Marked for Obinna Owukwe
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Sep 2038
Tempers go at Taraz
Obinna Owukwe 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.
Squad13 Sep 2038
Erkebūlan Toibekov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad13 Sep 2038
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom30 Aug 2038
The scrutiny sharpens at Taraz
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Taraz is running low.
Squad30 Aug 2038
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Taraz may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad30 Aug 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
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Squad
Stanislav Samoilov has become a man the manager trusts
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces23 Aug 2038
The mood at Taraz has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad23 Aug 2038
A season average of 7.28 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Taraz know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad23 Aug 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
-
Squad
Obinna Owukwe has become a man the manager trusts
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Aug 2038
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Taraz may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Aug 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Aug 2038
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Obinna Owukwe 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Aug 2038
Every point is an argument now for Taraz
Position 11 and 16 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad9 Aug 2038
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad9 Aug 2038
Tempers go at Taraz
Stanislav Samoilov 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Jul 2038
10 matches without a win for Taraz
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Taraz are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom2 Aug 2038
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Taraz
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Boardroom2 Aug 2038
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom2 Aug 2038
The Taraz board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Player ratings2 Aug 2038
Baurzhan Nuserbayev, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.61
A mark of 7.61 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad2 Aug 2038
Tempers go at Taraz
Obinna Owukwe 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.
Squad2 Aug 2038
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Prince Ndubuisi and Taraz agree another 2 years.
Squad2 Aug 2038
Erkebūlan Toibekov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings2 Aug 2038
A defender's afternoon for Dias Lesbek
Defensive actions: 16. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces26 Jul 2038
The mood at Taraz has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad26 Jul 2038
The words a physio says slowly. 19 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match24 Jul 2038
The wait goes on for Taraz
9 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.
Squad26 Jul 2038
He is 21, he is averaging 7.27, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Player ratings26 Jul 2038
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Jul 2038
Tempers go at Taraz
Erkebūlan Toibekov 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Jul 2038
The words a physio says slowly. 26 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match17 Jul 2038
The wait goes on for Taraz
8 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.
Squad19 Jul 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jul 2038
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Obinna Owukwe 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.
Match17 Jul 2038
Akzhaiyk left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad19 Jul 2038
Obinna Owukwe is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.28 with 6 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings19 Jul 2038
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings19 Jul 2038
Marked 5.25, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Player ratings19 Jul 2038
Marked 5.78, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Jul 2038
The words a physio says slowly. 33 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match12 Jul 2038
Taraz are in real trouble now
Position 10, 15 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match10 Jul 2038
No end in sight to Taraz's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Taraz has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings12 Jul 2038
Baurzhan Nuserbayev, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60
A mark of 7.60 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad12 Jul 2038
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Taraz may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad12 Jul 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jul 2038
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erkebūlan Toibekov 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.
Match10 Jul 2038
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Market12 Jul 2038
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Khalid Hazazi may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Jul 2038
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Taraz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom5 Jul 2038
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Match3 Jul 2038
Baurzhan Nuserbayev had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Shakhter were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Boardroom5 Jul 2038
Crisis meeting at Taraz
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Boardroom5 Jul 2038
Pressure builds in the Taraz boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Player ratings5 Jul 2038
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Baurzhan Nuserbayev did not need any: 9.22, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match3 Jul 2038
No end in sight to Taraz's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Taraz has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad5 Jul 2038
212 appearances across 12 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Taraz know what they have.
Squad5 Jul 2038
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Stanislav Samoilov commits to Taraz for another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces28 Jun 2038
Anger at Taraz spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad28 Jun 2038
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Taraz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad28 Jun 2038
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match26 Jun 2038
5 matches without a win for Taraz
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Taraz are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings28 Jun 2038
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Jun 2038
A season average of 7.21 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Taraz know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad28 Jun 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Jun 2038
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings28 Jun 2038
Marked 5.64. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Jun 2038
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Taraz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match19 Jun 2038
Taraz taken apart
1‑4 to Irtysh, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad21 Jun 2038
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad21 Jun 2038
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Taraz may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings21 Jun 2038
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match19 Jun 2038
4 matches without a win for Taraz
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Taraz are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Jun 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Jun 2038
Ninety minutes of Obinna Owukwe at his very best
Marked 8.45. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Taraz.
