Vysheyshaya Liga Match Preview: 14th Round, June 20th 2020 vs Dinamo Minsk

Derby That Isn't a Derby

Those of us who've taken up the Energetik banner in recent months have been looking forward to the big Minsk "derby" for some time. I put the word derby in inverted commas, as whilst it may be a big game for us, amongst our opposition we induce little more than a shrug of the shoulders, or patronising disdain. The only reason Dinamo fans may feel a minor twinge of local rivarly is because we're in the same city and for now, the same league. In respect of history, tradition, finance, and venue, this is not so much a derby as a grotesque mismatch. It's Liverpool against Southport; West Ham against Dagenham & Redbridge; Hibs against Edinburgh University.

Minsk Football Fan Map by Tadesuz Giczan (twitter: @TadeuszGiczan)

A map produced by student of Belarussian politics and society, Tadeusz Giczan, and shared by the estimable @pavelsleftfoot on twitter, gives a really clear visualisation of the disparity between the clubs. His map shows Dinamo dominating the attention of fans in the Belarusian capital, a city of just under two million people. The next two biggest clubs, and Dinamo's historical rivals- Partizan and Torpedo- are either defunct or in abeyance. Then there's Krumkachy, fast becoming the Dulwich Hamlet-style fashionable avant-gardists of Minsk football, then the flatpack IKEA clubs (Isloch & FCM) not long formed, then....us.

If Only Yesterday Could be Our Tomorrow

Dinamo's healthy conceit of themselves is well-founded, being the most successful club in Belarusian football history. The "Dynamo" sports concept, designed to build a federation of physical exercise and sports clubs across the newly consolidated Soviet Union, was signed off by Felix Dzerzhinsky (who also found time to found the KGB) in 1923. Four years later, the Minsk branch of Dzerzhinsky's idea was founded and throughout the Soviet period, the club had a close relationship to the police and secret services.

Legend Malofeev opens the club shop, desperately trying to ignore a blue dragon behind him

This is a club founded in a city destroyed in World War Two, a city where over eighty percent of the population was killed or displaced; a city rebuilt in the fifties and sixties, and then expanded remarkably under Pyotr Masherov in the seventies. Two years after Masherov's mysterious death, Dinamo reached the peak of their achievement. Under legendary manager Eduard Malofeev, they won the Soviet league in 1982 with a free-flowing, entertaining style of football. Malofeev, who is still at the club as head of youth, still swears by the romantic ideals that took Dinamo to the title, and him personally to manage the Soviet national team later in the eighties.

Dinamo Minsk: Champions of the USSR, 1982

The throaty roars of success from nearly forty years ago have long since faded. Sure, Dinamo dominated the early post-independence years in Belarus, winning six titles, but their last success was in 2004. Dinamo now have to subsist in much-reduced and much shrunken circumstances in the Belarusian league, where they haven't been able to land a glove on BATE's dominance in the last fifteen years. Dinamo have come agonisingly close on a couple of occasions- the last time being the 2017 season, where they lost out on a first title in over a decade, on goal difference.

They don't even have traditional rivalries to enjoy now; they have a cheerful detestation of their Borisov rivals, simply on the basis that BATE are successful and Dinamo are not, but with every passing year it seems less likely that Partizan (folded 2012 during the collapse of Vladimir Romanov's footballing empire) will re-emerge meaningfully, whilst plans to jump start the cryogenically frozen Torpedo (disappeared last season) have yet come to nothing. Dinamo have been a constant in the complicated stories of collapse, re-naming, franchising and re-formations of Minsk football clubs, but this stability will be of little consolation to a dwindling fanbase missing old rivalries and certainly starved of success in the last few years.

A Stuttering Ending and a (sort of) New Beginning

Dinamo had a notably poor start to the season under former manager Sergei Gurenko. Having just sneaked into fourth place last season three points ahead of Isloch, the manager was under pressure to deliver a fast start and a much more serious challenge for the championship. The cup went out the window in early march, with defeat home and away in the quarter finals to BATE, who whined noiselessly past Dinamo in a 5-3 aggregate win.

Gorodeya : Gurenko's gubbins Waterloo

Alas! Gurenko's side were sluggish, disjointed and, charitably, mediocre in their first few games. The league season began with a dismal single-goal home defeat to Rukh Brest. Further ignominy awaited the following week, with another rotten performance seeing Dinamo subside 2-3 to Andrei Razin's hopeless collage of jobbers and makeweights at FC Minsk, a game characterised by spectacular goals and terrible defending. A stale win over ultra-conservative Torpedo at the Dinamo stadium offered a little temporary respite.  However, a single goal defeat away at gubbins village outfit Gorodeya seems to have sealed Gurenko's fate, after his expensively assembled squad looked utterly clueless as to how to respond to the villagers' early goal. It was a matter of time until the in-charge-but-not-in-command Gurenko left, and he did so after a final win in front of a pitiful crowd at home to Neman Grodno.

