Marked for Eldor Mirzaev
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Sep 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Eldor Komilov
58 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Obod lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match9 Sep 2028
Nowhere to hide for Obod
1‑5 against Qizilqum, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match9 Sep 2028
No end in sight to Obod's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Obod has to find a result from somewhere.
Market11 Sep 2028
“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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Obod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match9 Sep 2028
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Obod and Qizilqum in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad11 Sep 2028
A row about effort at Obod
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mirzo Suyunov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets11 Sep 2028
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Obod will try again when the window opens; Bukhara may not be selling by then.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
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Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Mar 2028
The wait goes on for Obod
11 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
11 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match4 Mar 2028
Obod leaking at the back
11 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.
Match4 Mar 2028
A hiding for Obod
Beaten 0‑3 by Navbahor, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market6 Mar 2028
“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 Obod, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Eldor Mirzaev commits to Obod for another 4 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Obod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Obod
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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Obod training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mirzo Suyunov 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
Market15 Nov 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Obod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
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Squad15 Nov 2027
48 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad15 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Obod
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rustam Ganiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Eldor Urunov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces6 Sep 2027
Supporters organise against the Obod board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 38. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match6 Sep 2027
Obod are in real trouble now
Position 15, 13 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Akmal Shomurodov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market6 Sep 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 Obod can pretend not to have heard.
Match4 Sep 2027
7 matches without a win for Obod
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Obod are no longer polite ones.
Match4 Sep 2027
Obod are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 7 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
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Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Window shuts: 6 in, 10 out at Obod
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 6 arrived, 10 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Aug 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.
Market16 Aug 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Obod have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market16 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.
Market16 Aug 2027
Rustam Ganiev has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Obod they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
The deal with Sogdiana is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Match14 Aug 2027
The wait goes on for Obod
4 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Obod
Eldor Urunov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
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From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Djordje Pavlovic
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Obod lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match10 Apr 2027
Nowhere to hide for Obod
0‑5 against Nasaf, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Obod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Umid Shomurodov commits to Obod for another 3 years.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Mirzo Suyunov 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 dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Eldor Urunov
“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.
Market12 Apr 2027
Shohruh Komilov is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Obod has been clear about where Shohruh Komilov stands, which is more than many ever get.
Boardroom12 Apr 2027
Nobody left the Obod 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
Squad29 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Djordje Pavlovic
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Obod lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match27 Mar 2027
At last: Obod win one
9 matches without a win, and then this, against Mashal. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Market29 Mar 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Obod, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad29 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Obod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Shaxzod Shaymanov 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 Mar 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Eldor Mirzaev. 2‑0 against Mashal, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
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Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Ninety minutes of Eldor Mirzaev at his very best
Marked 8.37. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Obod.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ozodbek Marufov and Obod agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Player ratings
Amir Fayzullaev runs at them all day
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The dugout
Mirzo Suyunov knocks on the manager's door
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Mar 2027
Nowhere to hide for Obod
0‑5 against Pakhtakor, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match13 Mar 2027
No end in sight to Obod's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Obod has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad15 Mar 2027
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad15 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Obod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Eldor Urunov gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Obod
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Asan Vaniyev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom15 Mar 2027
Inquest at Obod
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.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑5 Akmal Shomurodov left the room before anybody could ask which.