Boardroom21 Jun 2038
Nobody left the Taraz 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Jun 2038
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Taraz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match14 Jun 2038
Taraz sink to position 10
13 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad14 Jun 2038
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings14 Jun 2038
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Baurzhan Nuserbayev did not need any: 7.64, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad14 Jun 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jun 2038
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Obinna Owukwe 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.
Player ratings14 Jun 2038
15 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.
Match12 Jun 2038
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Aktobe will be the happier side with the point.
Player ratings14 Jun 2038
Successful dribbles: 11. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Jun 2038
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Taraz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match5 Jun 2038
Taraz taken apart
1‑5 to Astana, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Boardroom7 Jun 2038
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Taraz can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad7 Jun 2038
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom7 Jun 2038
Crisis meeting at Taraz
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Player ratings7 Jun 2038
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.98 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market7 Jun 2038
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings7 Jun 2038
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Jun 2038
Tempers go at Taraz
Stanislav Samoilov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces31 May 2038
Anger at Taraz spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad31 May 2038
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Taraz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad31 May 2038
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad31 May 2038
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.
Player ratings31 May 2038
Baurzhan Nuserbayev, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.70
A mark of 7.70 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad31 May 2038
An average of 7.18 in a first team he is several years too young for. Taraz have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 May 2038
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Taraz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad24 May 2038
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings24 May 2038
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Baurzhan Nuserbayev did not need any: 9.38, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad24 May 2038
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad24 May 2038
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Taraz may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match22 May 2038
Zhetysu made Taraz work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings24 May 2038
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.94, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The terraces24 May 2038
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.
Match22 May 2038
No time for Zhetysu to settle
The goal that put Zhetysu ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Taraz equalised, 2 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
In brief
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near Dias Lesbek
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Market
The clock does Mahamat Haroun’s negotiating for him
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Boardroom
The Taraz production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 May 2038
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Taraz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad17 May 2038
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match17 May 2038
Taraz are in real trouble now
Position 10, 8 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match15 May 2038
No end in sight to Taraz's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Taraz has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad17 May 2038
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad17 May 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 May 2038
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Taraz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad10 May 2038
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match8 May 2038
The wait goes on for Taraz
6 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.
Squad10 May 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2038
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erkebūlan Toibekov 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.
Player ratings10 May 2038
Marked 7.82 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Taraz had the best player on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Apr 2038
110 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Taraz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad26 Apr 2038
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings26 Apr 2038
Baurzhan Nuserbayev, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.85
A mark of 8.85 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match24 Apr 2038
No end in sight to Taraz's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Taraz has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad26 Apr 2038
Tempers go at Taraz
Stanislav Samoilov 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.
Squad26 Apr 2038
An average of 7.01 in a first team he is several years too young for. Taraz have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Match24 Apr 2038
Ordabasy left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings26 Apr 2038
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.20, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings26 Apr 2038
5.33 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Apr 2038
117 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Taraz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad19 Apr 2038
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match19 Apr 2038
Taraz are in real trouble now
Position 11, 5 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad19 Apr 2038
Tempers go at Taraz
Obinna Owukwe 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.
Squad19 Apr 2038
Erkebūlan Toibekov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings19 Apr 2038
A performance of 8.80 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Apr 2038
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match7 Apr 2038
Taraz out of the cup
Atyrau ended it 0‑0. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings12 Apr 2038
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.26 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Squad12 Apr 2038
Tempers go at Taraz
Stanislav Samoilov 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.
Player ratings12 Apr 2038
Defensive actions: 22, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad12 Apr 2038
Obinna Owukwe falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings12 Apr 2038
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad12 Apr 2038
“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.
