September 15, 2022
This is these diaries' third report on football in Uzbekistan, coming after a review of the 2020 Super League season, and a relegation battle in 2021 between Mash'Al Mubarek and Andijon, both of whom were ultimately relegated.
https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2020/12/review-of-2020-uzbekistan-super-league.html
https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2021/09/fk-mashal-mubarek-0-1-pfk-andijon-att-0.html
Pakhtakor won the 2020 Uzbekistan Super League by a margin of 12 points to claim their 13th title, ahead of Nasaf Qarshi and AGMK. Pakhtakor then suffered the loss of several key players, with influential midfield play-maker Jololiddin Masharipov leaving to join Saudi side Al Nasr, national striker Igor Sergeev went to Kazakhstan and is now at Tobol, and Swiss forward Eren Derdiyok moved to Ankaragucu.
Georgian Coach Shota Arveladze also left, and is now at Hull City, resulting in his assistant, ex-Dutch international Pieter Huistra taking over what appeared to be a much-weakened squad. Despite this, Pakhtakor went on to record their 14th title, with an increased margin of 13 points, this time ahead of Sogdiana and AGMK. Veteran Serbian striker Dragan Ceran followed up being the league’s top scorer in 2020 with 20 goals, by winning the golden boot for the third time with 16 goals in 2021. During a mid-season injury crisis, Pakhtakor were reduced to playing winger Sherzad Temirov as a make-shift striker, with the experiment bearing fruit with 8 goals, to earn Temirov a first international cap and a transfer to Iranian giants Persepolis.
Prior to the start of 2022, coach Huistra left his position to be replaced by North Macedonian Slavce Vojneski. However, after a poor AFC Champions League campaign and a series of draws in the league, Vojneski was shown the door, with record goal scorer for national side and all-time Uzbek legend Maksim Shatskikh appointed as the successor. Shatskikh was part of the Uzbekistan side that I saw defeat Bangladesh 6-0 in the UAE in 1999, where he scored two goals.
Shatskikh’s second match in charge was a 0-3 home derby defeat against Bunyodkor, but they regrouped and have embarked on a run of 7 games without defeat going into today’s match.
Pakhtakor’s starting XI today included 6 current members of the Uzbekistan national squad, plus keeper Kuvvartov who has won 7 caps, with the rest of the line-up made of Ceran, ex-Widzew Lodz and Gornik Leczna Polish forward Przemyslaw Banaszak, ex Aluminij and Maribor Montenegrin centre-back Illja Martinovic ( 3 caps ) and under 21 centre-back Shakhzod Azmiddinov. Ukrainian journeyman centre-back Olexsandr Nasonov was on the bench. Transfermrkt rated midfielder Odiljon Khamrobekov ( 26 caps ) as their most valuable player at 900K Euros.
AGMK play in the city of Olmaliq, which has a population of around 130,000 and is located 70km south-east of the capital Tashkent, an estimated journey of 1 hour 20 minutes by road. With the main industry in the area being the extraction of copper, lead, zinc, gold, silver and barite, the football side are known as The Miners. Home is the 12,000 capacity OKMK Sport Majmvasi.
AGMK’s captain is Sanzhar Tursunov, who in a long career has won 49 caps and played for a number of clubs including Nizhny Volvograd in Russia, Ukrainian side Vorskla Poltava and Daejeon Citizen in South Korea. Ex-Dinamo Tbilisi central midfielder Giorgi Papava has 3 caps for Georgia, Dan Spataru has 22 caps for Moldova and has played for Zimbru and Milsami-Orhei in his home country and Noah and Ararat-Armenia in Armenia, and Tajikistan International Alisher Dzhailov has represented his country 13 times. Italian striker Martin Boakye has played for Slaven Belupo in Slovenia and Andijon in Uzbekistan.
There were two other former Uzbek internationals in the AGMK starting line-up, keeper Botirali Ergashev had one cap, whilst left-back Akramjon Komilov had played 8 times for his country.
