The Minsk Courier
Squad10 May 2027
21 days out for Aliaksandr Arlouski after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Minsk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market10 May 2027
Pavel Tarletskiy is on his way
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Minsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad10 May 2027
Tempers go at Minsk
Konstantin Kuchinskiy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad10 May 2027
A row about effort at Minsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilya Aleksievich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces10 May 2027
One of their own: Daouda Natama
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Konstantin Kuchinskiy was immovable
20 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
The dugout10 May 2027
No hiding place for Ilya Aleksievich
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ilya Aleksievich, and the manager let it.
Match8 May 2027
Minsk get the job done against Vitebsk
A 1‑0 win over Vitebsk, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad10 May 2027
Dmitriy Drobyshevskiy pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
In brief
- Player ratings The afternoon belonged to Daouda Natama
- The dugout A satisfied Vadzim Korzun
- Player ratings Vladislav Yatskevich shuts the door