TORPEDO-BELAZ OFF THE MARK WITH A NARROW WIN AT SLAVIA
Torpedo-Belaz Zhodino banished the memory of their opening day 3-0 defeat at Dynamo Minsk to record a valuable 0-1 away win at Slavia Mozyr in a game played with snow falling which created a heavy pitch which didn't help either side's performance to put on a match to remember. The all important goal came on 80 minutes when Yurii Habovda found himself in acres of space on the right hand side to cross into the box allowing Nikita Nikolaevich to slide in and knock the ball past Mikhail Baranovskit in the Slavia goal. For Slavia boss Mikail Martinovich it's been a frustrating start to the season with two 1-0 defeats so far - they need a cutting edge up front for sure. They travel to Smorgon next in an interesting game between teams who have lost both of their opening games.
SMORGON NEED A GOALSCORER
Smorgon were beaten 2-0 at Isloch with Dmitri Komarovskiy netting both goals - one from the penalty spot. The kick off at the FC Minsk stadium was delayed by half an hour as snow had to be cleared from the surface for the game to go ahead. Komarovskiy's first goal came on 17 minutes when he received the ball just inside the penalty box from a knock down to have the time to control it with his left foot blast the ball past Pavel Shcherbachenya with his right foot. Smorgon played well at times but never majorly troubled Isloch at the back - 21 year old midfielder Daniil Kopach has a good game for The Bears and it was his good cross which saw former Torpedo-Belaz defender Arseni Bondrenko's head the ball down into the floor and bounce away from goal - He was unlucky as a header straight forward would of probably scored Smorgon's first goal in the 2021 Premier League season.
Kormarovskiy's second goal came from the penalty spot on 50 minutes Vladislav Kaborda when was adjudged to have pulled down/fouled Anton Kovalev. The 34 year old former Belshina Bobruisk and Shakhtyor forward now only needs 5 more goals this season to equal the 7 he scored in 28 Premier League games last season.
Isloch looked comfortable aside from when the veteran goalkeeper Boris Pankratov tip the ball over the bar from substitute Sergey Bondarenko's close range shot - This chance was again made by Kopach's good build up play in midfield.
Smorgon only scored 29 goals in 26 First League games last season which equates to 1.11 per game - goal-scoring in the top tier may well be their downfall this season I think.
It's been an amazing start to Artem Radkov's tenure as boss of Isloch with two wins and two clean sheets - this record will be tested in their next game away to Shakhtyor Soligorsk in the first weekend of April. Can the 38 year old legend Boris make it three clean sheets in three?
THE STUDENTS UNLUCKY AGAINST THE CHAMPIONS
The 2020 champion's made it two wins from two with a narrow 1-2 victory at Energetyk-BGU - They were 0-2 up at half time through goals from Yuri Kendysh (penalty) and Alexsandr Sachivko. The Students had played well and scored a wonderful goal via Vladislav Vasiljev who curled the ball home from the edge of the box after a good passing move. It was the former Rukh Brest and Dynamo Brest's first goal for Energetyk since June 2019 when he scored the only goal in their 6-1 defeat at Dynamo Minsk.
Jeremy Mawatu was one of their stand out players and missed a glorious chance to make it 2-2 on 77 minutes when he blazed the ball over the bar from close range.
It looks encouraging for Vladimir Belyavskiy's side despite this defeat - they can take many positives from this game going forward. Many fans and pundits had them down as relegation fodder this season but on this showing they will be comfortably mid-table. They have a big test in the next round of fixtures with an away trip to Rukh Brest.
Big spending Shakhtyor will be happy with two wins in two but will need to improve performances if they want to be involved in the title race this season.
ALL SQUARE AND NO GOALS BETWEEN VITEBSK AND DYNAMO MINSK
It was no surprise to see the Vitesbsk v Dynamo Minsk end without a goal with defences on top as both sides are well known to be highly organised and disciplined at the back with the emphasis firmly on not losing rather than winning a game. For Dynamo fans it would of been slightly disappointing to see no goals scored after their 3-0 win last weekend against Torpedo as manager Leonid Kuchuk's side reverted to their tough to beat stance from last season which many thought cost them a place in Europe - they finished four points off of third place scoring only 38 goals in 30 games which was the lowest total in the top 11 of the table.
Vladislav Klimovich looked isolated up front for the majority of the game for Dynamo with Vitebek's new manager Evgeni Chernukhin chosing to keep midfielder/attacker Diego Silva Santos on the bench until the 72nd minute.
Another subsitute Alexsandr Ksenofontov had a great chance to win the game for the home side when he blazed the ball over from close range in injury time.
