The weekend's curtain raiser took place on a hot and sultry afternoon in Molodechno, with the thermometer pushing thirty degrees. It was the kind of afternoon for a freezing cold Coke in the shade, the soundtrack one of distant lawnmowers and half-stunned insects droning slowly by in the heat; certainly not a day for a high-intensity game of elite football. Unfortunately, owing to the game's timing, the crowd was a little sparse, with only a small knot of fans having the time to make the journey from Mozyr on a working day, and a much thinner home crowd.
Coach Vladimir named an unchanged side from the one that started against Dinamo Minsk. Shahkboz Umarov continued in his midfield berth, with Vasily Sovpel still unable to force his way into the starting line up.
I'd expected a tough game against an unpredictable opponent. What transpired on Friday was absolutely the opposite. The tone for the game was set very early on. Soon after the kick off, the dreadlocked Gleb Shevchenko had the ball at his feet just in his own half; pressure from Nosko forced him back, and then back further, so much so that he decided to return it to his goalkeeper. The midfielder wasn't looking properly, however. His pass towards Romanyuk in goal was casual and under-powered. Yakshiboev, lurking on the shoulder of the last man, showed great anticipation by nipping in before the Slavia keeper could get there. He rounded the helpless goalie and arrowed towards the empty goal from a tight angle. Nedashkovskiy desperately tried to cover on the goal line; Yaskhiboev teased him, and then with his left foot flicked the ball home. 1-0, and one of the most generously gifted goals we'll ever score. The "underhit backpass" goal is quite rare now since backpasses to the keeper were stopped over 25 years ago, so this was a nostalgic throwback of an opener.
After clogged and stultifyingly boring games in the last two weekends, this was to be a classic, open game and over the course we dominated Slavia in midfield, comprehensively. Shevchenko was terrible; he wandered about the middle of the park as though looking for a set of dropped car keys, utterly peripheral to the game going on around him. The main danger came from Francis Narh. Half way through the first half, he received the ball from the left touchline and ran across the face of our defence, two or three yards beyond the area. Despite the close attentions of Miroshnikov and Mawatu, the talented Ghanaian pivoted and with his right foot unleashed a powerful shot that cleared Sadovskiy and bounced out of play of the top of the bar. For once, it wasn't us being denied by the woodwork.
Energetik began to pile chance upon chance on the overworked Romanyuk in the Slavia goal. From a Yak corner, Nosko roise high at the far post; jostled by a Slavia defender, he headed wide when well placed. A murderous low drive from Bakić was well blocked by the keeper from close range. A Yakshiboev free kick from about twenty eight yards on the right dipped over a make shift wall and forced Romanyuk into a fine sprawling save low down to his right, with the ball heading in.
However the next major incident of note wasn't to be a goal. Following a good run down the left touchline, Jérémy Mawatu played a teasing cross in towards the near post, with both Dušan Bakić and Nedashkovskiy going for it. Bakić, his foot quite high, appeared to catch the Slavia no.17 accidentally in a 50:50 clash. Nedashkovskiy crashed earthwards and stayed there, as though auditioning for the chainsaw scene in Scarface.
In a ludicrous decision, the referee, having checked the prone defender, sent Bakić off for serious foul play. Yes, the Montenegrin caught his opponent, accidentally- a yellow card at worst- there was no malice or intent there. Yet the referee, perhaps influenced by Nedashkovskiy's histrionics, reached a hasty and wrong conclusion. I hope that, if there is an appeal mechanism for refereeing decisions, the club use it. This was a complete injustice and left us a man short with three quarters of the game to go.
The worry at that point was that, with us a man down and confidence fragile from our recent poor run, Slavia would wake up and grind us down slowly over the remainder of the match. The hot and sticky afternoon made having the extra man an even bigger advantage. The visitors had their best chance a few minutes before the half ended. Untidy penalty box pinball saw the ball fall to Ukrainian striker Maksim Slyusar, twelve yards out and just a couple of yards outside Sadovskiy's left hand post. Slyusar put the laces of his right boot through the ball but Sadovskiy stood up bravely; the ball cannoned off his right thigh and to safety. It was a critical moment, in retrospect. Sadovskiy will have harder afternoons than Friday, but still was at his best when needed.
Slavia replaced Francis Narh at half time, a cruel blow to their hopes, with the winger seemingly carrying a knock. But our new look opponents didn't have time to settle into the half before we got ourselves further in front. A long clearance from our defence caught Nedashkovskiy horribly under the ball, and his misjudged attempt to head the danger away was grimly inevitable. Yakshiboev, at his shoulder, burst clear to gather the dangerous ball in the box, at the left hand edge of the six yard area. The Uzbek teased Nedashkovskiy before easing a delightful lofted pass to Tweh, rushing in at the other edge of the area, and he bundled the ball into the bottom left hand corner of the net, as Slavia's ornamental back four stood there and watched him. A fine finish, and even being depleted, this gave us a great start to the second half.
