The Kuban Gazette
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Both of them Ilja Molteninov's — 8.00
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.00, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Ilja Moseichuk runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match16 Sep 2028
Nobody wants to play Kuban right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Ilja Molteninov in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kuban this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Kuban training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergey Terekhov 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.
Match16 Sep 2028
Kuban get the job done against Murom
A 2‑1 win over Murom, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad18 Sep 2028
The manager makes an example of Ilja Bykovskiy
“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.
Market18 Sep 2028
Kuban sign Maximilian Schlager, one for the future
Maximilian Schlager is 18, and Kuban have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Mikhail Yakovlev dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
In brief
- Player ratings An afternoon Evgeny Kovalevskiy will want back
- Market Artem Sablin joins Kuban on a free
- Market The market said no: Maxim Ofitserov stays put