June 4 & 5, 2022
The completion of round 9 of the Belarus Women’s Premier League meant the season was a third of the way through, and the position at the top of the table was very familiar. Having beaten FK Minsk 3-2 in the second week of the season, Dinamo BGU Minsk topped the table, whilst FK Minsk were second having won their other 8 matches. Such was their dominance of the league, neither side had even conceded a goal to any of the other sides !
FK Minsk’s Kenyan striker Wafula Nekesa led the scoring charts with 18 goals, followed by team-mate Anastasia Pobegaylo, with 18 year old international midfielder on 16. Dinamo’s Viktoria Valyuk and Daria Stezhko came next with 13 a-piece.
Zorka BGU were currently the best of the rest, holding Dinamo and FK Minsk to their smallest winning margins, going down 0-5 and 0-2 respectively. However, the battle for third spot was tight with only two points separating 4 sides, with Zorka dropping points at home to 4th placed Dnepr Mogilev ( 0-0 ) and 5th placed Vitebsk ( 1-1 ) whilst Dnepr had beaten Vitebsk 1-0 at home.
ABFF U-19 were in 6th, with a 3-0 victory over Dnepr under their belts but had lost 0-2 at Vitebsk and 1-3 at home to Zorka.
In their first season in the WPL, Smorgon have performed better than both of last season’s new entrants, with victories over the three sides below them, and holding Dinamo to 0-5 and FK Minsk to 0-6. Perhaps even more impressively, they won 2-1 at Zorka to reach the semi-final of the Belarus Cup.
Bobruichanka would have expected to have done better than to have only recorded wins over the bottom two, FK Gomel and Dinamo Brest, whose only points came in the 0-0 draw when they played each other in Gomel. It was a match that Dinamo Brest should have won comfortably, but poor finishing let them down. That was perhaps not surprising as they have only scored one goal all season, in a 1-8 loss at Zorka, but that is one better than Gomel, who are still to open their account !
Round 10
Dinamo Brest 0-7 FK Minsk ( att : 15 )
Dinamo BGU Minsk 7-0 FK Vitebsk ( att : 100 )
FK Smorgon 3-0 Dnepr Mogilev ( att : 70 )
Gomel 0-5 Zorka BGU ( att : 50 )
Bobruichanka 0-4 ABFF U19 ( att : 35 )
The opening match of the weekend saw Dinamo Brest host FK Minsk, with the game being played indoors. Dinamo had played their first two matches, in April, in the Brest dome, but their last two had been outdoors.
Dinamo held out for 20 minutes, until Nekeza fed Pobegaylo for a trademark drilled left footed finish. The first half was like a training game, with no urgency from Minsk. It was suggested on the YouTube live chatroom that Minsk were under orders to keep score down in first half, and then comments on the stream were then disabled ! Who knows ?!
However, the floodgates started to open after Kazakevich was left with a simple side-footed finish from 6 yards on 52 minutes. Pinchuk and Nekeza then combined nicely to put Pinchuk clear to make it three and Nekeza finally got onto the scoresheet, tapping home inside the 6 yard box after good work from Kazakevich to make it 4-0 after 64 minutes. The Kenyan striker added her second 5 minutes later, missing a sitter from a couple of yards out before tapping home the rebound off the post.
Pobegaylo got into the action again by adding a 6th in the 78th minute, yet another finish from inside the 6 yard box, and then grabbed her hat-trick with a fine finish into the top corner in added on time to make the final score 7-0.
The other match on Saturday saw Dinamo BGU Minsk host Vitebsk at their Juni stadium, and it took just 9 minutes for the opening goal to arrive. It wasn’t a moment Vitebsk keeper Konak will enjoy seeing again, completely missing Linnik’s gentle free-kick from out on the left that was virtually straight at her, opting to try and punch rather than catch.
Dinamo were also restricted to just a one goal lead at the interval, as the Vitebsk goal led a charmed life with the ball hitting the crossbar, a lob over the keeper trickling inches wide, as well as a couple of brave stops by Konak and some poor misses. The introduction of top scorer Daria Stezhko helped to generate a second half goal glut as she claimed a hat-trick, as Dinamo matched FK Minsk with a 7-0 victory. The pick of Dinamo’s goals, was probably their 6th, with Darya Tatarin showing good skill to turn and beat her marker, and then steer left-footed across goal into the far corner.
Smorgon followed their impressive Cup win over Zorka, by claiming another notable scalp, this time with a comprehensive 3-0 victory over Dnepr Mogilev. 19 year-old Valeria Khartitonchik, who was at defunct Neman Grodno last season, gave Smorgon at great start, being found by a defence splitting ball and running on to confidently finish. Liana Miarshnichenko, a regular goal-scorer when previously with Zorka, doubled Smorgon’s lead just after the half hour mark with a free-kick that went through the Dnepr wall, and four minutes later curled another free-kick, this time around the wall, and into the corner to further stretch Smorgon’s lead.
In between the two free-kick’s, Dnepr’s Alina Koneva was shown a straight red card to add to the visitor’s woes. In the second half, Dnepr came close to claiming a consolation goal but their top scorer Daria Manyukova’s powerful header hit the post, and a long-range effort hit the top of the crossbar.
Zorka laboured to a win over hapless Gomel. Prior to the game, Zorka had scored 24 goals in 9 games, but 17 of those had come against Gomel and Brest, and the lack of potency in front of goal was again evident. Much was expected from teenager Yana Artishevskaya, having signed from Dnepr, but she has only found the net once so far this season, and was absent from the Zorka squad today. Zorka took 30 minutes to open their account, and only went into the interval 2-0 ahead. A sweeping move left Ivanchik unmarked inside the 6 yard box for a simple finish, and Viktoria Gerus pounced on goalkeeping fumble to score from close range. Zorka though were able to add three more goals in the second half, including one from evergreen Nigerian defender Otuwe Gift, who joined Zorka from Bobruichanka this season.
Bobruichanka disappointed again, going down to ABFF U19, whose youngsters continue to be competitive in the Premier League and moved up into 4th place with an emphatic victory. The Under 19s took the lead with barely a minute played, as Yakusik took advantage of some dithering in defence to hammer in the top corner from just inside the area. ABFF U19 dominated the early stages, and it was no surprise when the second goal came in the 28th minute, when Mikhan stabbed home after Bobruichanka keeper Faley failed to hold onto a shot. It was 3-0 a few minutes later, when the Bobruichanka backline was sliced apart to leave Uzin with a simple finish.
The final goal of the match came in the 53rd minutes, Tikhomirova’s 25 yard effort left Faley clutching at air as it sailed inside the far post. ABFF U-19 could have added one or two more as they looked too fast for the ageing Bobruichanka side, but several chances were squandered late on.
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