# 2004–05 Vyshcha Liha

The 2004–05 Vyshcha Liha season was the fourteenth since its establishment.
The season started on July 15, 2004, with all eight games of the first round. The last day of the competition was June 16, 2005. Shakhtar Donetsk won its second champion's title place ahead of the reigning champions Dynamo that held for the last couple of seasons. The Miners only lost two of their games, one at home to Metalist Kharkiv that had just returned to the top league and another one in Simferopol to Tavriya. Shakhtar also won both of their match-ups with Dynamo Kyiv. The top scorers competition was won by Oleksandr Kosyrin from Chornomorets Odesa who had 14 precise shots on goal.
Illichivets Mariupol was close to qualify for the European competition once again; however, it was not able to convert on the poor playing form of the leading Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk that had a bad stretch at the "finish line".
Both clubs from the Kyiv region, FC Obolon Kyiv and FC Borysfen Boryspil, that performed very well last season were forced into relegation due to their poor performance. Especially, strikingly bad season had Borysfen that won three games.

## Teams
### Promotions

* Zakarpattia Uzhhorod, the winners of the 2003–04 Ukrainian First League – (returning after absence of 2 seasons)
* Metalist Kharkiv, the runners-up of the 2003–04 Ukrainian First League – (returning after absence of a seasons)

### Location
## Managers

| Club | Coach | Replaced coach |
| FC Arsenal Kyiv | Oleksandr Baranov | |
| FC Chornomorets Odesa | Semen Altman | |
| FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk | Yevhen Kucherevsky | |
| FC Dynamo Kyiv | Yozhef Sabo | Oleksiy Mykhailychenko |
| FC Volyn Lutsk | Petro Kushlyk | Vitaliy Kvartsiany |
| FC Borysfen Boryspil | Stepan Matviiv | Oleksandr Ryabokon |
| FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih | Oleksandr Kosevych | Anatoliy Piskovets |
| FC Metalist Kharkiv | Oleksandr Zavarov | Hennadiy Lytovchenko |
| FC Metalurh Donetsk | Vitaliy Shevchenko | Slavoljub Muslin |
| FC Metalurh Zaporizhya | Valeriy Yaremchenko | |
| FC Illichivets Mariupol | Ivan Balan | Mykola Pavlov |
| FC Shakhtar Donetsk | Mircea Lucescu | |
| SC Tavriya Simferopol | Oleh Fedorchuk | Anatoliy Zayaev |
| FC Vorskla Poltava | Volodymyr Muntyan | |
| FC Obolon Kyiv | Oleksandr Ryabokon | Petro Slobodyan |
| FC Zakarpattia Uzhhorod | Viktor Ryashko | |

## League table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Shakhtar Donetsk (C) | 30 | 26 | 2 | 2 | 63 | 19 | +44 | 80 | Qualification to Champions League third qualifying round |
| 2 | Dynamo Kyiv | 30 | 23 | 4 | 3 | 58 | 14 | +44 | 73 | Qualification to Champions League second qualifying round |
| 3 | Metalurh Donetsk | 30 | 14 | 7 | 9 | 38 | 35 | +3 | 49 | Qualification to UEFA Cup second qualifying round |
| 4 | Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk | 30 | 13 | 9 | 8 | 38 | 34 | +4 | 48 | Qualification to UEFA Cup second qualifying round |
| 5 | Illichivets Mariupol | 30 | 12 | 8 | 10 | 38 | 34 | +4 | 44 | |
| 6 | Chornomorets Odesa | 30 | 12 | 6 | 12 | 29 | 29 | 0 | 42 | |
| 7 | Tavriya Simferopol | 30 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 34 | 28 | +6 | 42 | |
| 8 | Volyn Lutsk | 30 | 11 | 7 | 12 | 35 | 37 | −2 | 40 | |
| 9 | Arsenal Kyiv | 30 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 30 | 33 | −3 | 37 | |
| 10 | Metalurh Zaporizhzhia | 30 | 8 | 11 | 11 | 25 | 32 | −7 | 35 | |
| 11 | Metalist Kharkiv | 30 | 9 | 7 | 14 | 25 | 37 | −12 | 34 | |
| 12 | Zakarpattia Uzhhorod | 30 | 7 | 10 | 13 | 21 | 30 | −9 | 31 | |
| 13 | Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih | 30 | 7 | 10 | 13 | 24 | 38 | −14 | 31 | |
| 14 | Vorskla-Naftohaz Poltava | 30 | 8 | 6 | 16 | 18 | 35 | −17 | 30 | |
| 15 | Obolon Kyiv (R) | 30 | 4 | 9 | 17 | 18 | 43 | −25 | 21 | Relegated to Ukrainian First League |
| 16 | Borysfen Boryspil (R) | 30 | 3 | 11 | 16 | 15 | 31 | −16 | 20 | Relegated to Ukrainian First League |

