# 2005–06 Vyshcha Liha

The 2005–06 Vyshcha Liha season was the fifteenth since its establishment.

## Summary

The season started on July 12, 2005 with six games of the first round. The last day of the competition was May 10, 2006. However, because the top two teams have finished with an equal number of points, it was decided to conduct a decisive game between them, which was named as the Golden Match. The game took place soon upon the conclusion of the regular season on May 14. The winner of the championship final became Shakhtar Donetsk that managed to defeat Dynamo Kyiv 2–1 and for the first time winning its second consecutive title and third over all. The top scorers competition was also tied between two foreigners Brandão from Brazil and Emmanuel Okoduwa from Nigeria. Both players won their individual award scoring 15 goals.
Both Shakhtar and Dynamo lost only once Shakhtar at home to Dynamo, while Dynamo lost its only game at home to Dnipro. Both Shakhtar and Dynamo also finished 30 points away from the closest trailing team in the standings. A good season had FC Illichivets Mariupol tying for the fourth together with FC Metalist Kharkiv and FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk. Also could be left unnoticed the big return of the Odesa sailors that finally earn their next set of medals for the first time since returning to premiers. Out of the newly promoted teams a good performance showed FC Stal Alchevsk that were just a point shy to stay among the top 10.
Both clubs from the Western Ukraine, FC Volyn Lutsk and FC Zakarpattia Uzhhorod, were forced into relegation due to their poor performance.

## Teams
### Promoted

* FC Stal Alchevsk, champion of the 2004-05 Ukrainian First League – (returning after absence of 4 seasons)
* FC Arsenal Kharkiv, runner-up of the 2004-05 Ukrainian First League was replaced with the newly formed FC Kharkiv – (debut)
Notes: FC Arsenal Kharkiv was reinstated in the Ukrainian Second League.

### Renamed

* FC Vorskla Poltava before the season carried the name of FC Vorskla-Naftogaz Poltava

### Location map
## Managers

| Club | Coach | Replaced coach |
| FC Arsenal Kyiv | Oleksandr Zavarov | Oleksandr Baranov Ihor Babinchuk |
| FC Chornomorets Odesa | Semen Altman | |
| FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk | Oleh Protasov | Yevhen Kucherevsky Vadym Tyshchenko |
| FC Dynamo Kyiv | Anatoliy Demyanenko | Leonid Buryak |
| FC Volyn Lutsk | Vitaliy Kvartsiany | |
| FC Kharkiv | Hennadiy Lytovchenko | |
| FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih | Oleksandr Kosevych | |
| FC Metalist Kharkiv | Myron Markevych | |
| FC Metalurh Donetsk | Stepan Matviiv | Oleksandr Sevidov |
| FC Metalurh Zaporizhya | Vyacheslav Hrozny | Valeriy Yaremchenko Anatoliy Chantsev |
| FC Illichivets Mariupol | Ivan Balan | |
| FC Shakhtar Donetsk | Mircea Lucescu | |
| SC Tavriya Simferopol | Mykhailo Fomenko | Oleh Fedorchuk |
| FC Vorskla Poltava | Viktor Nosov | |
| FC Stal Alchevsk | Anatoliy Volobuyev | |
| FC Zakarpattia Uzhhorod | Petro Kushlyk | Viktor Ryashko |