Slavia, mystifyingly, offered very little going forward in the game. The second half was a procession. We could have been further ahead on fifty minutes when Yakshiboev, back to his early season form, was played in by a delightful cross field ball from Mawatu. A goal seemed inevitable, but his first shot was blocked by Shevchenko; his second effort, from close range, brilliantly turned aside low to his left by Romanyuk, who immediately bounced to his feet for a lengthy harangue of the defender who had let Yak past him in the first place. At this moment it looked like we would score every time we came into their box.
In fact three more goals were added in the last half hour. Just before the hour mark the dominant Nosko embarked on a powerful, unstoppable run deep into the Slavia half. He outwitted the half hearted Zhuk before feeding Yakshiboev, again on the shoulder of Nedashokovskiy. With a lighting turn to the left, using his right instep he cut in and left the bald centre half floundering; easily hurdled another despairing last minute challenge; and, from six yards, gently caressed the ball with his left foot past the helpless Romanyuk, low into the bottom right hand corner. 3-0, and any lingering doubts, fertilising in the dark compost of a long goalless run, were neutralised.
If Slavia could have walked off at that point I think they'd have done so willingly. Their ageing rearguard simply couldn't get a handle on Yakshiboev, as he pulled them about like a puppy gleefully dismantling a bird's nest. Every time Nedashkovskiy turned, Yak was there. And, they became so occupied failing to stop him, that space was left for others to take advantage.
The beneficiary in the last twenty minutes was Vasily Sovpel, on once again for Umarov. Another long ball over the top, with left back Yuri Pantya hopelessly over-committed and out of place, saw Sovpel burst clear in his own square hectare of fertile land on the Slavia left. He strode determinedly into the area and, with Nedashkovskiy struggling to intervene, hit the ball expertly across the advancing Romanyuk and inside the right hand post for the fourth.
Slavia had long since moved into damage limitation mode but one final slap in the face awaited them. With a minute to go, Yakshiboev motored down the middle of the park, surrounded by Slavia players who mystifyingly stood off him. Choosing his moment perfectly, he dinked a ball out to the right where again Sovpel had plenty of time and space to choose his spot. In an almost carbon copy of his first goal, but slightly closer in and from a sharper angle, the substitute again sent the ball hissing across the shell-shocked Romanyuk to find the net at almost exactly the same spot that the fourth had hit. 5-0, and all that was left still to go wrong for Slavia was a grand piano to fall from the sky and demolish their dug out with coach Martinovich still in it. After witnessing this abject capitulation it's a release he may well have welcomed.
This was a truly wonderful performance by Energetik, and the biggest win any side has recorded in the league this season. The side showed great maturity in turning the unjust dismissal of Bakić to their advantage, rather than sulking about it. Some of the attacking play in the second half was quite mesmerising. For those who feel we should maybe bit a bit more realistic in our ambitions for the season, I will just point them to the video of this performance. On our day, there isn't a better attacking side in the country.
The trick for Vladimir, Anatoly Pavlovich and the other coaches is to try and work to ensure that these days come about far more often. The head coach of famously few words will have enjoyed his birthday cognac and cigar on Saturday looking at the video of that game, and rightly so. After the game, pressball.by reported him as saying:
"Good game. I am grateful to the kids that they did not flinch being a man down, played their football, fulfilled all their duties. We beat, I think, a worthy team, so I'm grateful to all the guys. Today we played in the minority. I repeat, the team does not consist of Bakich, of Yakhshiboev. They, yes, are good players, but there are guys who will worthily come out and play. And let's see how it goes."
With half of the season completed, Energetik-BGU are fifth in the table and just a point behind Shakhtyor in second. Having finished twelfth last season, this is a great opening half, which has featured memorable victories over some of the country's best sides, and Neman away excepted, few poor performances. I think we should look forward to more of the same if we can keep hold of Yakshiboev, about whom many rumours are circulating. The transfer window opening on July 1 will be an anxious time for a club like ours with many players on loan and little purchase if a player's parent club wants to sell them on. We will just have to wait and see what if any movement there is and enjoy this particular moment.
Yes, we won't play a side as bad as Slavia every week, but few if any teams in the league could have lived with that display on Friday. Confident in defence, dominant in midfield and endlessly inventive and accurate in the final third, if we are to play better than that this season, I personally cannot wait to see it. We will go next to Borisov to face a humbled BATE, in very good spirits.
Here's the Highlights. I recommend them.
Jon Blackwood
Twitter: @jonblackwood
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