Review : Belarus Women’s Premier League After 10 Matches

July 15, 2020

After two rounds of fixtures had been completed in the Belarus Women’s Premier League I wrote “It is quickly becoming clear that the eight team Belarus Women’s Premier League are split into three distinct standards, the good ( Minsk, Dinamo BGU ), the competent ( Neman, Zorka ) and the weak ( ABFF U19, Bobruichanka, BOTSOR, Dnepr Mogilev )”

After 10 matches this still holds true, apart from a further split of the weak, with BOTSOR now in the awful category.

Dinamo BGU and FK Minsk are heads and shoulders above the rest, and the only competitive match they have played was the encounter between the two teams, with Dinamo coming out on top 2-1 in front of 270 spectators. In a match that could have gone either way, Dinamo generally played the better football, but Minsk created the better chances. Emueje Ogbiagbevka. Tamila Khimich and Anastasia Pobegaylo all missed easy chances they would probably have scored on a different day, and Dinamo’s winner came from an own goal. The rematch is next Wednesday ( 22^nd ) with another defeat for Minsk possibly being fatal to the title hopes.

Dinamo BGU usually play in white shirts with blue shorts, with home matches held at the Dinamo Yuni stadium in Minsk, which is currently a major construction site ! Their change strip is all light blue. In their 10 matches played to date, Dinamo have only conceded one goal, Ogbiagbevka’s close range header from a corner for Minsk, and have a goal difference of +57. Only Dnepr Mogilev and Zorka have keep the score down to 3-0.

In Salimata Simpore Dinamo have the league’s outstanding player so far. The 33 year old Burkina Faso international has had what can politely be termed “an eventful career” and she has displayed exceptional pace and commendable unselfishness, typified by Dinamo’s first goal in the Minsk derby, when outpacing the backline and laying the ball across goal for Alhkovik to have an easy tap-in. Such team play is a major reason why she is not higher up in the individual scoring charts.

The Dinamo squad is packed with young full Belarus internationals ( Alhkovik, Shuppo, Pilipenko, Shlapakova, Linnik, Kazakevich, Nikolaenko, Slesarchik, Stezkho, Novikova & Popova ) but also includes Munteanu, the Moldovan goal-keeper and who looks  to be the best keeper in the league, Mbane, a 30 year old South African International and Dabda, an 18 year old Cameroon youth international. There are also two Belarus Under 19 internationals ( Valyuk & Sevko )

Dinamo’s coach, Yuri Maleev, who is also the coach of the Belarus Women’s National team, has shown he is prepared to make big decisions such as taking off players in first half if he felt they were not performing up to the required standard, a fate suffered by Shuppo, Shlapakova and Alhkovik ! His post match comments on the Dinamo Minsk website also stress a need for further improvement in the overall standard of play.

Dinamo are not invincible though. As well as the close match with Minsk, Zorka were able to score three times in a dead quarter final second leg cup tie. Although Zorka lost that match 3-5, they did rattle Dinamo, who ended up having two players shown red cards.

Dinamo have also been producing programmes for home matches and these are available on the Dinamo Minsk website : https://vk.com/doc15192585_557934437?hash=90ab3076fd463805db&dl=dc2e08f8bf4617fb81

FK Minsk usually play in the same all red kit as their men’s side and their change kit is all white with a rather nice red trim and a blue band across the shoulders. 

Home matches are played on the artificial surface at the FK Minsk stadium. Like Dinamo they have not been seriously challenged in any match apart from the Minsk derby, with Bobruichanka having the best result against them with a 0-3 loss. Their goal difference is +56, but they have conceded a massive 4 goals, one being a huge goalkeeping error by Kovalchuk against ABFF U19, a penalty against Zorka, plus the two against Dinamo.

Minsk have the two top scorers in the division. Nigerian Ogbiagbevka has 16 league goals and Ukrainian International forward Tamila Khimich has 12, but whereas Dinamo have goals spread all across their team, the next highest scorers for Minsk are three players with 4 goals. Ogbiagbevka is the Belarus WPL equivalent of Adebayo Akinfenwa, being huge but possessing a good first touch. Unlike “The Beast” though, she also has a surprisingly quick turn of pace over a short distance. 

In addition to Ogbiagbevka, Minsk’s squad contains three other Africans. Ivorian Nadege Cisse’s elegant passing and intelligent running has caught the eye as has the skilful Nigerian Success Wogu. Cameroonian Alvina Niyolle has also impressed as an attacking force from right back.

Russian International Maria Galay plays at centre back, and Minsk have a clutch of Belarus Internationals of their own ( Duben, Kozyupa, Kubichnaya & Kharlanova ) plus the 2 goalkeepers for the National side ( Kovalchuk & Voskobovich ) who share the duties. Minsk also have two Belarus Under 19s ( Belmach & Tikhon ) whilst 16 year olds Anna Sas & Anastastia Pobegaylo have also featured regularly this season.

Zorka BDU now have the advantage in the “best of the rest” battle following Neman Grodno’s unexpected 1-2 slip-up at ABFF U19. Both teams have lost to the Minsk giants, and the matches between the two of them resulted in a win a piece.

Zorka play in all red with home matches at the RCOR BGU stadium in Minsk, which is where Energetik BGU were playing until they had to move to a grass pitch. Their change kit is all blue.

They have had little trouble seeing off the lesser sides ie BOTSOR ( 7-0, 3-0 ), ABFF U19 ( 3-0 ), Dnepr ( 2-0 ) & Bobruichanka ( 4-2 ) and although being soundly beaten by both Minsk sides they did cause them a number of problems at times. 