## League table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Shakhtar Donetsk (C) | 30 | 23 | 6 | 1 | 64 | 14 | +50 | 75 | Qualification to Champions League third qualifying round |
| 2 | Dynamo Kyiv | 30 | 23 | 6 | 1 | 68 | 20 | +48 | 75 | Qualification to Champions League second qualifying round |
| 3 | Chornomorets Odesa | 30 | 13 | 6 | 11 | 36 | 31 | +5 | 45 | Qualification to UEFA Cup second qualifying round |
| 4 | Illychivets Mariupol | 30 | 12 | 7 | 11 | 30 | 34 | −4 | 43 | |
| 5 | Metalist Kharkiv | 30 | 12 | 7 | 11 | 35 | 42 | −7 | 43 | |
| 6 | Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk | 30 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 33 | 23 | +10 | 43 | Qualification to Intertoto Cup second round |
| 7 | Tavriya Simferopol | 30 | 11 | 6 | 13 | 29 | 31 | −2 | 39 | |
| 8 | Metalurh Zaporizhya | 30 | 11 | 6 | 13 | 32 | 40 | −8 | 39 | Qualification to UEFA Cup second qualifying round |
| 9 | Metalurh Donetsk | 30 | 10 | 9 | 11 | 35 | 35 | 0 | 39 | |
| 10 | Vorskla Poltava | 30 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 28 | 34 | −6 | 37 | |
| 11 | Stal Alchevsk | 30 | 9 | 9 | 12 | 26 | 39 | −13 | 36 | |
| 12 | Arsenal Kyiv | 30 | 9 | 8 | 13 | 31 | 39 | −8 | 35 | |
| 13 | FC Kharkiv | 30 | 9 | 6 | 15 | 29 | 36 | −7 | 33 | |
| 14 | Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih | 30 | 9 | 6 | 15 | 27 | 35 | −8 | 33 | |
| 15 | Volyn Lutsk (R) | 30 | 9 | 6 | 15 | 31 | 45 | −14 | 33 | Relegated to Ukrainian First League |
| 16 | Zakarpattia Uzhhorod (R) | 30 | 3 | 6 | 21 | 17 | 53 | −36 | 15 | Relegated to Ukrainian First League |

## Results

| Home \ Away | ARK | CHO | DNI | DYN | ILL | KHA | KRY | MET | MDO | MZA | SHA | STA | TAV | VOL | VOR | ZAK |
| Arsenal Kyiv | — | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–2 | 0–2 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 0–2 | 1–2 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 2–1 |
| Chornomorets Odesa | 1–1 | — | 0–0 | 0–1 | 1–2 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 5–2 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 2–2 | 1–2 | 2–0 | 1–2 | 2–0 |
| Dnipro | 1–0 | 1–2 | — | 0–3 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 3–0 | 2–2 | 0–1 | 1–3 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 4–0 |
| Dynamo Kyiv | 3–1 | 4–1 | 0–2 | — | 1–1 | 1–0 | 3–1 | 2–2 | 3–1 | 1–1 | 2–2 | 4–0 | 2–0 | 7–1 | 0–0 | 4–1 |
| Illichivets Mariupol | 3–5 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 1–2 | — | 2–1 | 1–0 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–2 | 3–0 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 3–2 | 2–0 |
| FC Kharkiv | 3–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–3 | 3–0 | — | 1–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 2–3 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 3–2 | 2–0 | 1–0 |
| Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih | 1–2 | 1–0 | 2–2 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 3–1 | — | 2–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–2 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 2–2 | 1–0 |
| Metalist Kharkiv | 1–2 | 1–1 | 0–6 | 1–2 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | — | 2–0 | 3–1 | 1–5 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 4–1 |
| Metalurh Donetsk | 2–2 | 3–2 | 1–1 | 0–3 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 3–2 | 3–1 | — | 0–0 | 1–3 | 5–0 | 0–0 | 4–0 | 2–0 | 1–0 |
| Metalurh Zaporizhzhya | 2–2 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–2 | 2–1 | 3–6 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 3–1 | — | 0–3 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 3–0 |
| Shakhtar Donetsk | 1–0 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 6–0 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 3–1 | — | 1–1 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 3–0 |
| Stal Alchevsk | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 1–3 | — | 1–0 | 2–2 | 2–0 | 1–0 |
| Tavriya Simferopol | 0–1 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 0–3 | 5–2 | — | 1–2 | 2–3 | 1–0 |
| Volyn Lutsk | 2–1 | 0–3 | 2–1 | 1–3 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 3–0 | 3–0 | 1–2 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–0 | — | 2–1 | 3–1 |
| Vorskla Poltava | 2–0 | 1–2 | 1–1 | 0–4 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 3–1 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 2–3 | 2–0 | — | 0–0 |
| Zakarpattia Uzhhorod | 2–1 | 2–1 | 1–2 | 1–2 | 1–1 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 2–3 | 0–0 | 0–2 | 0–3 | 0–2 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 1–1 | — |

