On Sunday at 1400 UK time our next game kicks off in our temporary home at Molodechno, with lowly Vitebsk the visitors. Vitebsk, tenth in the table, haven’t won in their last five games, and their games are rarely free-flowing, goal filled affairs; in the ten matches they have been involved in, only eighteen goals have been scored, with just four across their last three games against Shaktyor, Belshina and Dynamo Minsk.
Yet, the story is a bit more complicated than that. Sure, Vitebsk’s last few games really haven’t been easy on the eye. But they have some very dangerous players, and are more than capable of grinding out results against the bigger names. Their last win came in late April with a lone goal triumph over Dynamo Brest, who finished a bad tempered, appallingly refereed affair with nine men. Back then beating Dynamo Brest was a big deal- we all know better now.
Vitebsk is an important city in the history of Belarus and seems a very interesting place to visit. An important corner of European modernism in the arts lived and worked here in the early 1920s when Belarus was a daily-shifting entity during the Russian Civil War. The city’s history is littered with authors, architects, painters and engineers. Yet this rich patina of culture has yet to touch the city’s football team, founded in 1960 and enduring six decades of mediocrity, largely untroubled by success, since.
The last five seasons in the club’s history are pretty typical. In that period their highest finish in the top league was fourth, whilst they have had two near-fatal flirtations with the drop, finishing thirteenth last season, just a solitary point clear of the relegation play-off. They did, however, reach the final of the Belarusian cup, losing 0-2 comfortably, to Shaktyor.
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| Vitebsk head coach Sergei Yasinsky |
Clubs with less patient owners may by now have dispensed with the services of head coach Sergei Yasinsky, who has been in charge at Vitebsk’s Central Sports Complex for the last five years. It’s not really clear what Vitebsk, who seem a very well supported club, would define as success. Yaskinsky is a very experienced coach, having been involved in Vitebsk football from his debut as a player in the 1983/84 season, and having also spent time in charge of Shaktyor and Tiraspol in Moldova. His current squad, captained by local boy and one club man Artem Skitaw, is a mix of Belarussians leavened by Ukrainians and Brazilians. Lead scorer Ion Nicolaescu is a full Moldovan international with seven caps.
Looking across their season, their three wins have all been by a single goal: a towsy success against Gorodeya in the sleet in the season’s opening day, on an awful 3G pitch (presumably their stadium wasn’t quite ready, and it was good to see Kenilworth Road’s old concrete carpet still in action), an unconvincing success against poor Smolevichi, the goal coming from a free kick which eluded the home keeper’s crisp packet hands; and the aforementioned win over Dynamo. This last saw Brazilian attacking midfielder Diego become notorious, as his play-acting saw two Dynamo defenders sent off late on and a dubious resulting penalty that took the game.
The turning point in recent times for Vitebsk seems to have been a late collapse in a 2-3 home defeat to Slavia Mazyr. Leading 2-1, late on, Vitebsk conceded a stupid free kick that brought the equaliser, before a clumsy challenge in the box led to Slavia’s winner from the penalty spot.
After that, Yasinsky, much like George Graham at Spurs in the 90s, seems to have decided that defence is the root of all success. The three games since have been pretty grim viewing and just as uneven; Vitebsk gave a very good account of themselves against dangerous Shaktyor, shutting them out in a goalless draw at home, but they were very lucky to avoid being the first team to lose to Belshina Bobruisk this season. Last time out, Dynamo Minsk laid siege to their goal in the second half. They were too incompetent, however, to take advantage of the many opportunities they created, both goals having been scored early in a 1-1 draw.
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| Vitebsk captain Artem Skitaw |
Vitebsk’s regular keeper in the last three games has been Dzimitry Huszchanka, who came into the side for the first time to replace Artem Sorko after the Slavia defeat. Both goalkeepers have been amongst the better in the league, making good saves and handling the ball well. In fairness, Vitebsk need good goalies as their back four is their weakness; porous, clumsy and having given away more than the odd silly goal this season. No. 6 Julio Cesar, a Brazilian who began his career in Corinthians’ youth set up, seems to know most what he is doing back there, alongside the experienced Skitaw, who normally features at right back.
However if their defence could do with shoring up, Vitebsk have many talented players in the middle of the park, and going forward. Ukrainian attacking midfielder Maksym Kalenchuk scored a divine lobbed goal against Slavia, one of the best pieces of technique I’ve seen in the league this season. Diego, the Brazilian attacking midfielder, drifts in and out of games, but his antics against Dynamo Brest show that he is a wind-up merchant and to be treated with great caution.
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| Top scorer Ion Nicolaescu |
Ion Nicolaescu is their top scorer with four goals, and his equaliser in the last game against Dynamo Minsk showed a glimpse of how dangerous he can be. A ball was lofted towards the right touchline, into space, with Nicolaescu lurking. From nowhere he turned on the afterburners and left Dynamo defender Dominik Dinga looking as though he was running backwards. Starting five yards behind the hapless defender, Nicolaescu surged past him and hit a lofted shot from a difficult angle, at the edge of the area, over the advancing Plotnikov and into the net. Nicolaescu’s pace and technique had left the Dynamo defence looking very, very stupid.
So, although the table may show Vitebsk to be struggling a bit, the picture is a little more complicated. As for ourselves, we’ll have to contend with the loss of the league’s top scorer and our talisman. The “Yak” is out having picked up too many yellow cards and thus triggering an automatic one game suspension. The dilemma for coach Vladimir is how to replace him effectively to try and take advantage of Vitebsk’s string-vest back line. It would seem that Yudchits and Bakić would be the likeliest pairing, but there may be a role for Atemeng and Umarov up front as well. Having not only survived but thrived since the departure of last season’s league top scorer, Ilya Shkurin, to CSKA Moscow, it’s a problem Vladimir is well used to solving.
We’ve won our last four matches and need to win this one as well, in order to go into the Minsk derby in good heart. Vitebsk, meanwhile, will see this as an opportunity to check an alarming winless run before a very difficult spell, which sees them take on BATE, Rukh and Torpedo in their next four fixtures.
As a result, this game is a bit more intriguing than many
neutrals may realise. It’s a chance for
our team to show that our second place in the table is not only merited but
represents a serious challenge to BATE; and further, that we can prosper
without the Yak in the team. For these reasons this game has a lot more to it
than meets the eye.
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Molodechno awaits
Vitebsk |
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