Belarus Football - Week 5

April 16, 17 & 18, 2020

Week 5 in Belarus kicks-off this week with two matches on Thursday. All games should be available to watch on the Belarus FA YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/user/abffvideo/videos

This week-end also sees the start of the Belarus Second Division, with Arsenal playing at home on Saturday ! Sputnik will probably be out of this world……….

The Belarus Women’s league was due to start on Thursday with 8 teams in the Premier Division and with FK Minsk the favourites having won the title for the past 7 years. However, the start of the season has been indefinitely been postponed after it was discovered that several players were found to have been in contact with possible carriers of the corona virus.

Elsewhere, the Tajikistan league moves onto Round 3, with Istiqlol already looking hot favourites to retain their title, and the Turkmenistan league is due to restart with one Round 3 match on Sunday ( featuring current Champions Altyn Asyr ) and the other three matches on Monday. After a high scoring first week, the Taiwan league continues with 4 matches on Sunday morning, although the Women’s league in Taiwan has a week-off.

Energetik BGU Minsk  vs FK Gorodeya ( Thursday 15.30 UK time )

League leaders Energetik should bounce back from their defeat at Torpedo to overcome a limited Gorodeya side. Don’t expect it to be pretty. 1-0

Result : 0-1. Gorodeya’s surprise swift counter-attack when BGU were temporarily down to 10 men led to Sorokin’s smart volley at the far post for a half-time lead.  Absolutely nothing of note then happened in the second half. For the second week running Gorodeya play a team performing at a much lower level than earlier in the season, who suddenly can’t pass, shoot or control the ball, react slowly, played mostly backwards rather than forwards, gave away needless fouls and never look like scoring, and took-off their two most potent forwards at half-time. Strange that……

Dinamo Minsk vs Neman Grodno ( Thursday 17.30 UK time )

Dinamo can’t possibly be worse than their embarrassing loss at Gorodeya, so back at their own stadium they should see off a battling Neman side to move out of the bottom three. 2-0

Result : 2-0. Dinamo were indeed much better and deservedly won, although slighted flattered by the scoreline, with the second goal coming in injury time with the Grodno keeper stranded upfield after a corner was cleared, and the breakaway rolled into the empty net.

 

Belshina Bobruisk vs FK Smolevichy STI ( Friday 15.30 UK time )

A battle between two promoted sides, who are currently the bottom two. Hard to predict apart from it is likely to be dull and dreary, and probably one to miss ! 0-0

Result : 1-1. This was looking like the predictable dreary 0-0 until two soft penalties in the last ten minutes made it 1-1. It was as uninspiring as predicted. Both sides remain the bottom two in the table. 

Shakhtyor Soligorsk vs FK Slutsk ( Friday 17.30 UK time )

Shakhtyor surely can’t go another match without scoring ? However, Slutsk are the league’s highest scorers so far and currently lie in third place. 1-1

Result 1-2 : Shakhtyor did finally end their scoring draught with a deflected shot two minutes from the end. However two goal-keeping errors gave Slutsk a first half lead, and despite a harsh red card for handball early in the second half from which the penalty was saved, Slutsk were comfortable  enough until a frantic ending, where their keeper was forced to make a fine save in added on time, and moments later Shakhtyor shot wide from 6 yards when the equalizer looked inevitable.

FK Isloch Minsk vs FK Slavia Mozyr ( Saturday noon UK time )

A game between what appears to be two evenly matched sides and two of the more offensive minded teams. 1-1 draw ?

Result 2-1: Isloch unjustly took the lead mid-way through the second half when incredibly the ref awarded Isloch a penalty when their player slipped and then handled the ball. There was no debate about their second goal shortly after, a smart header from a corner. Slavia pulled one back with 15 minutes left and despite some late pressure were unable to salvage a point.