The 2022 Super League is a much more competitive league than in the past couple of seasons, with the top 5 separated by only three points, with Pakhtakor, Nasaf, Sogdiana, Navbahor and Qizilqum all in the running, with no side seemingly so far capable of putting together a winning run to pull clear of the pack, and regularly dropping points from matches they might have been expected to comfortably win.
Pakhtakor started the day in second place on goal-difference behind Nasaf Qarshi, with AGMK 6 points behind in 6th place. AGMK had the second-best home record in the Division, having garnered 17 points from 9 matches, with two defeats coming at the hands of Navbahor and Metallurg. Along with Qizilqum, with 18 goals they were the joint highest scorers at home. On the other hand, Pakhtakor had the second-best away record, being unbeaten in 10 games on the road and with 5 wins. Their problems has been winning matches at home.
All Super League matches this season are being shown live on the YouTube Sport telekanali – Rasmiy channel. Matches are also being streamed on the Eleven Sports channel, although this coverage has just one camera, making it difficult to make out the player’s numbers, and the picture is prone to freezing from time to time. Highlights are available on the Championatasia and PFL Uzbeksitan YouTube channels.
Bet365.com made Pakhtakor 6/4 favourites, with AGMK at 2/1 and the draw at 17/10. Temperature at the 19.00 local time kick-off ( 15.00 UK time ) was around 29 degrees with the weather dry.
AGMK wore a kit of all blue, whilst Pakhtakor were in a tasteful change kit of all white but with blue bands on the bottom half of the front of the shirt.
AGMK created a half chance in the 10th minute, but after a good run and cross from Giyosov, Mirakhmadov could only head weakly high over the bar. Pakhtakor responded with a nice move, as Khamrobekov made a strong run from midfield and found Khamdamov on the edge of the AGMK area. A smart reverse pass put Alijonev on goal in the right-hand channel, but his shot to the near post was saved at the second attempt by Ergashev.
The AGMK keeper had to be alert again in the 24th minute when an attempted clearance of a cross from the left struck Pakhtakor forward Banaszak and looped towards the goal, for Ergashev to grab out of the air.
AGMK’s first shot on target occurred in the 34th minutes as Mirakhmadov make a decent run down the right and fed Haghnazari, but the shot lacked power and keeper Kuvvartov was able to get down and easily save.
Pakhtakor should have opened the scoring in the 36th minute. A fine left-wing cross was well defended at the expense of a corner to prevent Banaszak having a free header at the back post. Sobirkhodjaev’s set-piece found Azmiddinov unmarked 6 yards out but he horribly mis-timed his header with the goal at his mercy. As the young defender put his head in his hands and everyone seemed to stop, Banaszak played the ball back into the danger zone, but after a couple of deflections, Ergashev dived to claim the loose ball.
Pakhtakor had started to look the better side with their neat passing catching the eye, but AGMK finished the half strongly. Tursunov was too strong in the tackle with Alijonov to win possession after a pass from the increasingly prominent Haghnazari, but sent his right-footed drive a few inches wide from the edge of the area. Then a swift 2 on 1 counter attack was squandered by a poor pass from Giyosov failing to pick out the unmarked Haghnazari.
Two minutes before the interval Pakhtakor had another good chance from a corner but Martinovic and Azmiddinov got in each other’s way, resulting in Azmiddinov’s header under pressure from his team-mate going well over.
There was still time for one more chance for the visitors. After Turgunbaev’s scissor-kick was blocked, Khamrobekov was teed up but could only shoot over from 18 yards.
Both sides made changes at the interval, with Pakhtakor bringing on Nasonov and Azamov, whilst AGMK introduced striker Boakye.
The Miners had the first shot on target in the second period. After Abdullayev had shot wide from 25 yards in the first minute of the half, Haghnazari’s superb turn near half-way gave him space to pick out Boakye, and the Italian sped towards goal. Although being pushed out wide he managed to get a strong shot in, but it was too close to Kuvvartov, who was able to push away for a corner. From the following set piece, Tursunov reacted to a half-clearance but his first time snap shot sailed a few feet over.
