Marked for Egor Rusakov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market9 Nov 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Smorgon they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad9 Nov 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 Smorgon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Alexandr Krotov
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Smorgon can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 Sep 2026
33 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Silvester Shkalla 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Slutsk made Smorgon work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 8.88 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vladislav Vasilyuchek, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.59, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.05 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match29 Aug 2026
Smorgon out of the cup
Slavia Mozyr ended it 2‑0. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad31 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 Smorgon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 8.79 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.70, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Egor Babich
“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
The medical room confirms 28 days on the sidelines for Mateush Montevka, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.36, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market31 Aug 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Egor Babich may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Aug 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Alfred Mazurich obliged against Orsha. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Smorgon.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
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 Smorgon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Aug 2026
Molodechno left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market17 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Dnepr Mogilev have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Artem Denisenko. The answer from Smorgon has not changed — yet.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.58 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.14 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad17 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 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.
Squad10 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 Smorgon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Smorgon, another week without a signature from Alfred Mazurich.
Market10 Aug 2026
He is 20, and nobody at Smorgon signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
48 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 14, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Match8 Aug 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Gomel defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.