## Results

| Home \ Away | ARK | BOR | CHO | DNI | DYN | ILL | KRY | MET | MDO | MZA | OBO | SHA | TAV | VOL | VOR | ZAK |
| Arsenal Kyiv | — | 2–1 | 2–1 | 1–2 | 0–0 | 5–2 | 0–2 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 2–2 | 1–2 | 2–0 | 2–2 |
| Borysfen Boryspil | 0–1 | — | 0–1 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 0–2 | 0–1 | 1–0 | -:+ | 1–3 |
| Chornomorets Odesa | 1–0 | 0–1 | — | 2–0 | 0–3 | 0–1 | 3–1 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 3–1 | 1–3 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 1–1 | 0–0 |
| Dnipro | 1–0 | 0–0 | 1–0 | — | 1–2 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 4–2 | 3–3 | 1–1 | 3–0 | 1–3 | 3–1 | 1–0 | 3–1 | 0–3 |
| Dynamo Kyiv | 1–1 | 2–0 | 3–1 | 2–0 | — | 2–0 | 2–0 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 1–2 | 3–1 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 3–0 |
| Illichivets Mariupol | 0–0 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 3–0 | 1–1 | — | 2–0 | 1–1 | 3–0 | 2–2 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 2–2 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 3–0 |
| Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih | 0–3 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 0–2 | 0–0 | — | 3–1 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 1–2 | 0–2 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 |
| Metalist Kharkiv | 1–1 | 3–1 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 0–1 | — | 1–4 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 |
| Metalurh Donetsk | 1–0 | 1–3 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 1–2 | 2–1 | 1–1 | 3–1 | — | 1–0 | 2–1 | 1–3 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 2–0 |
| Metalurh Zaporizhzhia | 0–0 | 2–1 | 0–2 | 1–1 | 0–2 | 0–2 | 2–0 | 1–4 | 2–0 | — | 1–0 | 1–3 | 1–2 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 |
| Obolon Kyiv | 2–1 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 0–7 | 1–2 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | — | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–2 | 0–1 | 0–0 |
| Shakhtar Donetsk | 3–0 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 3–2 | 4–1 | 4–2 | 0–1 | 3–0 | 2–1 | 5–2 | — | 1–0 | 3–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 |
| Tavriya Simferopol | 1–1 | 2–1 | 2–2 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 1–2 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 2–1 | — | 4–1 | 4–0 | +:- |
| Volyn Lutsk | 1–0 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 3–2 | 3–1 | 4–2 | 1–2 | 2–2 | 1–0 | 1–3 | 1–0 | — | 1–1 | 3–0 |
| Vorskla-Naftohaz Poltava | 3–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–3 | 1–2 | 2–1 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 0–2 | — | 2–0 |
| Zakarpattia Uzhhorod | 2–0 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 1–2 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 2–2 | 1–0 | — |

## Top goal scorers

| Oleksandr Kosyrin | Chornomorets Odesa | 14 (4) |
| Vasyl Sachko | Volyn Lutsk | 12 |
| Andrés Augusto Mendoza | Metalurh Donetsk | 12 (1) |
| Brandao | Shakhtar Donetsk | 12 (2) |
| Serhiy Zakarlyuka | Illychivets Mariupol | 12 (4) |
| Maksim Shatskikh | Dynamo Kyiv | 11 |
| Diogo Rincón | Dynamo Kyiv | 10 (6) |
| Vasyl Gigiadze | Tavriya Simferopol | 9 (1) |
| Julius Aghahowa | Shakhtar Donetsk | 8 |
| Kléber | Dynamo Kyiv | 8 |
| Matuzalem | Shakhtar Donetsk | 8 |