Marked for Ivan Matyushenko
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match28 Sep 2026
Kaluga up to position 2
16 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Kaluga
Ilja Grischenko 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Whatever happens, Kaluga do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Kaluga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Sokolov 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 Sep 2026
Igor Sokolov 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kaluga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Sergey Iljin’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Kaluga.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Sergio Leiva
“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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.97 on the card, and the Kaluga support went home talking about one name.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Kaluga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergey Krotov 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 15 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Shots: 5. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Sergey Iljin named player of the week
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Sergey Iljin has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A mark of 5.77 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Kaluga
Ilja Grischenko 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Kaluga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Sokolov 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“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 ratings14 Sep 2026
4 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Avangard will be the happier side with the point.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
The one thing Nikita Kuzin could not do
Shots: 4, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 12, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Market14 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match31 Aug 2026
Kaluga up to position 1
10 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match29 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Kuban, and it could have been more.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 Kaluga, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market31 Aug 2026
The name of Yegor Lipaev has come up in conversations Kaluga were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Kaluga
Sergey Iljin 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“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 ratings31 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.44, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.32, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad31 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
The cup run ends for Kaluga
0‑1 against Nart, 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
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kaluga can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Sergey Iljin 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 Kaluga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 Aug 2026
Kaluga get the job done against Irtysh
A 1‑0 win over Irtysh, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Igor Sokolov at his very best
Marked 8.38. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Kaluga.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Nikita Kuzin
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Kaluga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergey Krotov 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
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Kaluga
Sergey Iljin 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ilja Grischenko. 1‑0 against Torpedo Miass, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Kaluga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Kuzmin 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Sergey Krotov
“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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Kaluga have let the market know Rinat Shakerov can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.