The squad is made up entirely of Belarus nationals and there is a mixture of youth and experience. Their line up usually includes Liana Miroshnichenko ( 31 years old– 7 caps ), Tatiana Markushevskaya ( 26 - 7 caps ) & Alina Vasiljeva ( 34 – 10 caps ) alongside Under 19 internationals Polina Girchets, Nadezhda Voskobovich & Yana Benkevich, and 17 year old Diana Bakum has scored 4 goals. The top scorer is Diana Tropnikova with 6 goals.

Unlike the men’s side who now wear their green shirt for home matches, the woman’s Neman Grodno team wear the lovely yellow shirt with the Green diagonal lines. Matches so far have been played in both the main stadium in Grodno and the smaller ground next door.

Until the loss to ABFF U19, Neman had performed very similar to Zorka, 0-5 thrashings from Minsk and Dinamo, but wins over Bobruichanka, ABFF, Dnepr and BOTSOR, plus an 18-0 ( ! ) aggregate cup win over BOTSOR.

Defender Ekaterina Dudko is their top scorer with 7 goals, plus another 5 in the Cup, with Belarus International Elizaveta Sergeychik ( 3 caps ) next with 6. Probably the most influential player has been 36 year old midfielder Tatiana Loginova, who won 4 caps in the past, who looks dangerous down the right wing but also adds skill and possession passing in the centre of the pitch.

Also featuring regularly in the starting line are Aminata Haidara and Nina Kpaho, both 23 year olds from the Ivory Coast, veteran Nigerian defender Gift Otuwe and 19 year old Cameroonian Moussa Zouwairatou, who scored a wonder goal to beat Zorka early in the season. The goalkeeper is 29 year old Ukrainian Ekaterina Ulasevich.

ABFF U19 currently stand 5^th in the table, and are mostly players from the national team for the most recent European Under 17 qualification matches. All the players are 19 or under and they play at FK Minsk stadium. They do try and play attacking football, with a 4-3-3 formation, but they can be naïve, and also out muscled by bigger, older teams. Like many young teams they can be inconsistent, as shown with victories over Bobruichanka and Neman ( and a narrow loss in the away fixture in Grodno ), but disappointing losses to Dnepr and at Bobruichanka. The goal scored against Minsk was celebrated as if they had won the World Cup, despite it being a dreadful error by the keeper !

17 year old goalkeeper Polina Malaeva has impressed all season with her bravery, confident handling of cross and many outstanding saves. She also saved a penalty against Neman, although the rebound was put away !

Natallia Asmykovich is the top scorer on 3 goals and Melana Surovtseva netted twice in the win over Neman. The team have also been strengthened in the current transfer window by the transfer of 17 year old Anna Krasikova from Dnepr.

Dnepr Mogilev play indoors in what has been described as a giant igloo, and they play in bright pink shirts and black shorts. Their change kit is a pale yellow/green outfit.

They started the season with hammerings from Minsk and Dinamo and frankly looked awful in those matches. However, they have improved, appear to be fitter and have looked competitive against the other sides, having only conceded league 4 goals excluding the games against the big two Minsk sides. On the other hand, they have only scored 3 goals in league, 1-0 being enough to overcome ABFF U19 and BOTSOR, and the defensive stability does appear to have come with a price against creativity. Their other points came from 2 draws with Bobruichanka, against whom they lost two very even encounters in the Belarus Cup.

All their players come from Belarus with the star player being 30 year old Anna Denisenko, who like her twin sister Yulia has won 1 cap. Apart from 28 year old Valentina Nizhegorodeya and 33 year old Irina Tretjakova ( 8 caps ) the rest of the team are under 21 years old.

Having played Minsk and Dinamo for the second time already, Dnepr at least have an encouraging run of fixtures to look forward to in the next few weeks.

Until the rise of FK Minsk, Bobruichanka from Bobruisk were the dominate side in the land, winning 11 titles. Unfortunately for them though, the last of these was in 2012, although several players from those days are still regularly turning out. Age is clearly a problem for Bobruichanka, with usually 8 of the matchday squad being over 30, and to-date no-one under 30 has scored in the league. In last weekend’s match with Dnepr, 49 year old keeper Svetlana Novikova made her first appearance of the season, kept a clean sheet and looked very secure.

The most prominent outfield player has been 31 year old Elena Buzinova ( 9 caps ) from whom most of the dangerous moves are initiated and she has been effective in keeping possession and controlling games. 38 year old Olga Aniskovtseva ( 10 caps ) has scored 3 goals and 38 year old Zoya Gurbunova ( 10 caps ) has also looked useful. At the back, burly Cameroonian youngster Sorelle Metiefang adds tenacity.

Like Dnepr, Bobruichanka have recorded victories over BOTSOR and ABFF U19 and only lost 0-3 to Minsk. They also had an end-to-end ding-dong with Zorka before eventually losing 2-4.

Finally, BOTSOR from Brest prop up the table having lost all 12 league and cup matches without scoring a goal, or even remotely looking like scoring. The best results have been 0-1 ( Dnepr ), 0-2 ( Neman, ABFF ), 0-3 ( Zorka ).Everyone who has played so far this season has been under 23, and all bar two are under 20. Their two Under 19 internationals, defenders Aryna Sitnikova & Viktoria Marchik look like they could become useful players, and at least they are getting plenty of practice defending this season.  Viktoria Sidorchuk has also shown some ability but the rest of the players look like beginners. Their cause has not been helped by awful goal-keeping, which at times has been embarrassing, with opponents knowing that they have a good chance of scoring if they can simply get their shot on target. They do play in quite a nice dark red shirt though, and in their home games you can inspect the quality of the visitors transportation, as the team buses are visible parked on the far side of the pitch !

 Top League Goal Scorers