Vysheyshaya Liga Match Preview 18th Round: Sunday, 19 July vs. FC Minsk

Well, the show must go on. After last weekend's horrific implosion against Rukh Brest, a Hieronymous-Bosch-style nightmare that will scar the imaginary of Energetik devotees for some time to come, cognitive behavioural therapy comes in the form of a short visit to one of FC Minsk's many stadiums (the Traktor, I think, where we have already won against Isloch this campaign). It seems a good time to be visiting FCM, as they are marooned at the bottom of the current form table, having taken just two points from their last six games. It's only thanks to the poor first half of the season endured by Smolevichi and Belshina that FC Minsk are still as high as fourteenth in the table, but after last weekend's results they can feel the heavy breathing of both back markers catching up at their shoulders.

FC Minsk were officially formed in 2006, but Belarusian football clubs lie about their age as often as the late Zsa-Zsa Gabor did. Actually, the roots of this team are in a Soviet youth football club founded in 1954, and which spent its time developing youth players until the late 1980s. The Soviets poured a lot of money into the club, encouraging them with investment at various stages, including the building of an "unparalleled" multi-pitch training complex in the early eighties, by which time the club was subordinated to the Minsk Olympic Committee. Under the name Smena ("Change"), the club began to appear at senior level from 1987 onwards and was in a good position to push on as the old USSR fell apart at the beginning of the following decade. 

Smena continued as a club which developed young players and sold them on in the 1990s, with varying degrees of success. Many of the top Belarusian players of that era passed through the club's hands at some point and for a period the legendary Eduard Malofeev was the head coach. By the mid-2000s a re-brand was decided upon, and the first team from 2006 became known as FC Minsk. "Smena" continued as the club's second string in the lower leagues, but soon disbanded and became lost in the pages of history.

FC Minsk have enjoyed moderate success since their formation at the highest level. Their best finish in the top flight was third in 2010, a campaign in which present manager Andrei Razin top-scored. They won the Belarusian cup in 2013 and embarked on a European campaign that saw them beat Malta's FC Valetta and Scottish Cup winners St. Johnstone on penalties, at MacDiarmid Park. Since those high points under former coach Vadim Skripchenko, they have settled into a largely mid-table suburban existence. This season, therefore, sees the first big challenge to their top flight status since they were relegated in 2007 and promoted back within a season, being members of the Belarusian top flight since.

The smart new FK Minsk stadium, opened in 2015 at the southern end of the city centre

There's a lot to admire about the current FC Minsk. They have a brand-new, smart stadium opened in 2015, with an artificial surface which means, eccentrically, that they can't use it for half the season for first team games (this is owing to an odd ban on artificial surfaces in June, July and August by the ABFF that no-one has been able to explain). They also have access to the ageing Traktor with its' grass surface, and use defunct Torpedo's currently abandoned stadium as a training base. FC Minsk's new ground, the Traktor, Energetik's ground and Dinamo's refurbished stadium are all within a five-kilometre radius of one another between the city centre and Leninyski Raion to the south; FC Minsk's new HQ is right at the southern edge of this circle.

FCMs 17s on their way to second spot in the country's youth championship, against BATE. FCM lost out on penalties after a hard fought 2-2 draw. The Belarusian youth leagues see graduates perfect the "theatrical dive having not been touched" at an early stage.

They have a great community-facing set up, with, as their website boasts proudly, over 1,000 people involved in age group teams all the way up to the senior team, and a highly successful womens' team, the Glasgow City of Belarus, national champions seven times in a row. FC Minsk are known throughout Belarus for having the best youth development system with excellent, thoughtful coaching and a broader infrastructure that leaves nothing to chance, with nearly seven decades of youth development wired into the club's founding DNA.

Then there's the first team.

Management : Big Jackets but few Big Ideas

It's often hard for someone who was a legend as a player to translate that success into management. This is a difficulty that forty year old head coach Andrei Razin is having presently. Razin first signed for FC in 2009 and played well over one hundred times for the club before retiring as a player in 2014.  As a player, Razin was part of a title-winning Dinamo squad, and nearly a decade later captained FC Minsk to a penalty shoot out success over his former club, in the Belarusian cup final of 2013.

