The Irtysh Herald
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Nurali Vorogovskiy runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 39. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Islambek Tagybergen
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Irtysh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match19 Aug 2026
The cup run ends for Irtysh
0‑0 against Shakhter, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market24 Aug 2026
Irtysh say no — this time
The offer from Aktobe for Askhat Orazov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market24 Aug 2026
Timur Murtazaev 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 Irtysh can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Baurzhan Taykenov 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 Irtysh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Yerkebulan Shomko 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
This league is too small for Mpho Mathebula
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Irtysh will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Mpho Mathebula misses from twelve yards
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
In brief
- Player ratings The afternoon belonged to Abzal Postnikov
- Market Adrián Argachá brings the grey hairs Irtysh lacked
- Market Mpho Mathebula joins Irtysh to strengthen the squad