Dinamo, owned by Yuri Chyzh, one of the wealthiest businessmen in the country, clearly decided that experience and a steady disciplinarian hand was needed for an underperforming squad, and sought comfort in the familiarity of Leonid Kuchuk.

Head Coach Leonid Kuchuk

Belarus football seems to be a village, where everyone knows everyone else, and where everyone has worked with everyone else, at some stage. Kuchuk, now sixty, had his first serious managerial gig as assistant to our very own coaching 'supervisor', Anatoly Yurevich, at defunct Lokomotiv Minsk. With this duo in charge, the club reached the final of the 2003 Belarusian cup, where, oddly, they lost to Dinamo.

After leaving a sinking Lokomotiv, Kuchuk became manager for sinister Transnistrian club FC Sherriff, the seemingly permanent champions of Moldova. Kuchuk duly won everything there was to win in a five year spell, impressive on paper until one remembers that Sherriff would win that league with a waxwork of Elvis in the dugout. Since that early spell of success in Tiraspol he's been back twice as sporting director, in between mixed stints in charge of various clubs in Russia and Ukraine. Having been appointed on 22 April, Kuchuk decided to make his latest tenure a family affair, raiding hipsters Krumkachy for his son Alexei, and appointing him assistant manager within 48 hours, perhaps tilting at a future dynastic succession.

The Dinamo fans didn't seem overwhelmed with enthusiasm by Kuchuk's appointment, with some regarding him as a throwback, and bringing an uninspiring, dour style of play. The grumblings grew louder as he lost his first game in charge at home to Slutsk, before another 1-2 reverse away to (then) struggling Dinamo Brest. This left Dinamo in thirteenth. In both these opening disappointments, a glowering Kuchuk paced the touchline like a wearied Red Army Captain surveying yet another batch of thoroughly unsuitable conscripts. In the Slutsk game, Vitaly Pavlov's impish side and their light hearted enjoyment of a perfectly executed counter-attacking plan, exposed Dinamo's slow, fear-filled, leaden display pitilessly.

Since then matters have improved. Dinamo have lost just once in the last five games- a single goal defeat at home to in-form Shakhtyor, who had to work quite hard for their win; a towsy, hard-fought draw in Vitebsk and successes against the league's lesser lights have steadily improved the club's position, to the extent that a win over us this weekend could see Dinamo move into the top four for the first time this campaign. Kuchuk has clearly decided to dispense with any notion of entertainment in pursuit of a quick climb up the table. The win in Bobruisk was noteworthy mainly for the generosity of the league's bottom club, but last weekend's single goal win over a stubborn Slavia Mozyr was one of the dullest games of the season. Evgeny Shikavka's wonderfully executed bicycle kick for the edge of the area, for the game's only goal, gave the fans something to talk about, but the second half was turgid and attritional - football as white noise. Kuchuk is taking the Alan Durban line, clearly: "If it's entertainment you want, go and watch a bunch of clowns".     

Coming to the Boil at Exactly the Wrong Time

Dinamo's progress has been steady in the last few weeks and it may be that with Energetik's form heading in the opposite direction, we're visiting the Dinamo stadium at exactly the wrong time. I think that's too pessimistic a view, however; Dinamo are more than beatable.

Maksim Plotnikov goes up against Gareth Bale for Belarus, at the Cardiff City stadium. The Welsh won the game 1-0.

In goal Maksim Plotnikov has made the no.49 jersey all his own this season. The young keeper, breaking into the national team squad and at the beginning of a very promising career, has seemed one of the better goalies in the division; his handling and positioning is good, he is comfortable in the air, and he marshalls his defence quite well. Plotnikov made an important save low down to his left last weekend to keep Dinamo's noses ahead of Slavia's. Despite reasonably consistent performances Kuchuk has chosen to fire a shot across Plotnikov's bows, by signing experienced Russian keeper Yevgeny Pomazan from Baltika Kaliningrad in the last fortnight. It's not clear whether the manager is displeased with his first choice goalkeeper, or whether he feels he needs a bit more of a serious challenge to his place.

