Having had a run of Sunday and late Saturday games, this weekend sees us take part in the league's Friday curtain-raiser, in Molodechno, against Slavia Mozyr. The visitors sit in eleventh place in the table, with eighteen points from fourteen games, and have been consistently inconsistent throughout the campaign. Amongst the English-speaking group of fans of this league, that has mushroomed online since March, it's fair to say that Slavia aren't the most popular side. They are widely seen as boring, perhaps a little unfairly. As we'll see, there's a fair number of characters in the team, and they are not without their qualities.Slavia's home-town, Mozyr is in South Eastern Belarus, and they are the only side from that part of the country in the league this season. Unusually, there is no team from Belarus' second-biggest city Gomel, with FC and Lokomotiv both trying to climb out of the second tier. The nearest team geographically is Belshina, but there's not really a rivalry there. Volna, from Pinsk, a supposed rival for Mozyr to being 'capital' of the country's marshy south, also play in the Pershaya Liga. So, Slavia are flying the south's freak flag alone, for the time being.
Mozyr, like Gomel, was badly affected in 1986 by the Chernobyl disaster. Chernobyl is just over sixty miles away to the south-east, and both cities declined badly in subsequent years, although the population has begun to rebuild itself in the twenty first century. The Pripyat River, running through the town and featuring a large port, is still badly contaminated by the radioactive fall out. However there's plenty manufacturing jobs, an art college, and a heavy rock festival, so it's not all bad.
Mozyr is dominated by one of the most important oil refineries you've never heard of- the Druzhba pipeline, where Russian crude oil bisects between a line running North West to Poland and South East to Ukraine. Druzhba is a sensitive piece of infrastructure which occasionally pops up in the news when the Russians are threatening to cut European oil supplies off. The refinery company's Dali-esque squiggle logo dominates the front of Slavia's shirts, which are so sponsor-heavy that they look more like scarlet and black motor racing jackets.
Mikhail's At the Wheel
Slavia were founded in 1987 and play at the Yusnost stadium. The club has had some historical success, winning both the league and the Belarusian cup twice. This season they came close to the cup final, beating an unconvincing BATE 1-0 at home but being edged out 0-2 in the semi-final's second leg.
In the last decade, Slavia have been promoted and relegated twice, last returning to the top tier in 2018. In the times that they have been in the Vysheyshaya Liga during the last ten years, they have never risen higher than mid-table and usually finish up between there and the bottom of the league.
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| Manager Mikhail Martinovich |
The Yin and Yang of Slavia's Existence
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| Winger Francis Narh runs at the BATE defence : Slavia won this league encounter 2-1. |
Fans are never quite sure which Slavia will turn up on the day. They have already beaten BATE twice this season, in three games, and won three of their first four this season, including an eye-catching defeat of champions Dinamo Brest on their own patch. Since that really great start, however, performances have been patchy at best. They somehow conspired to lose 1-3 at home to Andrei Razin's appalling FC Minsk side, and more recently were completely outclassed by a resurgent Neman Grodno at the Yusnost, by the same scoreline. Since early April their three wins in the last ten games have come against the league's lesser lights.
Their two games against the bottom sides perhaps illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of Slavia best. In Bobruisk, luckless Belshina raced into an early two goal lead, thanks entirely to poor Slavia defending. However, this is a side that never gives up and will keep playing to the last kick of the ball, no matter how hopeless their position. Eventually, in that game, Slavia were to prevail 3-2, courtesy of Sergei Turanok taking his weekly gaffe-dump, and a delightful deflection-aided chip from Francis Narh.
If that performance showed how difficult it is to grind Slavia into submission, last weekend's match at the Yusnost saw luckless visitors Smolevichi beat themselves, frankly. The struggling visitors could and should have been 4-0 up after twenty minutes, but poor finishing and one fine save kept the scoreline blank. Slavia are slow starters in games, most of the time, which I am sure Vladimir will have noted.
At the beginning of the second half, Ukrainian forward Maksym Slyusar, in and out of the tam and a bit of a flat-track bully, missed a sitter at full stretch, causing signs of an ominous meltdown in the dugout. Martinovich, his face dark with rage, stormed off and into his portakabin office, slamming the door. Posterity hasn't recorded how many office toys and Slavia-branded novelties were rage-shredded behind closed doors. Eventually, his side prevailed, via a very dubious penalty and a powerful header from Tetteh. As per usual, the naive Smolevichi deserved so much more from a game in which their opponents were alarmingly poor, but somehow won.
Contradictory Characters
Martinovich has plenty of experience in the goalkeeping department; his choice is between 37 year old Mikhail Baranovski, who has recently lost his place to Nikolai Romanyuk, a year younger. Romanyuk was a winter capture from gubbins village outfit Gorodeya, where he had spent three seasons; it's his second spell at the Yusnost. Romanyuk has done OK since stepping up in the last two games.
