On Saturday Energetik-BGU welcome bottom side Smolevichi to Molodechno. Owing to the current escalating political crisis in Belarus, the game will be played behind closed doors. It will make not too much difference, really, as only 115 fans bothered to turn out for the corresponding fixture. Back then Smolevichi were playing at BATE's old Gorodskoy stadium in Borisov, with the game kicking off at the peak footballing moment of Sunday lunchtime. The match was scarcely memorable, with Energetik the better of two poor teams, recording a 2-0 win which ended a poor run. The departed David Teklo Tweh and the Yak scored our goals, whilst Vladislav Mukhammedov, now with us, started on the right side of midfield that day for Smolevichi.
Felt Boots & Chaïm Soutine
Smolevichi is a small town of about 15000 souls in Minsk raion or county, about 25 miles north east of the capital. Minsk airport actually is in the same administrative territory. It's surrounded by flat, rolling Belarusian countryside. The main local point of interest is a huge monument to the Red Army, place on top of a small artificial hill, which affords great views for miles around of the yellow and green farmland and nature. People who don't work in the airport or in farming can find something to do at the local felt boot factory, still churning out the staple military footwear used by the Red Army for nearly a century. Overall, it seems a place for a quiet thoughtful weekend away from work. There's an artificial reservoir next to the little Ozerniy stadium. And, the town's most famous son is an artist- Chaim Soutine, born here into a desperately poor Jewish tailor's family in 1893, who left for Paris before the great war and never saw his home town or family again. Soutine's painting Eva has become one of the many symbols of the current Belarusian opposition, but I'm trying not to say much about politics in this article as it is simply too sad and depressing.
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| Smolevichi's memorial to the Red Army. Great views all round! |
From Wigwam to the Vysheyshaya
Smolevichi's football club began as the delightfully named "Wigwam" in the Minsk regional league in 2009. Recognition and a licence from the ABFF in 2011 saw the club join the third tier and there has been slow but steady progress since then. They made significant progress as "Smolevichi-STI" from 2012-2016, establishing themselves as steady mid-table regulars in the Pershaya Liga. In 2016 the club began a "co-operation" with BATE, with then rookie manager Dmitry Molosh taking charge of Smolevichi. Molosh, now managing Liepaja in the Latvian league, oversaw promotion for the first time, as second tier runners up, in 2017, but he was unable to prevent an immediate relegation in the following campaign, and left to return as assistant manager to Oleg Dulub in Borisov. Brazevich took charge and brought Smolevichi back, as runners-up to Belshina, last term.
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| The End of an Old Song: Aleksandar Brazevich's last starting XI at Smolevichi. Within a week of beating Slutsk 6 of these players and the coach had departed. |
This season, Smolevichi have turned over almost an entire squad since our win over them. The club flirted with financial death in July with former coach Aleksandar Brazevich and eight or so first teamers leaving within a few days of one another. Rumours swirled around twitter that the club would resign from the league or fold altogether, with the costs of top league football proving prohibitive in a pandemic-hit stagnant economy. Former players complained that they were being expected to play at the highest level on wages that were more normally paid in the lower end of the Pershaya Liga. After Brazevich and the "bigger" names had left, the club's owners, the local town executive, hit back, saying that the players and Brazevich weren't all that good, and that huge wages from a local authority budget couldn't be expected.
Aleksey Mikhailov, Brazevich's former assistant, took the job and immediately had to plug Exocet-missile shaped holes in the smoking remains of his first team squad. Brusquely utilising his "talk until you get an ear tumour" tarriff, Mikhailov wheeled and dealed and brought in a range of young boys from clubs such as Torpedo and BATE, with Dinamo Minsk being particularly helpful to the stricken strugglers, loaning four of their youngsters. Mikhailov cobbled together a squad which had an experienced spine from the Brazevich days, with one or two exciting youngsters. It's an astonishing rise for someone who is now the youngest head coach in the league at 33, who a mere five years ago was coaching primary-school age children as part of Torpedo's early youth & community programme.