 

Rukh Brest vs FK Minsk ( Saturday 14.00 UK time )

FK were outclassed last week by BATE and now have the worst defensive record in the league. Rukh have been solid against the better teams in the division. 1-0

Result 1-0 : Rukh deservedly won a match they dominated. However, they demonstrated why they had previously scored only once this season, failing to convert a number of chances and they could have been 3-0 up and out of sight with just 30 minutes on the clock. The goal, when they finally scored, was an eye catching shot on the run from outside the penalty area. Minsk had a couple of chances but were second best for most of the match

 

FK Vitebsk vs Dinamo Brest ( Saturday 16.00 UK time )

Both sides have 7 points so far this season. Vitebsk have been organised and grabbed a draw at Slutsk last time out. Dinamo though seem to be getting into some form and this is the type of match they need to win if they are to retain the Championship. 0-1

Result 1-0 : For 70 minutes this was the best quality match of the weekend, evenly balanced, some nice skill and touches, but also the lack of finishing so prevalent in the Belarus Premier League. The referee then got involved and issued a terrible second yellow card to Dinamo's Kiki when he blocked a shot. Dinamo were then reduced to 9 men with 5 minutes to go with a second red card for an off the ball kick after the Dinamo keeper had collected the ball. To say the Vitebsk player exaggerated the impact is an understatement, and to add to Dinamo’s woes the referee also awarded a penalty for the match winning goal. At this rate Dinamo are unlikely to be retaining their title

 

BATE Borisov vs Torpedo BelAZ Zhodino ( Saturday 18.00 UK time )

Potentially the tie of the round, with joint-leaders Torpedo travelling to a BATE side moving up the table. BATE should be too good. 2-0

Result : 0-0 : BATE dominate possession but fail to breakdown a composed and technically competent Torpedo unfit. BATE were awarded a soft penalty shortly before half-time but the attempt was reminiscent of Chris Waddle, and a few minutes late BATE had a goal correctly disallowed for offside. Torpedo remain joint league leaders, BATE languish in 7^th.

 

Summary :

Energetik BGU Minsk 0-1 FK Gorodeya  ( att : 123 )
Dinamo Minsk 2-0 Neman Grodno ( att : 317 )
Belshina Bobruisk 1-1 FK Smolevichy STI ( att : 217 )
Shakhtyor Soligorsk 1-2  FK Slutsk ( att : 253 )
FK Isloch Minsk 2-1 FK Slavia Mozyr ( att : 169 )
Rukh Brest 1-0 FK Minsk ( att : 311 )
FK Vitebsk 1-0 Dinamo Brest ( att : 287 )
BATE Borisov 0-0 Torpedo BelAZ Zhodino ( att : 672 )

Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_YCDooIGC0


Dinamo Minsk On-line Programme :  https://vk.com/doc15192585_545498840?hash=a412e10d4a16b7574c&dl=ab3914f749bf7e1393

Comment : 

A lot of potential talking points from this round of matches, very little of which reflects well on the Belarus Premier League. Goals continue to be in short supply, just 13 in the 8 matches, four of which were penalties ( and two more were missed ! ), and two came from goal-keeping errors. Six of the games were 0-0 at half-time. The quality of much of the football was low and many teams remain focused on defence rather than attack, despite the eyes of the world on them. 

The so-called big teams ( BATE, Dinamo Brest, Dinamo Minsk & Shakhtyor ) continue to perform poorly and the league table has an unlikely look at the moment, although it is still very early in the season. Attendances continue be 75-80% below last year’s averages due to Covid-19 fears, which may also be a factor in some of the surprise results and lethargic play.

The matches with some decent football were played on authentic grass pitches, and a number of sides appear to look uncomfortable on the artificial pitches, with perhaps some technical and tactical deficiencies being exposed. In addition, some of the refereeing was hilariously bad, but in some ways, without the number of soft penalties awarded the games would have been even duller. However, advantage is hardly ever played, and the slightest touch is usually a free-kick, and players take every opportunity to go to ground. Consequently, its often stop-start and there is hardly any flow to the games.

Finally, the shocking performances of a couple of sides in the past two weeks compared to their earlier displays can only add to suspicions that not all matches are fair contests, but in an odd way that adds a little to the fascination ! Just don’t bet on too many outcomes………..

The next match is Friday at 16.00 UK time, I’ll be watching !