There were just four attempts on target in this game - three for the home side and one for the visitors.
The game was played at Vitebek's training 4G pitch with the main stand in their Vitebsky Stadium empty in the background with 625 people watching from the small seated areas surrounding the second pitch.
Dynamo Minsk have a chance to get back to winning ways with home game against Slutsk in the next round of fixtures. I'm sure many of their fans will be asking Kuchuk to take the hand brake off, allow more of his players to go forward and score some goals. Without a little bit more impetus in attacking I can see Dynamo falling short again in the title race this season.
NO GOALS BETWEEN DYNAMO BREST AND BATE
There was a great atmosphere at Dynamo Brest as the home side's loyal fans turned up and showed some noisy support their new look side against BATE Borisov. The game ended goal-less with six bookings - three for either side. It was played in front of a huge 4,203 crowd.
COULD SHERBANCHENKO BE THE RUSSIAN SPECIAL ONE?
Rukh Brest travelled to FC Minsk in the last game of Saturday - the two teams have linked up somewhat during the off season with a number of players going from Rukh to FCM on loan including Fernando Queiroz and Egor Bogomolskiy who started in this game.
Rukh dominated possession for the first half and should of been out of sight by half time where they were 0-2 up thanks to goals from Denis Laptev and Artem Kontsevoy.
FC Minsk goalkeeper Sergey Ignatovich, who signed from Dynamo Brest in pre-season, showed his class in this game making a number of amazing saves to keep his side in the game when they were losing 0-2. Without him it could and maybe should of been a comfortable victory for Rukh who managed to snatch a draw from the arms of a win in the final 10 minutes. Ignatovich played in 18 Dynamo Brest games last season so will be very pleased with his performance against a number of his former team mates who now represent Rukh.
FCM scored via the penalty spot on 81 minutes via Igor Zenkovich - It was a needless challenge on Denis Kovalevskiy on the edge of the box which won FCM the spot kick. It was 2-2 on 86 minutes when 17 year old Maxsim Kasarab who was excellent coming on as substitute crossed from the right had side for another substitute Anton Shramchenko's shot to be be deflected into the net.
It was a truly amazing come back by the home side and it will give them a huge confidence boost going forward into the 2021 season. Many fans forecast that their new manager Fedor Scherbanchenko wasn't up to much but with substitutes scoring both goals maybe the 58 year old coach might be The Russian Special One!
"SUPER STEPHEN ALFRED" SCORES HIS FIRST GOAL FOR SLUTSK
On Sunday Slutsk and Neman Grodno played out a 1-1 draw. Neman scored via former Smolevichi midfielder Aleksandr Dzhigero in the 41st minute. He scored five goals last season for a team which struggled at the bottom of the table - He may well score more now he's at Neman around better quality players. It was great finish with his left foot after Slutsk's Aleksey Butarevich had unnecessarily given the ball away playing it across the edge of the box.
Slutsk could of been 0-2 down but for an amazing save from Valeri Zhukovskiy's free kick early in the second half. The 36 year old midfielder had a great game for Neman.
It was 1-1 on 64 minutes when Stephen Alfred scored on the counter attack confidently knocking the ball past Neman goalkeeper Sergey Kurgankskiy who had ran from his line to the edge of the box. I know it's only early days with just two games played but the 23 year old Nigerian centre forward looks the signing of the season so far. He was pace to burn and looks a quality player. He has previously represented Pyunik in the Armenian Premier League and PFC Sochi in the Russian Premier League where his playing opportunities were limited.
He's certainly become a fan's favourite with the Slutsk faithful already. He is definitely a name to watch out for in the coming weeks.
TWO GAMES AND TWO WINS FOR GOMEL
In the last game of the Sunday it was the battle of the 2020 First League runner's up v champions as Gomel entertained Sputnik Rechitsa. The result underlined how Gomel have a stronger looking squad for the Premier League and how Sputnik may well struggle for the 2021 season and end up back in the second tier for the 2022 campaign. The home could even afford the luxury of a penalty miss early in the game.
Dmitri Gomza scored their first goal in the first half which was the 33 year old centre forwards first ever goal in the Belarusian Premier League. Andrei Solovey got their second and his second of the season on 56 minutes - The former Lokomotiv Gomel striker has had a great start to the season on his return to the Premier League he played in in 2013 to 2016 for Torpedo-Belaz and Dynamo Brest where he only made 27 appearances scoring 4 goals.
There was a total of 35 bookings this weekend across just 8 games but no red cards! Last weekend there were 30 bookings with two red cards shown.
FULL LIST OF RESULTS
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