Match10 Apr 2038
Okzhetpes left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces5 Apr 2038
Anger at Taraz spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad5 Apr 2038
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom5 Apr 2038
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom5 Apr 2038
The Taraz board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Player ratings5 Apr 2038
A brace, and Ordabasy Postnikov takes the afternoon — 8.77
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ordabasy Postnikov provided it, and the 8.77 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings5 Apr 2038
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Baurzhan Nuserbayev did not need any: 8.33, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad5 Apr 2038
228 appearances across 11 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Taraz know what they have.
Squad5 Apr 2038
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad5 Apr 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match27 Mar 2038
No end in sight to Taraz's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Taraz has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad29 Mar 2038
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad29 Mar 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings29 Mar 2038
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad29 Mar 2038
Erasyl Keulimzhai falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad29 Mar 2038
Obinna Owukwe has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Taraz will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Player ratings29 Mar 2038
A defender's afternoon for Dias Lesbek
Defensive actions: 14. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Match27 Mar 2038
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Aktobe defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Player ratings29 Mar 2038
Defensive actions: 12, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Mar 2038
Taraz taken apart
0‑6 to Astana, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad22 Mar 2038
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match20 Mar 2038
No end in sight to Taraz's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Taraz has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings22 Mar 2038
A first appearance Samat Dosmagambetov will want to forget — 5.75
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.75, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
Squad22 Mar 2038
Tempers go at Taraz
Obinna Owukwe 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.
Match20 Mar 2038
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Taraz and Astana in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad22 Mar 2038
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erasyl Keulimzhai 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.
Squad22 Mar 2038
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 4 saves does not settle it either way.
Boardroom22 Mar 2038
Doors closed at Taraz
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Mar 2038
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match13 Mar 2038
No end in sight to Taraz's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Taraz has to find a result from somewhere.
Market15 Mar 2038
“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 Taraz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 Mar 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match13 Mar 2038
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings15 Mar 2038
Marked 8.78 — 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.
Squad15 Mar 2038
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Baktiyor Tymoshchuk 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.
Squad15 Mar 2038
Dias Lesbek has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Taraz will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Player ratings15 Mar 2038
Marked 5.58, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces8 Mar 2038
Anger at Taraz spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad8 Mar 2038
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom8 Mar 2038
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Taraz can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom8 Mar 2038
The Taraz board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Match6 Mar 2038
The wait goes on for Taraz
7 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.
Market8 Mar 2038
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad8 Mar 2038
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ädilet Ömei and Taraz agree another 3 years.
Match6 Mar 2038
Taraz cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad8 Mar 2038
Tempers go at Taraz
Obinna Owukwe 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Mar 2038
Taraz sink to position 11
14 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad1 Mar 2038
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad1 Mar 2038
33 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad1 Mar 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2038
Erasyl Keulimzhai falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Market1 Mar 2038
Taraz have made Samat Dosmagambetov available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Feb 2038
A fracture rules Azat Murtazaev out for 37 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad22 Feb 2038
36 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad22 Feb 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
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Market
Al-Baraa Adawi placed on the list
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Market
The clock does Khalid Hazazi’s negotiating for him
-
Boardroom
Taraz keep producing them
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom15 Feb 2038
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Taraz
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad15 Feb 2038
A fracture rules Azat Murtazaev out for 44 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market15 Feb 2038
“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 Taraz, and it is not being withdrawn.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces8 Feb 2038
Anger at Taraz spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom8 Feb 2038
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad8 Feb 2038
A fracture rules Azat Murtazaev out for 51 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom8 Feb 2038
The Taraz board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Squad8 Feb 2038
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Erkebūlan Toibekov commits to Taraz for another 2 years.