## Final match

| Shakhtar Donetsk | Dynamo Kyiv |
Shakhtar Donetsk: :
| GK | 35 | Bohdan Shust |
| DF | 33 | Srna |
| DF | 27 | Dmytro Chyhrynskyi | |
| DF | 3 | Tomáš Hübschman | 58' | 91' |
| DF | 26 | Răzvan Raț | |
| MF | 36 | Elano | 21' | 73' |
| MF | 4 | Anatoliy Tymoshchuk (c) |
| MF | 18 | Mariusz Lewandowski | |
| MF | 7 | Fernandinho | |
| FW | 29 | Ciprian Marica | 59' | 80' |
| FW | 25 | Brandão | 118' |
| Substitutes: ||||
| MF | 6 | Igor Duljaj | 73' | 120' |
| DF | 8 | Leonardo | |
| DF | 13 | Vyacheslav Shevchuk | |
| DF | 14 | Flavius Stoican | 91' |
| GK | 16 | Jan Laštůvka | |
| FW | 17 | Julius Aghahowa | 80' | 100' |
| FW | 20 | Oleksiy Byelik | |
| Manager: ||||
| Mircea Lucescu ||||
Dynamo Kyiv: :
| GK | 1 | Oleksandr Shovkovskyi (c) |
| DF | 3 | Serhiy Fedorov | |
| FW | 5 | Serhii Rebrov | 101' |
| FW | 9 | Kléber | 45' |
| MF | 14 | Ruslan Rotan | | 12' |
| FW | 16 | Maksim Shatskikh |
| MF | 20 | Oleh Husyev |
| DF | 27 | Vladyslav Vashchuk |
| MF | 30 | Badr El Kaddouri | 119' |
| DF | 32 | Goran Gavrančić | | 55' |
| DF | 33 | Andrey Yeshchenko | | 68' |
| Substitutes: ||||
| DF | 4 | Rodolfo | 55' | 79' |
| MF | 8 | Valyantsin Byalkevich | 12' |
| MF | 15 | Diogo Rincón |
| FW | 23 | Māris Verpakovskis |
| FW | 25 | Artem Milevskyi | 68' | 82' |
| DF | 26 | Andriy Nesmachniy |
| GK | 55 | Oleksandr Rybka |
| Manager: ||||
| Anatoliy Demyanenko ||||
| MATCH OFFICIALS Assistant referees: Martin Balko Tomáš Mokoš Fourth official: V. Grinjak | MATCH RULES 90 minutes. 30 minutes of extra-time if necessary. Penalty shoot-out if scores still level. Seven named substitutes Maximum of 3 substitutions. |

## Top goal scorers

| Brandão | Shakhtar Donetsk | 15 |
| Emmanuel Okoduwa | Arsenal Kyiv | 15 |
| Oleksandr Kosyrin | Metalurh Donetsk | 13 (2) |
| Serhii Rebrov | Dynamo Kyiv | 13 (2) |
| Vasyl Sachko | Volyn Lutsk | 13 (2) |
| Kléber | Dynamo Kyiv | 11 |
| Matuzalém | Shakhtar Donetsk | 10 (1) |
| Ara Hakobyan | Metalurh Donetsk | 10 (3) |
| Diogo Rincón | Dynamo Kyiv | 10 (4) |
| Serhiy Shyshchenko | Metalurh Zaporizhya | 9 |
| Vasil Gigiadze | Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih | 9 (4) |