The Rodina Sentinel
Match12 Sep 2026
Chastening afternoon for Rodina
A 2‑5 beating by Fakel was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and German Onugkha takes the afternoon — 8.49
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. German Onugkha provided it, and the 8.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 9 signed and 17 gone
That is the business done at Rodina until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Match12 Sep 2026
German Onugkha among the goals in a wild afternoon
7 goals in one match, German Onugkha on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Rodina and Fakel.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Sebastián Arce 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Rodina
Dmitry Tananeev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Leo Goglichidze 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.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Doors closed at Rodina
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑5 defeat, delivered by Nikolai Kabanov to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
- Squad 5 past Sergey Volkov
- Player ratings Vladislav Samko runs at them all day
- Looking ahead Artem Maximenko faces his old club