Squad8 Feb 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
-
Squad
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
-
Boardroom
Taraz pull $37.9K back off the table
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Boardroom
Taraz were not finished after all
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Feb 2038
Taraz sink to position 11
14 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad1 Feb 2038
A fracture rules Azat Murtazaev out for 58 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad1 Feb 2038
Tempers go at Taraz
Stanislav Samoilov 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Jan 2038
A fracture rules Azat Murtazaev out for 65 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad25 Jan 2038
64 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad25 Jan 2038
Tempers go at Taraz
Obinna Owukwe 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom18 Jan 2038
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Taraz
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad18 Jan 2038
A fracture rules Azat Murtazaev out for 72 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market18 Jan 2038
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces11 Jan 2038
Anger at Taraz spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad11 Jan 2038
A fracture rules Azat Murtazaev out for 79 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market11 Jan 2038
Samuel Amoah hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Taraz can pretend not to have heard.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Jan 2038
Taraz are in real trouble now
Position 11, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Boardroom4 Jan 2038
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Taraz can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom4 Jan 2038
Crisis meeting at Taraz
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad4 Jan 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2038
“The easiest signature of my career.” Prince Ndubuisi and Taraz agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Jan 2038
Erasyl Keulimzhai falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Dec 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2037
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Obinna Owukwe 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.
Squad28 Dec 2037
When it matters, Dias Lesbek plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom21 Dec 2037
The scrutiny sharpens at Taraz
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Taraz is running low.
Market21 Dec 2037
“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 Taraz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Dec 2037
He is 21, he is averaging 7.36, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces14 Dec 2037
Anger at Taraz spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad14 Dec 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad14 Dec 2037
Tempers go at Taraz
Obinna Owukwe 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Dec 2037
Every point is an argument now for Taraz
Position 11 and 14 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Boardroom7 Dec 2037
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad7 Dec 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom7 Dec 2037
Crisis meeting at Taraz
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market7 Dec 2037
Samuel Amoah hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Taraz can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Dec 2037
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stanislav Samoilov and Taraz agree another 2 years.
Squad7 Dec 2037
Tempers go at Taraz
Stanislav Samoilov 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.
Squad7 Dec 2037
Obinna Owukwe falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom7 Dec 2037
$37.9K taken back off the Taraz table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Nov 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad30 Nov 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2037
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Obinna Owukwe 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom23 Nov 2037
Pressure builds in the Taraz boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad23 Nov 2037
Not a month, not a run of form — a whole season of being the best 21-year-old anybody in this division could put on a pitch. This is the honour that gets mentioned for the rest of his career.
Squad23 Nov 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces16 Nov 2037
Anger at Taraz spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad16 Nov 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad16 Nov 2037
The medical room confirms 15 days on the sidelines for Ädilet Ömei, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Nov 2037
Taraz sink to position 11
14 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad9 Nov 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market9 Nov 2037
Samuel Amoah hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Taraz can pretend not to have heard.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom2 Nov 2037
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Taraz can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad2 Nov 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom2 Nov 2037
The Taraz board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Squad2 Nov 2037
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Dias Lesbek commits to Taraz for another 3 years.
Squad2 Nov 2037
Tempers go at Taraz
Obinna Owukwe 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.
Squad2 Nov 2037
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erasyl Keulimzhai 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.
In brief
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Boardroom
Taraz pull $37.9K back off the table
-
Boardroom
Taraz keep producing them
-
Market
Khalid Hazazi runs his contract down
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom26 Oct 2037
Pressure builds in the Taraz boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market26 Oct 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Taraz can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Oct 2037
A season average of 7.36 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Taraz know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces19 Oct 2037
The mood at Taraz has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad19 Oct 2037
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad19 Oct 2037
43 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Oct 2037
Every point is an argument now for Taraz
Position 11 and 14 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market12 Oct 2037
Samuel Amoah hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Taraz can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Oct 2037
Kairat Shomko: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Taraz have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad12 Oct 2037
Tempers go at Taraz
Obinna Owukwe 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.
Squad12 Oct 2037
Prince Ndubuisi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad12 Oct 2037
When it matters, Dias Lesbek plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2037
The words a physio says slowly. 18 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Boardroom5 Oct 2037
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Taraz can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom5 Oct 2037
Crisis meeting at Taraz
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad5 Oct 2037
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Obinna Owukwe commits to Taraz for another 3 years.
