Marked for Ivan Ivaschenko
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Orenburg 2 have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 7.90 at 18, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ivan Ivaschenko and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
At 18 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match29 Aug 2026
Rubin 2 made Orenburg 2 work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Ivan Ivaschenko
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Orenburg 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Pykhcheev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad31 Aug 2026
22 new faces, and Orenburg 2 are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Orenburg 2's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Orenburg 2 has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Ivan Ivaschenko 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.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kirill Dudarin, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Orenburg 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Pykhcheev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.05 on the card, and the Orenburg 2 support went home talking about one name.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Orenburg 2, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Ruslan Kul' delivers — 7.92
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ruslan Kul' scored, was marked 7.92, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orenburg 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Aug 2026
1‑3 to KDV Tomsk, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Ivan Ivaschenko dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Kirill Dudarin knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Orenburg 2, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 38. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Ivan Ivaschenko and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match8 Aug 2026
Krylya Sovetov 2 left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Anton Lukashov and Orenburg 2 agree another 5 years.
Market10 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Vlad Lermontov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Orenburg 2
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stanislav Poroikov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anton Lukashov, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Aug 2026
0‑4 against Volna, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad3 Aug 2026
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ivan Ivaschenko commits to Orenburg 2 for another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ivan Ivaschenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Yegor Postrigan
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Orenburg 2 dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Orenburg 2
21 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Vlad Lermontov to a room that had heard them before.