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 Odessa 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 Kiev 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 managed to win 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

Arsenal

Borysfen

Chornomorets

Dnipro

Dynamo

Illichivets

Kryvbas

Metalist

Metalurh D.

Metalurh Z.

Obolon

Shakhtar

Tavriya

Volyn

Vorskla-Naftohaz

Zakarpattia

Locations of teams home grounds in Ukrainian Premier League 1996-97

Final standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Comments
1	Shakhtar Donetsk (C)	30	26	2	2	63	19	+44	80	CL 3rd Qualifying Round
2	Dynamo Kyiv	30	23	4	3	58	14	+44	73	CL 2nd Qualifying Round
3	Metalurh Donetsk	30	14	7	9	38	35	+3	49	UC 2nd Qualifying Round
4	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	30	13	9	8	38	34	+4	48	UC 2nd Qualifying Round
5	Illichivets Mariupol	30	12	8	10	38	34	+4	44
6	Chornomorets Odessa	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 Zaporizhzhya	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	Persha Liha
16	Borysfen Boryspil (R)	30	3	11	16	15	31	−16	20	Persha Liha

Top goal scorers

Oleksandr Kosyrin Chornomorets Odessa 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

Managers

Club	Coach	Replaced coach
FC Arsenal Kyiv	Oleksandr Baranov
FC Chornomorets Odessa	Semen Altman
FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	Yevhen Kucherevsky
FC Dynamo Kyiv	Yozhef Sabo	Oleksiy Mykhailychenko
FC Volyn Lutsk	Petro Kushlyk	Vialiy 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

External links

• ukrsoccerhistory.com - source of information