Beginning as player-assistant manager of the club's second string, he rose through the coaching ranks to assist two previous managers from 2015/16, taking the job himself at the beginning of 2019. Last season's finish of tenth marked a moderate first season. Razin failed to win any of his first ten games in charge, and after that FCM were consistently inconsistent. The club did have it's moments, most notably a 3-2 defeat of BATE in Minsk at the beginning of September, a result that prized at least two of the Borisov fingers off the league trophy. Strangely, Energetik came closest to "doing a Rukh" on Razin's side, demolishing them 6-1 at their place just three weeks after their BATE triumph.

Razin : Spectral Presence

Things have taken a significant turn for the worse since FC's entertaining mood swings of last campaign. Razin got off to a bright start with an easy win over Belshina followed by a topsy-turvy odd-goal-in-five triumph at home over Sergei Gurenko's appalling Dinamo Minsk side. Then followed a run of three pretty miserable defeats, including a two goal loss to ourselves, as FC tumbled down the table. During these games Razin cut an increasingly spectral, haunted figures, face buried in his oversized Macron jacket, seemingly at a loss as to what to do for the best. A surprisingly easy win against a poor Slavia at the Yusnost was the last for FC in their own personal "before times".

Sadly, by this stage, the club's first team was blighted by coronavirus. Two further matches came before FC, after a stand off with a typically callous association, called their bluff, and shut up shop for the rest of May. It was the first visible evidence of the impact of the virus on ordinary people in Belarus for those following the league from afar. It made a mockery, for the domestic supporters, of Lukashenko's claims that fresh air and physcial exercise were the best defence against coronavirus, and that it only affected the elderly and the deserving unfit idler.

FC's re-emergence with  a win over Slutsk in a very dull game at the Traktor stadium, at the beginning of June, was a little emotional for those around the world who had started following their fortunes. It seems however that COVID has cast a long shadow over the club in their subsequent barren spell; that triumph against Slutsk was the beginning of their latest, long winless run. On top of this, whispers persist that FC don't have any money, and nearly didn't start this season.

Whilst their youth teams enjoy wide support this doesn't translate into a regular following for their first team, which has consistently low crowds. Unable to tap into the slumbering latent fanbases of Partizan and Torpedo, or to challenge seriously the ascendancy of Dinamo in the capital city, FC still have to work out what their senior team is really for, and who their target audience is. For all the dignity and calm he has shown in leading the club in such difficult and troubled times, it remains far from clear whether Razin is a long term answer for FC Minsk's seniors.

The conundrum of any successful FC Minsk head coach will be to translate the success of their youth set-ups into consistent performances from their top league team, playing attractive and successful football. For all his knowledge of the club garnered after over a decade of service, Razin doesn't look very close to delivering on that. At present, sadly, FC are unattractive to watch and rarely successful.

A Goalscorer, My Kingdom for a Goalscorer

As implied in the turgid metanarrative above, FC Minsk have been a hard watch for most of this season. Whilst quite strong defensively, they lack firepower, a situation much worsened by the end of the loan of young Dinamo Minsk forward Vladimir Khvashchinski. Vladimir had scored five goals for FC in the first round of matches and has yet to be replaced.

Goalkeeper Sergei Veremko captains Belarus at the Stade de France in September 2012. France won the World Cup qualifier 3-1.

Artem Leonov has been the regular no. 1 goalkeeper this season. He's a former Russian under-21 keeper, and in the few times I saw him I was impressed- he's agile, handles the ball well in the air and is calm under pressure. Even in FC's lowest point of the season, when the roof came in in the second half in a brutal 1-6 drubbing by Dynamo Brest, Leonov couldn't really be deemed at fault for any of the goals. Nonetheless, after the Brest debacle the very experienced stopper Sergei Veremko has taken over in goal. Veremko is in the last stages of a long and impressive career which has taken in clubs in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine and Greece, as well as 26 full international caps, and the captaincy of his country. I'm sure Leonov will come back a bit later, but for now Veremko is doing quite well, conceding only four times in the games he has played in.

