Marked for Rinat Logvinenko
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Jun 2028
The wait goes on for Akzhaiyk
10 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.
Match10 Jun 2028
0‑3 to Atyrau, 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.
Market12 Jun 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Akzhaiyk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Timur Postnikov 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.
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Abzal Abiken has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Akzhaiyk 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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
“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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yeldos Vorogovskiy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market12 Jun 2028
The name of Abzal Abiken keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Akzhaiyk say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces8 May 2028
The mood at Akzhaiyk 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.
Squad8 May 2028
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.
Match6 May 2028
No end in sight to Akzhaiyk's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Akzhaiyk has to find a result from somewhere.
Match6 May 2028
No clean sheets in sight for Akzhaiyk
5 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Abzal Abiken 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.
Squad8 May 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gafurzhan Taykenov commits to Akzhaiyk for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Apr 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match15 Apr 2028
Chastening afternoon for Akzhaiyk
A 1‑6 beating by Kairat was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match15 Apr 2028
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Akzhaiyk and Kairat in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Timur Postnikov 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.
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Abzal Abiken has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Akzhaiyk 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Mar 2028
13 matches without a win for Akzhaiyk
The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around Akzhaiyk are no longer polite ones.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Abzal Abiken 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 Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match18 Mar 2028
A bad afternoon for Akzhaiyk against Irtysh
2‑3 to Irtysh, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Timur Postnikov 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 ratings20 Mar 2028
Abzal Abiken was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. 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.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Akzhaiyk deserved better, and so did he.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Oct 2027
Yeldos Vorogovskiy damages knee ligaments — 115 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 115 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Akzhaiyk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Timur Postnikov 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
Match4 Oct 2027
Akzhaiyk sink to position 12
5 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
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.
Market4 Oct 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Akzhaiyk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Samat Postnikov commits to Akzhaiyk for another 2 years.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Akzhaiyk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Timur Postnikov 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Abzal Shomko 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 Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Aug 2027
Akzhaiyk are in real trouble now
Position 12, 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
“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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Abzal Abiken 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A move Bian Abu Raya would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Bian Abu Raya is living that version at Akzhaiyk, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Akzhaiyk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Timur Postnikov 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rinat Logvinenko and Akzhaiyk agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Jun 2027
Chastening afternoon for Akzhaiyk
A 1‑5 beating by Kairat was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad28 Jun 2027
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.
Match26 Jun 2027
The wait goes on for Akzhaiyk
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.
Market28 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Akzhaiyk can pretend not to have heard.
Match26 Jun 2027
Akzhaiyk leaking at the back
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Market28 Jun 2027
The phone has started ringing about Yeldos Vorogovskiy again, and this time the name on the line is Atyrau. Akzhaiyk are listening politely and promising nothing.
Match26 Jun 2027
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Akzhaiyk and Kairat, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Akzhaiyk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Timur Postnikov 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 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marat Dosmagambetov, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Apr 2027
11 matches without a win for Akzhaiyk
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Akzhaiyk are no longer polite ones.
Match24 Apr 2027
Chastening afternoon for Akzhaiyk
A 1‑5 beating by Aktobe was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad26 Apr 2027
There were 9 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market26 Apr 2027
Koshiro Sumi 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 Akzhaiyk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Abzal Abiken 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 Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Apr 2027
Abzal Abiken among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Abzal Abiken on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Akzhaiyk and Aktobe.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Timur Postnikov 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.
Boardroom26 Apr 2027
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.