Squad5 Oct 2037
Tempers go at Taraz
Stanislav Samoilov 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.
Squad5 Oct 2037
Obinna Owukwe falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
-
Boardroom
$37.9K taken back off the Taraz table
-
Market
The shop window has Khalid Hazazi in it
-
Boardroom
The Taraz production line keeps running
-
Market
Khalid Hazazi runs his contract down
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom28 Sep 2037
The scrutiny sharpens at Taraz
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Taraz is running low.
Squad28 Sep 2037
The words a physio says slowly. 25 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market28 Sep 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Taraz can pretend not to have heard.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces21 Sep 2037
The mood at Taraz has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad21 Sep 2037
The words a physio says slowly. 32 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad21 Sep 2037
Al-Baraa Adawi: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Taraz have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2037
The words a physio says slowly. 39 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match14 Sep 2037
Taraz sink to position 11
14 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market14 Sep 2037
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Sep 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Kairat Shomko
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Taraz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom7 Sep 2037
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom7 Sep 2037
Crisis meeting at Taraz
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad7 Sep 2037
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Baurzhan Nuserbayev and Taraz agree another 4 years.
Squad7 Sep 2037
Tempers go at Taraz
Stanislav Samoilov 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.
Squad7 Sep 2037
Obinna Owukwe falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
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Boardroom
$37.9K taken back off the Taraz table
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Market
Khalid Hazazi placed on the list
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Boardroom
The Taraz production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Kairat Shomko
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Taraz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom31 Aug 2037
The scrutiny sharpens at Taraz
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Taraz is running low.
Squad31 Aug 2037
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces24 Aug 2037
The mood at Taraz has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad24 Aug 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Kairat Shomko
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Taraz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad24 Aug 2037
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Taraz may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Kairat Shomko
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Taraz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match17 Aug 2037
Taraz sink to position 11
14 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market17 Aug 2037
“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 Taraz, and it is not being withdrawn.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Aug 2037
The words a physio says slowly. 74 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad10 Aug 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2037
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ordabasy Postnikov and Taraz agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces27 Jul 2037
The mood at Taraz has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad27 Jul 2037
The words a physio says slowly. 88 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings27 Jul 2037
Baurzhan Nuserbayev, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.76
A mark of 7.76 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match25 Jul 2037
No end in sight to Taraz's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Taraz has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad27 Jul 2037
Tempers go at Taraz
Stanislav Samoilov 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.
Squad27 Jul 2037
Obinna Owukwe falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings27 Jul 2037
Marked 7.76. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad27 Jul 2037
Dias Lesbek has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Taraz will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Match25 Jul 2037
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Atyrau will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Jul 2037
The words a physio says slowly. 95 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match20 Jul 2037
Taraz sink to position 11
12 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market20 Jul 2037
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match18 Jul 2037
No end in sight to Taraz's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Taraz has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad20 Jul 2037
Tempers go at Taraz
Obinna Owukwe 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.
Squad20 Jul 2037
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Azamat Erden, and the manager let it.
Match18 Jul 2037
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad20 Jul 2037
The medical room confirms 34 days on the sidelines for Baktiyor Nuserbayev, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings20 Jul 2037
Marked 5.46. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Jul 2037
The words a physio says slowly. 102 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad13 Jul 2037
Tempers go at Taraz
Stanislav Samoilov 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.
Player ratings13 Jul 2037
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad13 Jul 2037
Obinna Owukwe falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match11 Jul 2037
A bad afternoon for Taraz against Ordabasy
1‑2 to Ordabasy, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings13 Jul 2037
A performance of 8.50 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Jul 2037
The words a physio says slowly. 109 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Boardroom6 Jul 2037
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom6 Jul 2037
The Taraz board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Boardroom6 Jul 2037
The scrutiny sharpens at Taraz
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Taraz is running low.
