was decided that the Cup will start with 16 teams and six Soviet Top League participants gain direct qualification, while the other 10 teams had to qualify through couple of preliminaries with Azovets Mariupol gaining bye round. Total teams that participated in the first Cup was 45 with 19 pairs in the first preliminary round and 10 in the second. The winner of the competition would gained a chance to qualify for the UEFA Cup Winner's Cup competition. The preliminary rounds and the final consisted of only one game while the other three had a home-away fixture scheduled.

The tournament started on February 10, 1992 with the game between Podillia Khmelnytsky and Bukovyna Chernivtsi right in the middle of the Zakarpattia Oblast in the village of Ilnytsia and culminated in the final game in Kiev on May 31, 1992. With the organization of the Ukrainian Cup competition the three Ukrainian clubs Dynamo Kyiv, Chornomorets Odessa, and Metalist Kharkiv that still were in competition of the Soviet Cup with their Quarterfinals games scheduled on March 25, 1992 had those fixtures canceled, abandoning that competition.

Brief overview

The highest attending game happened to be in the Round of 16 when FC Skala Stryi were playing against FC Dynamo Kyiv in the city of Stryi in front of 17,000 spectators. Skala lost that game in the overtime by the goal from Oleg Salenko. Even the final game attendance of 12,000 could not beat that festival of sport in the small city of the Lviv Oblast. The lowest attendance of the competition was in the game between Kolos Nikopol and Polissia Zhytomyr which took place on February 16, 1992 just outside of the city of Nikopol in Chkalove village and was witnessed only by 150 people. The highest scoring game took place in Odessa when the local Chornomorets avenged its poor performance in Zhytomyr by beating Polissia 7:1. The biggest margin in goals scored was recorded in Zaporizhia when the local Metalurh won over Vahonobudivnyk 7:0. The most surprising was the elimination of the Soviet Cup participant Dynamo Kyiv that lost its quarterfinal stand off against the Zaporizhian Automakers 1:2 in aggregate.

Competition schedule

First preliminary round

All games took place on February 16, 1992, except the game in Zakarpattia between Podillia - Bukovyna which took place on February 10, 1992.

Second preliminary round

Most of games took place on February 23, 1992. The game in Crimea between Podissya - Stal took place on February 21, 1992 and the game in Bukovyna between Bukovyna - Azovets took place on February 28, 1992.

Bracket

Round of 16

First leg

Second leg

Chornomorets won 8–5 on aggregate.

Metalurh won 7–1 on aggregate.

Torpedo won 6–1 on aggregate.

Dynamo won 3–2 on aggregate.

Shakhtar won 4–1 on aggregate.

Dnipro won 5–2 on aggregate.

Metalist won 4–1 on aggregate.

Naftovyk won 2–1 on aggregate.

Quarterfinals (1/4)

First leg

Second leg

Metalist won 2–1 on aggregate.

Chornomorets won 3–1 on aggregate.

Torpedo won 2–1 on aggregate.

Shakhtar won 6–1 on aggregate.

Semifinals (1/2)

First leg

Second leg

Chornomorets won 3–1 on aggregate.

Metlist won 2–1 on aggregate.

Final

Cup holders

(league appearances and goals listed in brackets)^[1]

• ^1 Yuriy Sak also scored one own goal.
• ^2 In its first game against Pollisya Chornomorets played with its reserves led by Vitaliy Sidnev.
• Note: Only Bukel received a yellow card.

Top goalscorers

^[2].

Goalkeeping leaders

Wins

Other Records

Penalties

Goals allowed per game (2 games min.)

• Note: Zanin (Vah/bud Stakhanov) is also the only goalie that scored a goal in this competition from a penalty spot.

See also

• Ukrainian Premier League 1992
• Ukrainian First League 1992

References

1. ^ Chornomorets Odessa: Ukrainian Cup 1992 (Russian)
2. ^ ukranianfootball.narod.ru