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| New Smolevichi coach Alexey Mikhailovich |
A couple of desperation signings from third-tier diddies such as Viktoria Marina Gorka suggested that Smolevichi had maybe accepted that relegation was coming, but that they would go down fighting, anyway. Throughout the season, under both Brazevich and recently under Mikhailov, Smolevichi have always been entertaining to watch, even if they have rarely won. They have just three wins from their nineteen games so far and their last outing- a dis-spiriting 0-3 defeat to Belshina which sent them to the foot of the table- may well have been a fatal blow to any lingering survival hopes.
I think three of the most entertaining games I've seen this season in the Belarusian league have involved Smolevichi. The best was the crazy see-saw 3-5 defeat suffered by Brazevich's team against a complacent BATE who were almost embarrassed in that game; the match featured a goal of the season contender from Jean-Morel Poé, who has since departed for Neman Grodno. Brazevich's last game in charge was the in over hapless Slutsk, which featured a barnstorming second half performance as his band played together for one last time. Finally, the win over Isloch- with a virtually new team silencing the visiting accordion- was an astonishing thing, perhaps the most surprising result of the season. It also featured a quite remarkable debut goal from on loan Dynamo Minsk forward Vladislav Lozhkin, the kind of goal that would have been made into a meme, and have had TV companies and advertisers outbidding one another for the rights to it, had it been scored by Cristiano Ronaldo.
Whilst Mikhailovich's debut win over Isloch suggested that his new look side may well offer an unlikely route to safety, the subsequent three games have served as a pint glass of freezing water over the embers of recovery. Smolevichi have conceded eight in the last three games without scoring, as the new coach has rifled through different formations and players in an attempt to capture the elusive, heady scent of that first Friday evening triumph. As the defeats pile up so Smolevichi's faint hopes of avoiding the drop have vanished to the point of extinction.
However, we've seen that Smolevichi are resilient even in seemingly hopeless circumstances, and are never boring. Let's look in a bit more detail at their squad.
Youthful Experience & Tomorrow on Loan
The Smolevichi revolving door has turned white hot in the last eight weeks with so many players coming and going. It's better maybe to focus on the regulars in the team and comment on one or two of the new arrivals.
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| Goalkeeper Artem Gomelko |
In goal the regular starter is Artem Gomelko. Gomelko is in his early 30s and returned to playing after a couple of seasons out of the game; he has served a number of clubs, with his last stint being at Slonim of the Pershaya Liga. Gomelko has also served Torpedo, Gorodeya, and Granit Mikasevichi amongst a host of other Belarusian clubs. He is decent enough, and stood out in the home game against Slutsk. A visibly tiring and nervous Smolevichi were pounded in the last ten mnutes but fine handling and stopping, and a calming and encouraging presence, helped the side hang on for the win. Whilst not an outstanding goalie, Gomelko was certainly better than his ex-rival, Russian Aleksandr Filtsov. His crisp-packet hands and dodgy positioning marked him down as a graduate of the 'Sergei Turanok' school of goalkeeping, and he didn't appear for Smolevichi again, a miserable performance in the 3-5 home defeat to BATE.
Of all the departments in the side, the defence was least affected by the July departures. Centre half Arseni Bondarenko went to Gomel, but otherwise the back line was unaffected. Captain Eduard Zhevnerov has been an ever present at centre half and is very experienced at 32; Smolevichi is his ninth Belarusian club, in an itinerant career that has also seen a spell in the Lithuanian A-liga with Jonava. Zhevnerov featured in last campaign's promotion and this is an unusually long spell at a single club. he has been booked six times this season, and was badly missed in the defeat against Belshina last time. He's steady enough without really standing out and leads the youngest squad in the division well.
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| Skipper Eduard Zhevnerov in action against BATE |
20 year-old Dynamo Minsk loanee Kirill Rodionov has become Zhevnerov's partner at centre half in the last few games. On the fringes of the first team under Sergei Gurenko, he has been farmed out by Kuchuk. He's looked promising although was withdrawn after a torrid opening half against Shahktyor at the Stroitel. This situation is an excellent environment for al the young loanees to learn and get a few appearances to their name; no one puts the responsibility of keeping Smolevichi up on their shoulders.
Other regulars include Russian-Azeri defender Mutalip Alibekov, on a season long loan from Baltika Kaliningrad in the Russian top flight. He's a hard tackling, hard working player capable of turning out across the back four.