Squad6 Jul 2037
An average of 7.34 in a first team he is several years too young for. Taraz have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad6 Jul 2037
218 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Market6 Jul 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Taraz can pretend not to have heard.
Squad6 Jul 2037
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Erkebūlan Toibekov and Taraz agree another 2 years.
Match4 Jul 2037
A bad afternoon for Taraz against Shakhter
0‑1 to Shakhter, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces29 Jun 2037
The mood at Taraz has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad29 Jun 2037
The words a physio says slowly. 116 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings29 Jun 2037
Baurzhan Nuserbayev, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.80
A mark of 8.80 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad29 Jun 2037
Aibol Abiken: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Taraz have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad29 Jun 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Jun 2037
Erasyl Keulimzhai falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match27 Jun 2037
No time for Okzhetpes to settle
The goal that put Okzhetpes ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Taraz equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Match27 Jun 2037
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings29 Jun 2037
Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Jun 2037
The words a physio says slowly. 123 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match22 Jun 2037
Taraz are in real trouble now
Position 11, 11 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match17 Jun 2037
Taraz out of the cup
Kairat ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings22 Jun 2037
Baurzhan Nuserbayev, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 9.29
A mark of 9.29 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad22 Jun 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Jun 2037
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Obinna Owukwe 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 terraces22 Jun 2037
At 20 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.
Match20 Jun 2037
Irtysh made Taraz work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad22 Jun 2037
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Jun 2037
The words a physio says slowly. 130 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match13 Jun 2037
No end in sight to Taraz's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Taraz has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings15 Jun 2037
Baurzhan Nuserbayev, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.94
A mark of 7.94 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad15 Jun 2037
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Taraz may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad15 Jun 2037
Tempers go at Taraz
Stanislav Samoilov 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.
Squad15 Jun 2037
Obinna Owukwe falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match13 Jun 2037
Taraz come up short against Aktobe
Aktobe left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings15 Jun 2037
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.37, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings15 Jun 2037
Marked 5.52, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces1 Jun 2037
The mood at Taraz has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad1 Jun 2037
The words a physio says slowly. 144 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match30 May 2037
No end in sight to Taraz's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Taraz has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad1 Jun 2037
There were 6 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.
Market1 Jun 2037
“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 Taraz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Jun 2037
Azamat Erden has been here 11 seasons
196 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad1 Jun 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match30 May 2037
No clean sheets in sight for Taraz
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Match30 May 2037
Taraz come up short against Kairat
Kairat left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 May 2037
Taraz are in real trouble now
Position 11, 7 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Player ratings25 May 2037
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Baurzhan Nuserbayev did not need any: 9.08, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match23 May 2037
The wait goes on for Taraz
7 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.
Squad25 May 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 May 2037
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Obinna Owukwe 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.
Match23 May 2037
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 May 2037
The wait goes on for Taraz
6 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.
Player ratings18 May 2037
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.91 for the rest of it.
Squad18 May 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match16 May 2037
Taraz come up short against Tobol
Tobol left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad18 May 2037
“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.
Squad18 May 2037
Erasyl Keulimzhai falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad18 May 2037
Obinna Owukwe has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Taraz will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Player ratings18 May 2037
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings18 May 2037
A mark of 5.80 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings11 May 2037
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Baurzhan Nuserbayev did not need any: 8.86, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad11 May 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad11 May 2037
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Taraz may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match9 May 2037
No end in sight to Taraz's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Taraz has to find a result from somewhere.
Market11 May 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Taraz can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 May 2037
An average of 7.06 in a first team he is several years too young for. Taraz have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad11 May 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match9 May 2037
Taraz come up short against Atyrau
Atyrau left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The terraces11 May 2037
At 20 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces4 May 2037
The mood at Taraz has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom4 May 2037
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad4 May 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Boardroom4 May 2037
Crisis meeting at Taraz
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Match2 May 2037
4 matches without a win for Taraz
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Taraz are no longer polite ones.
Squad4 May 2037
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stanislav Samoilov and Taraz agree another 2 years.