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| Nedashkovskiy : Buffoon |
Martinovich favours a back four, with the normal centre-backs being the Russian Igor Potapov, and the eccentric bald eminence, Yuri Nedashkovskiy. Almost supernaturally fit, Yuri is fond of doing cartwheels after a goal has been scored, causing disconsolate opposing defenders to scatter in all directions as the ludicrous alopecian beanpole goes head over heels in the box. The clowning masks a tough and experienced centre-half, who isn't the quickest, but is a good organiser and hard in the tackle. Ukrainian Yuri Pantya is the regular left back, a steady enough player, who started out with Bukovina in his home country, before moving on to a spell in the Russian second tier. Veteran and former international Andrei Chukley is the club's only recognised right back and is a threat, with three goals from eight games. However, he's been used sparingly this season, and in a slightly more advanced role.
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| Shevchenko : Dreadlocks |
Right midfielder Aleksandr Kotlyarov is another stalwart of the side, having played in every one of Slavia's games this season. He's a utility player, having featured in every midfield position this season from left to right. His efforts tends to go a little unnoticed but he works hard, and will be walking a bit tentatively in Molodechno; one more booking will earn him a suspension. Kotlyarov is in his third spell at the Yusnost, having also had spells at Gomel, Torpedo and most recently top Latvian club Jelgava.
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| Tetteh ; Talisman |
Slavia have players worth watching going forward. Dennis Tetteh, the Ghanaian striker, has been at the club for two seasons now and is a very popular and well-recognised figure in Mozyr, seemingly. He's quite quick and has great strength on the ball, although he will be disappointed a little by his goal tally this season, last weekend's effort against Smolevichi being his first of the campaign. He's had a good run of games recently after missing a fair few at the beginning of the season. Tetteh's fellow Ghanaian, winger Francis Narh, has been a bit quiet of late but looked really a terrific player earlier in the season, with a great touch and vision. It is interesting that Slavia have struggled a little in parallel to with Narh going off the boil, slightly. Since leaving Africa, Narh, a Ghanaian under-20 international, has had great experience in the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Turkey. Still only 26, he is currently Slavia's top scorer with four goals.
Alongside Narh, striker Nikita Melnikov is worth keeping an eye on. He missed four games in the last six- presumably injured- but he made his return last weekend against Smolevichi. Before his absences, the Russian striker had bagged a couple of goals, and will be looking to overhaul Narh quickly in the club charts. This is his first spell in Belarus, having signed for Slavia in 2019 from Russian third tier side Saturn Ramenskoe.
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| Narh and Melnikov : Line-Up |
We've seen that Slavia have an interesting squad and are more than capable of beating anyone in this league, if they turn up with the right mindset. They're an unusual group of players with varied and wide-ranging experience, and the squad is well-balanced in terms of age. The strange mix of characters reminds me a little of our squad. I may be in a minority of Vysheyshaya Liga fans, but I quite enjoy watching them. It's the uncertainty that gets you, and it's also great to hear a noisy and passionate support backing their team. The number of first-team players that have gone back to Slavia after spells elsewhere is a sign of a well-run and tight-knit place, that looks after people.
That said, this is a game we simply must win. If it's hard to predict what to expect from Slavia, then the same can be said for us. Energetik have been on a poor run in the last four games and have failed to score in our last three. Whilst disappointing, we won't have a better chance than to press the re-set button against a team that has struggled against all but the weakest teams in the last ten games. We noted that Slavia start slowly, so we need a quick and focused start, looking to put a couple of goals on them before they've settled into the game.
I've given up commenting on possible tactics as it seems that Vladimir will continue to play 3-5-2 until the next Ice Age, and then probably for a considerable time after that. This implies that we will try and dominate Slavia in the middle of the park which is quite possible, as I think it's their weakest department. I am really looking forward to seeing Nosko take on the dreadlocks and I think there's only one winner in that contest.
The one conundrum centres around Yudchits. I think he did pretty well at wing back against Dinamo, but there may be a thought to pairing him with Yak again, and moving someone else into that role. Beyond that I can only see us going with Vladimir's goalkeeping tombola and the same ten outfielders.
The only game that we have really been poor in, in our recent barren run, has been at home to Belshina. I am still a bit chafed that we sat off a dreadful Dinamo side so much last weekend. But as this is the last game of the first half of the season, there's every incentive for us to go out there and win; to end the poor run, to secure a top six place at the half way stage that I think we deserve, and to lay a positive foundation for the second half of the season, which begins with a hard match at the Borisov arena. To go over to face BATE with some hope, I really feel this is a game we need maximum points from. Over to you lads.
Jon Blackwood
Twitter: @jonblackwood
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