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| Midfielder Aleksandar Dzighero |
The two midfielders that really stand out for Smolevichi are Aleksandr Dzighero, and Anatoli Makarov. At 24 Dzighero is already quite experienced, and has been part of title winning squads at BATE. Dzighero spent half a season on loan at Energetik back in 2015, and has since served Luch, Torpedo Minsk and BATE before joining Smolevichi in early 2019. He's a powerful attacking midfielder with good vision and capable of the odd moment of outrageous skill. his two goals against Slutsk were proof of that; the first, an audacious chipped lob over the flailing Pankratov that went in off the underside of the bar, must be a candidate for goal of the season. If there's a criticism of Dzighero it is that he doesn't perhaps influence games as he should, fading away when his side are under pressure. But if he has confidence and is given space and time to play, he can cause chaos.
So too can central midfielder Makarov. Makarov and Dzighero linking up is a (rare) sight to behold. Smolevichi's no.7 didn't make the grade at Torpedo, and joined Smolevichi last year after getting his career underway with Slonim. He's quick and has a good touch, even if sometimes he needs a bit of luck for his Baroque skills to come off. Smolevichi's biggest win of the season was their final game in Borisov, a hilarious 4-1 demolition of gubbins village outfit Gorodeya, who were so epically dreadful that day that they'd have been better not turning up at all. Makarov got the third- an ambitious mis-timed bicyle kick which he shinned rather than catching cleanly, with the underpower bumbling overhead kick deflected past Dovgyallo by a hapless farmhand team-mate. A future twitter account called 'crap 2020s football' will likely feature a gif of this goal, often.
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| Striker Vladislav Lozhkin, on loan from Dynamo Minsk |
When three of your season's five top scorers are no longer at the club, and the most prolific remaining marksman (Dzighero) has three to his name, then you realise goals are a problem. Smolevichi are exciting to watch but their conversion rate of chances created is poor. Nonetheless, if Mikhailov can figure how to get the best out of Vladislav Lozhkin then Smolevichi will score and create difficulties for any side. Lozhkin, only eighteen and already a regular in Belarus' under-19 squad, announced his arrival at the Orezniy with two remarkable goals against Isloch. That early promise has since gone a bit quiet, and Mikhailov has shuffled his role about a bit up front; left winger, lone striker. It seems he's happiest playing up front alongside a strike partner and from the strong 3-5-2 formation that overcame Isloch. It's not clear why Mikhailov has been tinkering with what was a successful initial formation; perhaps personnel, perhaps suspensions. But, more can be expected from Lozhkin, if not in a Smolevichi shirt, then when he returns to Dynamo. I've rarely enjoyed the performance of a young striker so much as his on loan debut. He also seems to be very level headed. Asked about his low present salary, after the Isloch match, the young striker stated that if he worked hard on his development money would come for him in the future, and that he wasn't concerned about it for now.
Despite being deservedly bottom of the table, Smolevichi are not without their merits. Behind the scenes, the club seems to be ambitious to develop further and establish themselves more firmly as a top tier side (even if it seems, presently, that they will be taking a step backwards in order to go forward again). Perhaps this promotion was a step too far financially for the club's owners, who are effectively the local town council. It may be that further external investment may be required if Smolevichi are to reach their goals in the longer term. The club has potential- a raucous local support came out to follow them once they had returned to their proper home, to support their stricken local team in its hour of need. That the community rallied around the club, and has shown such support, will have given the owners hope that things can be better in the future. Relegation may look pretty inevitable this season, but at least it won't be the end for the club, as looked likely in early July.
Being behind closed doors may not affect this game as much as some others, as crowds at Molodechno have been pretty pitiful of late anyway, and Smolevichi don't have a big travelling support. A bigger X factor is how the break in the rhythm of games and the effect of the wider troubles in Belarus will have on the players. Most players have kept their head down and not commented during the unrest after the 9th of August, but if they are politic in public it doesn't mean events won't have affected them privately. Unpredictable at the best of times, the ominous and troubling current circumstances in Belarus make guessing this weekend's results even more of a lottery. They also make the result a bit of an irrelevance. For all that we love our clubs and the Belarusian game, continuing to watch in the present circumstances in troubling indeed.
Jon Blackwood
Twitter: @DreadlocksGleb
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| Lenin & Stalinist neo-classicism in Smolevichi's town centre |
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