Match2 May 2037
4 matches without a goal for Taraz
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad4 May 2037
Tempers go at Taraz
Stanislav Samoilov 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.
Squad4 May 2037
Obinna Owukwe falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Apr 2037
Taraz are in real trouble now
Position 10, 7 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad27 Apr 2037
Tempers go at Taraz
Obinna Owukwe 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.
Match25 Apr 2037
Taraz cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Match25 Apr 2037
A bad afternoon for Taraz against Ordabasy
0‑1 to Ordabasy, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad27 Apr 2037
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erasyl Keulimzhai 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.
Squad27 Apr 2037
When it matters, Dias Lesbek plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad27 Apr 2037
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nūraidar Äskerbek, and the manager let it.
Player ratings27 Apr 2037
Marked 5.54, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Player ratings27 Apr 2037
5.78. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Apr 2037
Tempers go at Taraz
Stanislav Samoilov 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.
Squad20 Apr 2037
Obinna Owukwe falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match18 Apr 2037
A bad afternoon for Taraz against Shakhter
0‑1 to Shakhter, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad20 Apr 2037
“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.
Squad20 Apr 2037
“The easiest signature of my career.” Samat Dosmagambetov and Taraz agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings20 Apr 2037
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match8 Apr 2037
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Nūraidar Äskerbek obliged against Atyrau. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Taraz.
Player ratings13 Apr 2037
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.40, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings13 Apr 2037
Yeldos Vorogovskiy, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.78
A mark of 7.78 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market13 Apr 2037
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad13 Apr 2037
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Baurzhan Nuserbayev and Taraz agree another 4 years.
Squad13 Apr 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Apr 2037
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Obinna Owukwe 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.
Squad13 Apr 2037
“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.
Match11 Apr 2037
Okzhetpes left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces6 Apr 2037
The mood at Taraz has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom6 Apr 2037
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom6 Apr 2037
Crisis meeting at Taraz
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad6 Apr 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match4 Apr 2037
A bad afternoon for Taraz against Irtysh
0‑1 to Irtysh, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad6 Apr 2037
Erasyl Keulimzhai falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad6 Apr 2037
Obinna Owukwe named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Obinna Owukwe is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad6 Apr 2037
Obinna Owukwe has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Taraz will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Player ratings6 Apr 2037
Successful dribbles: 9. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match28 Mar 2037
Cruel end for Aktobe as Taraz pounce
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Taraz scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings30 Mar 2037
A brace, and Erkebūlan Toibekov takes the afternoon — 8.53
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Erkebūlan Toibekov provided it, and the 8.53 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad30 Mar 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Mar 2037
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Obinna Owukwe 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.
Match28 Mar 2037
Taraz get the job done against Aktobe
A 2‑1 win over Aktobe, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces30 Mar 2037
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Baktiyor Tymoshchuk has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad30 Mar 2037
When it matters, Dias Lesbek plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad30 Mar 2037
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Player ratings30 Mar 2037
6 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Mar 2037
Taraz taken apart
2‑5 to Astana, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Player ratings23 Mar 2037
Baurzhan Nuserbayev, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 9.12
A mark of 9.12 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad23 Mar 2037
There were 7 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.
Squad23 Mar 2037
Tempers go at Taraz
Stanislav Samoilov 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.
Match21 Mar 2037
7 goals in one match, Baurzhan Nuserbayev on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Taraz and Astana.
Squad23 Mar 2037
Obinna Owukwe falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The terraces23 Mar 2037
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Ordabasy Postnikov has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad23 Mar 2037
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Erkebūlan Toibekov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings23 Mar 2037
Obinna Owukwe was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market16 Mar 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Taraz can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Mar 2037
Tempers go at Taraz
Obinna Owukwe 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.
Player ratings16 Mar 2037
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.10, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad16 Mar 2037
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erasyl Keulimzhai 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.
Squad16 Mar 2037
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aibol Abiken and Taraz agree another 4 years.
