Re: Niki Rukavytsya deal confirmed by FC Twente Bloody oath. Any time the lad gets time against good opposition is just going to help him in the long run. And if he comes out of it impressing a few people, well, that's just even bloody better.
Re: Niki Rukavytsya deal confirmed by FC Twente They played against Zwolle's second team today, and Nikita played the full 90 minutes! They won 2-0 but none from Ruka unfortunately. Some mixed reviews about his performance but nothing too terrible.
Re: Niki Rukavytsya deal confirmed by FC Twente Here's a nice one... Twente played German side Borussia Moenchengladbach yesterday... They won 2-0... the first was an own goal... and who scored the second goal.. our Nikita Not much time now but I'll see if I can find some video footage later if they interviewed him maybe. Well done - scoring against Bundesliga opposition (Edit: he only played the second half, and apparently almost made it 3-0 soon afterwards but missed) (Edit 2: http://www.fctwente.tv/ there is a highlights video on there - you can see his goal - and see him miss Good positioning and a cool finish for the goal - the guy who set him up sent a great through-ball)
Re: Niki Rukavytsya @ FC Twente [R] http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/aussies-abroad/rukavytsya-makes-case-205727
Re: Niki Rukavytsya @ FC Twente [R] Hmmm.. I would say he's quicker than Theo. Not as good of a player obviously though.
Re: Niki Rukavytsya @ FC Twente [R] Rukavytsya scored another goal in a friendly against Swansea, Twente lost 3-1....
Re: Niki Rukavytsya @ FC Twente [R] FC Twente now has their website in English if anybody's interested http://www.fctwente.com/en/ They have finished all their pre-season matches, so now we can only wait for the season to start and see if Niki gets a run.
Re: Niki Rukavytsya @ FC Twente [R] Nikita played the final 25 minutes of Twente's Champs League qualifier against Sporting Lisbon. It ended as a 0-0 draw.
Re: Niki Rukavytsya @ FC Twente [R] Indeed... and they are now out and will be playing Europe League only (new UEFA Cup...) There is a discussion on the Twente fan forum currently about Ruka not playing well He is apparently always going for safety by passing backwards instead of going forward to attack, and some people are rather unimpressed with him currently. Still, he's getting matchtime so hopefully his confidence will increase with time. It's a big thing for him to be playing Champions League qualifying with basically NO real Eredivisie-level experience!
Re: Niki Rukavytsya @ FC Twente [R] Is he being played at left midfield or as a striker atm?? If he is in left mid it would have to be a big learning curve for him given he'd have had little previous experience there. If he is looking to pass backwards alot as a striker thats a worry.
Re: Niki Rukavytsya @ FC Twente [R] I'm assuming that's probably going to come from a lack of confidence. Give him time on the ball and against quality opposition and I'm sure he'll start to believe in himself and take on defenders a whole lot more.
Re: Niki Rukavytsya @ FC Twente [R] In all honesty, he was only just starting to go well in the A-League when he left for Holland. One more year here was needed really, so i'm guessing that he'll need at least a couple of years in Holland to get going. A lot of these Dutch clubs like the Aussie spirit and they are giving him a fair go but it's hard to see him starting regularly for quite a while.
Re: Niki Rukavytsya @ FC Twente [R] Like on most football forums, people are quick to praise and quick to criticise so I don't think we can read too much into the Twente forum comments. Also... I think against Sporting he played on the right!!
Re: Niki Rukavytsya @ FC Twente [R] There was a replay of the PSV match from the weekend today and I saw Ruka briefly... he was playing on the right in that match too!! The only thing I saw him do was give a free kick away
Re: Niki Rukavytsya @ FC Twente [R] Ruka wasn't selected for the ADO Den Haag match on Saturday (which Twente won 0-1) as apparently he has an ankle injury after the Ireland Socceroos match! I don't have any more info on the injury but I'll keep an eye open.
Re: Niki Rukavytsya @ FC Twente [R] No sign of Ruka on the weekend. I guess he's already in South Korea.