In recent games the defence has been quite settled. Razin has desperately rifled through formations like a Lada driver trying to find a gear, but has yet to settle on a regular line up. In an ideal scenario the head coach prefers a 3-4-3 attacking formation, but footballing realpolitik has seen him oscillating between a defensive 5-3-2 and a more open 3-5-2 in recent weeks. Since the calamitous performance in Brest, FC have shut up shop quite effectively, thanks to a settled back three.

Promising young defender Dmitry Prischepa

Regular recent faces have included Dmitry Prischepa, a very promising young left sided defender who's been ever present recently, and is a Belarusian under-19 international. Prischepa's successful graduation through the youth ranks into the FC first team is exactly the kind of progression that the club needs to see much more of. Prischepa clearly has an excellent future in the game if he keeps developing but, as so many before him, his mature successes are likely to happen elsewhere.

There's a very Ukrainian flavour about this FC team presently and the other two members of the back three hail from Belarus' southern neighbours.

Ukrainian Yevgeni Chagovets summarises FC's "performance" in the first match against Energetik

Kharkov-born centre back Yevgeni Chagovets signed on at FC last summer from Shakter Donetsk's second string and has acquitted himself well in his twelve appearances this season. Dmytro Ryzhuk, meanwhile, is a former Ukrainian under-21 international who arrived in Minsk in March for his first spell in Belarusian football, having previously enjoyed spells in his home country, and three seasons in the Israeli top flight with two different clubs. Other regulars in the back line, when Razin has switched to a four or a five at the back, have included he very experienced Yuri Ostroukh, a versatile defender who has experience with clubs such as BATE, Torpedo and Dynamo Minsk amongst stints at half a dozen Belarusian clubs, and young Aleksey Ivanov, a Belarusian under-21 international now in his second season at FC.

There's two or three regulars to watch out for in Razin's ever-changing midfield moods. Another Ukrainian, Vladyslav Nasibulin, has returned to the side for the last four games after a long absence in the middle of the season. Nasibulin has previously captained FC, and has been at the club for three seasons after spending over a decade in Ukrainian domestic football. He is comfortable in the centre of the park and can also play as a link man between midfield and the strikers.

Vladyslav Nasibulin playing for FC in 2019

Oleksandr Vasiliyev has also started in the last half dozen games and has contributed two goals in recent times- the most recent in the disappointing home draw with Belshina.Vasilyev's role is to link up the back three with midfield and he has been effective in this position. However the midfielder that most caught my eye playing for FC this season has been another attacker- Oleg Evdokimov.

Evdokimov is approaching 150 games for the club, which he has represented throughout his career, with the exception of a single season at Neman Grodno in 2019. He's powerful and quick, and scored a worldly in Brest against Dynamo; so appalling was the final rout that Evdokimov's fine finish across the hapless Pavlyuchenko from a very tight angle, for the opening goal of the match, was almost forgotten. Evdokimov, having started the last nine games for his side, is one of Razin's most reliable picks presently.

Leading goalscorer Roman Gribovskiy

We've already said that up front is a big problem for FC. With Vladimir Khvashchinski gone, the top scorer still wearing the red and navy shirt is Roman Gribovskiy, who last netted against Belshina two games back. The forward has been ever present this season with three goals in his fifteen appearances. He's in his second season at FC after a career that took in the implosion, re-invention and dissolution of his home town team Dnepr / Dnyapro Mogilev, whose franchise of defunct side Luch Minsk delayed the inevitable closure by only a season. Gribovskiy is a solid enough player but hasn't really stood out.

Unfortunately, FC's makeshift attack pairing Gribovskiy with youngster Pavel Gorbach last weekend was wholly ineffective and a further shuffling for the next fixture seems likely. Perhaps getting Gribovskiy to operate as the lone forward with Nasibulin and Evdokimov pushing hard as attacking mids, might be more effective. Something really needs to change in the goalscoring dpeartment. Too often this season, watching FC Minsk try to score, has been akin to watching a drunk man trying to peel a grapefruit with a screwdriver.