Slovenian centre-back Miha Goropevšek

Kuchuk, like Vladimir and Anatoly Pavlovich, has favoured a 3-5-2 formation since taking over. The defence is organised around the gangling Slovenian centre-back Miha Goropevšek. The captain, Igor Shitov, is a defender with enormous experience, including 66 caps for his country, but he's featured a bit less this season. Young Maksim Shvestsov, with his lank Kevin-Keegan tendils, has been a regular face lately; a dogged if unspectacular defender. Serbian under-21 defender Dominik Dinga has dropped from favour slightly since being made a fool of by Nicolaescu at Vitebsk. Karlo Bručić, a left sided defensive midfielder or left back from Zagreb, has returned to the starting eleven in the last two games and looks a composed and calm player on the ball, with a fierce tackle on him.

Even when they were performing poorly under Gurenko, the Dinamo defence has never leaked too many goals, and in the recent five-game run has conceded just twice. They're a hard side to break down then but with a narrow back three, have vulnerabilities down the flanks. We'll need Tweh, Mawatu and Girs at their best to try and capitalise on that.

Dinamo have some really good options in midfield and up front, which made their clogged, over-wrought attacking earlier in the season so frustrating to watch. There's a lack of pace in the side which Kuchuk will need to look at when the Belarusian window opens in July. Nonetheless, there are threats in every part of their side, from Belgian/Brazilian talisman, the midfielder Danilo, to the young Serbian under-21 international, Marko Pavlovski. It was Pavlovski who was able to innovate with a pretty unpromising awkward ball to set up Evgeny Shikavka's spectacular overhead winner against Slavia last weekend.

Perhaps the understanding between Shikavka, an out an out centre-forward, and clever attacker Vladislav Klimovich, signed in January from Torpedo, that has benefited Dinamo most this season. Shikavka leads the goal scoring charts with five goals and is tall and powerful, and able to hold the ball up well. For his part, Klimovich has four assists to go with his brace of goals, and reads the game very well indeed.

Vladislav Klimovich in full flight during Dinamo's 4-0 win against Belshina

Energising Energetik

Energetik need to pick up quickly to avoid idling away into mid-table irrelevance. The remaining matches of this first half of the season, this game at the Dinamo stadium, and next in Molodechno against Slavia Mozyr, should yield four points. I would take a point from this game in the expectation of beating Slavia at home, but it's becoming a habit to expect surprises from our young squad.

It's to be hoped Miroshnikov is fit enough to return. There's been a lot of chat on the Energetik English language coverage of trying to change the formation, but given that Kuchuk has favoured 3-5-2 in his tenure at Dinamo thus far, I doubt Vladimir, fixated on the similar formation, will do anything other than counter it. It's an advantage at least, through Anatoly Pavlovich, to know how Kuchuk thinks as a coach and how to set up to frustrate him. I do feel that through the pace of Mawatu and Girs down the flanks, we can certainly supply enough ammunition to ask them serious questions at the back.

Is it goodnight from him?

The big unknown this week is what's to become of Yakshiboev. Rumours this week suggest that he may be about to be sold by his parent club in Uzbekistan, to Standard Liège in Belgium, and if these were rumours that reached the player, that may account for his uncharacterisitcally listless performance last weekend against Belshina. I've loved watching Yak until the last couple of games so if he's to go, then best of luck- it will be very interesting to see how he does in the Belgian league. Hopefully, however, he can see out the first half of the season and remind us of why he's attracting interest at this level to begin with. If Yak is left out, or already flying business class with Belavia to Belgium, then Yudchits and Bakić will be the obvious pairing again.

I just feel things have gone a little stale in the last couple of games, and that other teams have begun to work us out. Perhaps we can move around some of our players into different roles, or bring in some of the boys who haven't had a chance yet this season. If we are not to change tactically then a surprise or two in personnel may help us get things moving again. This is such a talented young group at the club and it would be a shame to fritter away the start that's been made to the season. If we really are aiming for the top four then probably Dinamo are our biggest rivals for that last European place; in this context a win would be a really significant result for us.

Dinamo's games have been reliably dull and it is difficult to build up a real atmosphere in their 97% empty yawning bowl of a ground. Slavia's diehards, amongst the most noisy and raucous in the league, did their best last weekend, but most of the time there's the kind of atmosphere associated with bacteria germinating in an empty fridge. Maybe, in the silence, our little tangerine-and-purple mice can roar. 

Dinamo's "Dinamo Olympic' stadium, refurbished in 2016 

Jon Blackwood
Twitter: @jonblackwood