At the end of the first part of the season-2024/2025 in Ukraine's U-19 championship, we note that only two teams are competing for the top prize, as was also the case last season — "Shakhtar" and "Dynamo."

In spring 2024, Kyivans led miners by two points. After 17 matches of this tournament, miners have created a five-point lead. First and foremost — thanks to their victory in the personal meeting (1:0). Moreover, Oleksiy Belik's team has only lost once — against "Obolon" (1:2).

Although there were tough victories as well. For example, in a match with "Karpaty" (2:1), when miners were losing 0-1 and neutralized an 11-meter penalty by Rostyslav Baglai at the 84th minute. And against "Kolos," the leader conceded until the 76th minute but won on character — 3:1. Only in stoppage time did "Shakhtar" manage to snatch a victory from Polissya (1:0) in their last match of 2024.

Meanwhile, Igor Kostyuk's team lost two points at the start of the season, in the second round, against "Veres" (1:1), and failed to beat "Kolos" (0:0) in the 15th round. But they also recorded a large number of victories with impressive scores, including two that were particularly crushing — both by 10-0 against LNZ and... "Ruh."

Lviv's club, which won the U-19 championship in 2023 (with an eight-point lead over Dynamo and a thirteen-point lead over Shakhtar), with the creation of their team "Ruh-2," which plays in the second league, transferred most of the older players born in 2005-2006. In the U-19 team, younger players born in 2007-2008 remain. The average age of Ruh's U-19 squad has significantly decreased compared to their championship season-2022/2023 — from 18.8 to 17.4 years.

At the same time, it is worth noting the performance of another Lviv club's youth team, as "Karpaty" went into winter break in third place in their debut season in the top league. Halychans spent some time adapting and dealing with coaching changes (training was conducted by Vladyslav Lupashko, Denis Kozhanov oversaw the first rounds, Oleg Golodyuk took charge of the team in the fourth round), plus they had to integrate players from "Karpaty-2," who played in the second league during the 2023/2024 season, as well as the champion squad of "UFC-Karpati" U-17 (born in 2007). Additionally, thanks to their recruitment efforts throughout spring 2024, they managed to sign a few interesting players over the summer.

It is also worth noting the progress of "Zorya," where under new coach Maxim Krupinin, Fedir Zadorozhnyi emerged as the top scorer this season. Ruh has improved slightly and Kolos continues to perform steadily. In the lower part of the table, Obolon deserves praise along with unexpected debutant in the UPL — "Left Bank," whose lineup also features an interesting forward — Roman Geres.

Overall, we have enough talent. But time and conditions are needed for their development. So let's watch further without rushing to conclusions.

Both of our leaders had successful performances in the UEFA Youth League. Kyiv's Dynamo progressed through two rounds of the Champions Path, first defeating Slovenian Maribor (1-1, 3-1), then Kosovo's 2 Korrikë (5-0, 4-1). Meanwhile, Donetsk's Shakhtar accumulated ten points across six matches in the league phase: against Bologna (Italy) — 4-3, Atalanta (Italy) — 0-3, Arsenal (England) — 1-0, Young Boys (Switzerland) — 3-2, PSV (Netherlands) — 1-1, and Bayern Munich (Germany) — 0-2.

Now both Dynamo and Shakhtar await the draw for their next round in the UEFA Youth League.

Top Scorers: Fedir ZADOROZHNYI ("Zorya") — 18, Dmytro KREMCHANIN ("Dynamo") — 12, Vladyslav GERICH ("Dynamo"), Viktor TSUKANOV ("Shakhtar") — 10, Ivan DENISOV ("Ruh"), Oleksandr LOMAGA ("Shakhtar") — 9, Roman GHERES ("Left Bank"), Matvii PONOMARENKO ("Dynamo"), Vladyslav TYUTYUNOV ("Shakhtar") — 8, Dmytro FORSYUK ("Karpaty"), Daniil YUSHKO ("Obolon") — 7, Oleksiy BEZRUCHUK ("Kolos"), Matvii BURENKO ("Karpaty"), Andrii IVASYI ("Karpaty"), Taras LYAH ("Obolon"), Volodymyr MULIK ("Kryvyi Rih") — 6.