FC Minsk chasing shadows against BATE in a 0-3 home defeat early in the season

We've seen the best and worst of FC in recent games. Blowing a chance for three home points against a miserable Belshina outfit in the last days of Gradoboyev's tenure was a low point. However, FC gave a glimpse of what might be possible in a 1-1 draw with title chasing Shahktyor, who were strangely out of sorts and disjointed at the Traktor stadium that day. FC battled away well and with a little luck might even have upset the potash barons.

I'm afraid last week's "derby" game at the Dinamo stadium bordered on the unwatchable. FC had to sit and take it as one of their former protegees- winger Ivan Bakhar- took the points with a wonderful goal, but otherwise this was nasty Mogadon-football at it's Dinamic worst. Kuchuk really couldn't care less how many people he bores to the point of taking up pétanque, or building a replica of the Holy Spirit Cathedral out of matchsticks, in preference to watching his joyless cloggers squeezing every last atom of entertainment out of the game. I've no idea how anyone sane could put up with watching that negative pish week in week out...even Razin was moved to complain about how boring and defensive the game was. I'd honestly sooner watch Gorodeya than Dinamo every week.

Yazz and the Plastic Population 

FC and Energetik have a lot in common; for both, after recent events, the Only Way is Up. Whereas FC do a wonderful job of developing young players only to lose them as they reach maturity, Energetik take on the players of others who aren't quite there, turn them into the finished article, and then sit helplessly as they move on. In some ways then this is Minsk's "Derby of the Dispossessed" or El Broke-io. I suspect given the political tension in the air at present even fewer fans than normal will be present. FC have been struggling to attract 300 fans to home games in recent weeks, and Energetik rarely do so in Molodechno. You can't really run a club on crowds like that.

As Energetik fans are discovering transfer windows are an awful time for us. This week's rumours, circling like a nasty, angry electric eel around a listing Vietnamese river boat, suggest that BATE, having been humiliated by Umarov and Nosko a fortnight ago, are in talks to sign them...although nothing has happened just yet. The loss of these two key players would again yield us little more than an apologetic shrug from their new owners, as Nosko belongs to Dynamo Brest, and Umarov to the mysterious Uzbek landlords Pakhtakor. Perhaps heads being turned by the possibility of lucrative deals at higher profile clubs were part of the reason behind last week's abject surrender to Rukh. That being the case I hope that there's been a lot of shouting and a lot of footballing hard labour in training this week, lead by a rejuvenated coach Vladimir. Today's BATE signing target can so easily be tomorrow's Nefthekhimik Nizhnekamsk bench-warmer. The game has a fine way of shattering egos when they get out of hand.

I'd expect Lesko to be back in goal, a re-arranged back three; perhaps Nosko and Bashilov's midfield roles to be much more clearly defined and worked through, with Sovpel maybe finally coming into the side. The good news is that Dušan Bakić returns from suspension so I'd expect him to return up front to partner Yudchits, with Junior relegated back to the second row of the bench, behind Mukhammedov, who would be my first choice replacement striker. I would expect a back to basics performance with as few risks as possible taken, and a high pressing line against FC.

We are currently on a run of winnable fixtures; I have no fear of an out of sorts Torpedo next week and then blow me if we aren't away to gubbins village outfit Gorodeya, before facing Smolevichi after the two week break in August. This game in Molodechno takes place the week before a very winnable cup tie away to lowly Orsha of the Pershaya Liga.

Good, professional performances based on hard work and the right attitude, and a heavy points tally are required in all of these games in the month ahead, if we are to repair the terrible damage wrought by Hurricane Rukh quickly.  Should we turn in another performance similar to last week, I fear genuinely that our season will drop away like the proverbial burning moth from a hot lightbulb.

The process of recovering our dignity must begin at the Traktor stadium this weekend. No excuses.

Jon Blackwood
Twitter: @DreadlocksGleb

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