Dinamo BSU Minsk 4-0 FK Minsk ( att : 200 ) - Belarus Women’s Super Cup

March 15, 2021

The Super Cup was on paper a match between the two strongest women’s team in the country as a curtain raiser for the new Premier League season starting this week-end.

Dinamo were convincing winners of the 2020 premier League, only dropping points after a draw with Neman Grodno in the last game of the season. They also won the Belarus Cup on penalties after a 0-0 draw in the final against FK Minsk.

FK Minsk were Dinamo’s closest rivals, but narrowly lost all three league encounters ( 1-2, 0-1 & 0-2 ), but lost only one other game ( to ABFF U19 1-2 ). They had a good run in the Women’s Champions League, with knock-out wins over RFS of Latvia and Vllaznia in Albania, before bowing out to Lillestrom SK despite a fine 1-0 win in Norway. However, this was not enough to overturn a 0-2 home defeat.

Dinamo enter the 2021 season with a weaker squad than last season. Top scorer and the league’s outstanding player, Salimata Simpore has left for Equatorial Guinea side Malabo Kings, whilst Belarus Internationals Anastasia Shuppo and Yulia Slesarchik have joined Zenit St Petersburg. American Abigail Small is also no longer with the club. In their place Dinamo have signed keeper Ekaterina Ulasevich, who performed consistently for Neman last season, and elegant midfielder Nadege Cisse has joined from cross city rivals FK Minsk.  Forward Yulia Duben has signed from Zorka and Victorya Valyuk and Krystsina Tikhovodova were back in the squad after loans to ABFF U-19.

Dinamo’s squad still contains 10 Belarus Internationals, three players from South Africa, one from Cameroon and one from Moldova, so will still be the team to beat.

The story for FK Minsk appears to be very different. Anna Kozyupa and Tamila Khimich have joined Croatian side Split, Henrietta Akaba now plays for French side ASJ Soyaux and Maria Galay is with Lokomotiv Moscow. An interview with Kozyupa on the ABFF website discussed the sad break-up of the Minsk squad and the side that took to the field for this match, included only two players who played for Minsk in the previous season, the 17 year olds, Anna Sas and Anastasia Pogegailo.

The whereabouts of the rest of last season’s squad is unclear, and the other members of the Minsk match-day squad were ABFF U19 players in 2020, plus BOTSOR’s Viktoria Marchyk. Indeed the story going round on the internet was that the ABFF had loaned the U19 players in order for Minsk to be able to complete the fixture. It will be interesting to see what sides FK Minsk and ABFF U19 name for their first league matches !

Dinamo had narrowly beaten the ABFF U19 side 1-0 in the pre-season tournament with a late winner so a close encounter looked to be in prospect. Indeed, whilst Dinamo dominated possession and territory in the first 30 minutes, they created no decent chances of any note, and all goal bound attempts were comfortably dealt with by the safe handling keeper Malaeva. The turning point of the game occurred in the 34^th minute, when Minsk’s Marchyk attempted to control a bouncing ball but had failed to see Anna Pilipenko nearby. Her foot accidentally made contact with the Dianmo player’s chest, and having already received a yellow card earlier in the match, the referee had little option other than to show Marchyk a second yellow and a red. Ironically, Marchyk had come out of the collision worse off and struggled to hobble of the pitch.

Despite being a player down, Minsk continued to be relatively untroubled, and should have taken a shock lead in the 60^th minute. After another Dinamo corner was cleared, Pogegailo led a counter attack. For some unknown reason Dinamo keeper Ulasevich charged to the half-way line. As Ulasevich collided with a team-mate, Pogegailo passed to Surovtseva, who under pressure, shot for the open goal from 40+ yards. Agonisingly for Minsk the ball trickled a couple of inches wide of the post.

Spurred by this reprieve, four minutes later Dinamo finally took the lead, Ramalepe’s long range shot sailed over Malaeva and into the roof of the net. Stunned by this, Minsk conceded again within 60 seconds. Shlapakova’s mis-header fell kindly to the unmarked Stezhko, who had a simple finish.

With the game effectively over as a contest, matters got worse for Minsk in the 74^th minute when Asmykovich was shown her second yellow card for a clumsy trip, and immediately Linnik took advantage of the under-strength defence to skip past her marker and shoot across goal for 3-0. Stezhko completed the rout her second and Dinamo’s fourth just before the final whistle.

Dinamo BSU Minsk : Ulasevich – Kazakevich ( Popova ), Novikava, Ramalepe, Dabda ( Nikolaenko ) – Linnik, Cisse, Shlapakova ( Tikhovodova ), Pilipenko ( Valyuk ) – Alkhovik ( Mulaudzi ), Duben ( Stezhko )

FK Minsk : Malaeva – Tavarevich, Krasikova, Sas, Hiba, Kashinskaya – Asmykovich, Pogegailo, Pinchuk ( Stankevich ), Marchyk – Surovtseva ( Shereshovets )

Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQadKy52cEM&t=503s