Match14 Mar 2037
Taraz share the spoils with Kairat
A 1‑1 draw with Kairat leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad16 Mar 2037
Nobody at Taraz will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Player ratings16 Mar 2037
5 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Player ratings16 Mar 2037
Marked 5.61. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces9 Mar 2037
The mood at Taraz has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad9 Mar 2037
There were 6 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.
Squad9 Mar 2037
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Azamat Erden and Taraz agree another 3 years.
Squad9 Mar 2037
Tempers go at Taraz
Stanislav Samoilov 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.
Boardroom9 Mar 2037
11 academy players handed senior numbers at Taraz
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad9 Mar 2037
Obinna Owukwe falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings9 Mar 2037
21 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.
Market9 Mar 2037
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Aibol Abiken has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market9 Mar 2037
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nurali Nuserbayev has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom2 Mar 2037
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Taraz can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom2 Mar 2037
The Taraz board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Squad2 Mar 2037
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Azamat Erden commits to Taraz for another 3 years.
Squad2 Mar 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Mar 2037
Prince Ndubuisi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad2 Mar 2037
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Feb 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Feb 2037
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Prince Ndubuisi 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.
Squad23 Feb 2037
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Jan 2037
A fracture rules Khalid Hazazi out for 29 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad19 Jan 2037
He is 20, he is averaging 7.03, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad19 Jan 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces12 Jan 2037
Anger at Taraz spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom12 Jan 2037
The scrutiny sharpens at Taraz
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Taraz is running low.
Match12 Jan 2037
Taraz are in real trouble now
Position 10, 17 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad12 Jan 2037
A fracture rules Khalid Hazazi out for 36 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market12 Jan 2037
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Taraz is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Jan 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
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Squad
The manager has not finished forgetting Stanislav Samoilov's mistake
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Dec 2036
A fracture rules Khalid Hazazi out for 50 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad29 Dec 2036
Tempers go at Taraz
Obinna Owukwe 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.
Squad29 Dec 2036
Erkebūlan Toibekov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Dec 2036
A fracture rules Khalid Hazazi out for 57 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad22 Dec 2036
He is 20, he is averaging 7.03, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad22 Dec 2036
Tempers go at Taraz
Erkebūlan Toibekov 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 Dec 2036
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad8 Dec 2036
A fracture rules Khalid Hazazi out for 71 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom8 Dec 2036
Crisis meeting at Taraz
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad8 Dec 2036
“The easiest signature of my career.” Erkebūlan Toibekov and Taraz agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Dec 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Dec 2036
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erkebūlan Toibekov 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.
In brief
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Boardroom
$8.1K taken back off the Taraz table
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Boardroom
Taraz keep producing them
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Dec 2036
A fracture rules Khalid Hazazi out for 78 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad1 Dec 2036
Tempers go at Taraz
Obinna Owukwe 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.
Squad1 Dec 2036
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Baurzhan Abiken commits to Taraz for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces17 Nov 2036
Anger at Taraz spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom17 Nov 2036
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Taraz
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad17 Nov 2036
A fracture rules Khalid Hazazi out for 92 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match17 Nov 2036
Taraz sink to position 10
17 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market17 Nov 2036
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Taraz they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Nov 2036
Tempers go at Taraz
Obinna Owukwe 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Nov 2036
A fracture rules Khalid Hazazi out for 99 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad10 Nov 2036
Tempers go at Taraz
Erkebūlan Toibekov 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 Nov 2036
Obinna Owukwe falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Oct 2036
A fracture rules Khalid Hazazi out for 113 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad27 Oct 2036
An average of 7.03 in a first team he is several years too young for. Taraz have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad27 Oct 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Taraz training over how hard people work
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces20 Oct 2036
Anger at Taraz spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom20 Oct 2036
Pressure builds in the Taraz boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad20 Oct 2036
A fracture rules Khalid Hazazi out for 120 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Taraz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match20 Oct 2036
Every point is an argument now for Taraz
Position 10 and 17 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market20 Oct 2036
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Taraz they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad20 Oct 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.