Marked for Alexandr Temirov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Apr 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Dinamo Moscow 2, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Dinamo Moscow 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leon Zaidenzal 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Arseny Abdulkhalikov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Nov 2026
15 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match14 Nov 2026
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 8 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Market16 Nov 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 Dinamo Moscow 2 can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Denis Simonov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Dinamo Moscow 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leon Zaidenzal 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
0‑1 to Tyumen, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Denis Simonov
“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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Luka Blokhin after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The team sheet said everything about Maxim Balakhonov
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Maxim Balakhonov.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match7 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Dinamo Moscow 2's wait for a win
14 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Dinamo Moscow 2 has to find a result from somewhere.
Match7 Nov 2026
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 7 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Denis Simonov 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitry Alexandrov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces9 Nov 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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitry Alexandrov, and the manager let it.
The dugout9 Nov 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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Luka Blokhin chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A Dinamo Moscow 2 teenager takes the young player award
Alexandr Temirov is 18, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.