However, it was Pakhtakor who scored the first goal of the encounter following a fine move in the 54th minute. Turgunbaev and Sobirkhodjaev combined well to take play towards the AGMK area, and although a cross was partially cleared, Turgunbaev picked up the loose ball and played a first time pass to Ceran with his back to the goal. Although the return pass went beyond Turgunbaev, it found Sobirkhodjaev whose swerving run beat a couple of defenders inside the area to get a sight of goal from close range, but his left-footed attempt was blocked by Ergashev. Turgunbaev’s follow-up inside the 6 yard box was blocked by Ismailov virtually on the line, but after a bit of a scramble the loose ball fell to right-back Alijonov, who swept home left-footed through a crowd of players from 6 yards.
For a few minutes Pakhtakor threatened to run away with the match, and a surging run from Turgunbaev was only halted by a brutal challenge that the referee deemed didn’t even merit a yellow card.
AGMK though soon got back into the match and had a dominant spell as they went in search of the equalizer. In the 62nd minute, Giyosov ran past two defenders to spread wide to Akhmadaliev, and his reverse pass found the overlapping Rakhmanov. However, rather than going for goal he attempted to find the unmarked Boakye, but the low cross was intercepted and cleared.
Two minutes later another spell of pressure saw Akhmadaliev’s pull-back from the by-line find Haghnazari on the angle of the 6 yard box. The midfielder was crowded out, and the ball played back to Tursunov 20 yards out, but his attempt went a few yards wide and just beyond the lurking Boayke.
In the 66th minute the Miners were lucky to keep 11 players on the pitch. As the ball rolled out of play for a throw-in, Abdullayev made a sly kick at Banaszak. Predictably the Polish striker went to ground, rolling on the floor, and it was probably this gross over-reaction that save the AGMK player from seeing the red card.
16 minutes from time another piece of vision from Haghnazari found Spataru in oceans of space on the right wing, but the Moldovan substitute’s cross deflected off Khamrobekov, hit Boakye on the chest and went wide from a few feet out.
After 30 minutes of constant pressure, the home side shot themselves in the foot with 6 minutes remaining. A pass from Papava to Ismailov was poorly under-hit and Ceran was able to get there first and poke past the centre-back, leaving the Serbian the straight-forward task of advancing on goal and sliding the ball past the keeper to clinch the three points for the visitors.
Ceran should then have added a third for his side with three minutes left on the clock, but one on one with Ergashev after being picked out by Jabborov, his attempted chip struck the keeper’s chest to go off for a corner. From the subsequent corner, the Serb headed wide from a good position.
With AGMK on the ropes, a swift counter saw Ceran have options to both his left and right, but his pass was hit beyond Fayzullayev enabling Ergashev to gather, and then from another swift move down the left, Sayfiyev’s excellent cross found Ceran inside the penalty box, but the Serb’s control let him down. In between, Haghnazari hit the deck when attempting to dribble past Azmiddinov but failed to impress the referee.
There was still time for AGMK’s Kosimov to fire a 20 yard effort a few feet wide in the final minute of added on time. In truth it was a strange final 10 minutes to the match, going from a good chance of finishing 1-1 but it could easily have ended 0-4 !
With this victory Pakhtakor moved to the top of the table although they would be overtaken should Nasaf win their home match over struggling Kokand 1912. However, with their unbeaten run now extending to 8 matches, Pakhtakor are slowly looking favourites to retain their title again. AGMK remained in a disappointing 6th place.
FC AGMK : Ergashev – Akhmadaliev, Rakhmanov, Ismailov, Komilov ( Gadoev ) – Abdullayev ( Spataru ), Papava, Haghnazari – Tursunov ( Kosimov ), Mirakhmadov ( Boakye ), Giyosov ( Dzhailov )
Pakhtakor Tashkent : Kuvvartov – Alijonov, Azmiddinov, Martinovic ( Nasonov ), Sayfiyev – Sobirkhodjaev, Khamdamov ( Azamov ), Khamrobekov, Turgunbaev ( Fayzullayev ) – Ceran ( Kholmatov ), Banaszak ( Jabborov )
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmxz0_4mSCA
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