Marked for Liliu Sorga
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match25 Mar 2028
The wait goes on for Isloch
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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Tempers go at Isloch
Adeola Olaleye 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 Mar 2028
Evgeniy Yudchits 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.
Match25 Mar 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match18 Mar 2028
A 2-goal lead gone for Isloch
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Slutsk kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Isloch will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Squad20 Mar 2028
A fracture rules Artem Davidovich out for 46 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Isloch will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market20 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 The request is on a desk at Isloch, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match18 Mar 2028
No end in sight to Isloch's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Isloch has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Ilja Skrobotov pops up at the right end — 7.17
7.17, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Jesús Rengel 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 Isloch this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Isloch training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeniy Yudchits 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Evgeniy Yudchits, and the manager let it.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
A performance of 8.41 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Mar 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 61 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jesús Rengel and Isloch agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Liliu Sorga is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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 Isloch this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
Graduation day at Isloch
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Market6 Mar 2028
One of our own: Artem Makas joins the Isloch first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Artem Makas is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market6 Mar 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Valery Malevich has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market6 Mar 2028
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Valery Savitski 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.
Market6 Mar 2028
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vitaliy Nekhaichik 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.
In brief
-
Player ratings
Nobody could get near Jesús Rengel
-
Boardroom
No investment in the facilities at Isloch
-
Match
Point won or two lost for Isloch?
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Feb 2028
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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
“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.
Market21 Feb 2028
Liliu Sorga 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 Isloch can pretend not to have heard.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Jan 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Isloch will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market24 Jan 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.
Squad24 Jan 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 Isloch this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
-
Squad
Words at Isloch training over how hard people work
-
Squad
No hiding place for Nikita Patsko
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Dec 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Isloch will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market27 Dec 2027
Liliu Sorga 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 Isloch can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Tempers go at Isloch
Jesús Rengel 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
Squad29 Nov 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 108 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match24 Nov 2027
The cup run ends for Isloch
1‑3 against Slavia Mozyr, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market29 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.
Squad29 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 Isloch this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Isloch training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jesús Rengel 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
“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.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Jesús Rengel was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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 ratings29 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
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
Steady
Match30 Aug 2027
37 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match25 Aug 2027
Nomme Kalju go through and FCI Tallinn go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market30 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.
Match25 Aug 2027
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Miloš Zličić 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Taijo Marin is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.35 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Matias Paavola 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
46 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.