Marked for Marko Bugarin
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Sep 2029
A season average of 7.49 with 26 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match22 Sep 2029
No end in sight to Bunyodkor's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Bunyodkor has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Hojimat Erkinov 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 ratings24 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match22 Sep 2029
1‑2 to Neftchi, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
Marked 8.28 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad24 Sep 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Odilbek Abdumajidov, and the manager let it.
Boardroom24 Sep 2029
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad24 Sep 2029
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Marko Bugarin will call it something else in private.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad27 Aug 2029
24 goals and a season average of 7.47. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
Defensive actions: 32, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Market27 Aug 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bunyodkor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market27 Aug 2029
“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 2029
Bunyodkor make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Bunyodkor have 4 straight wins of it.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 26 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Hojimat Erkinov 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 ratings27 Aug 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match25 Aug 2029
A 1‑0 win over Mashal, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings30 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 35. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market30 Jul 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bunyodkor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market30 Jul 2029
“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 Bunyodkor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Jul 2029
A season average of 7.37 with 19 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Sherzod Nasrullayev 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.
Match28 Jul 2029
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Bunyodkor did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings30 Jul 2029
A performance of 8.14 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad30 Jul 2029
“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.
Market30 Jul 2029
Mashal are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Bunyodkor will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market16 Jul 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bunyodkor can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Jul 2029
74 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Market16 Jul 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Najmiddin Normurodov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bunyodkor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings16 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Hojimat Erkinov 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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
“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 ratings16 Jul 2029
Shots: 11, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Player ratings16 Jul 2029
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Match14 Jul 2029
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Qizilqum will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings2 Jul 2029
A defender's afternoon for Marko Bugarin
Defensive actions: 32. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Market2 Jul 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bunyodkor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market2 Jul 2029
“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 Bunyodkor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Hojimat Erkinov 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.
Squad2 Jul 2029
The manager makes an example of Hojimat Erkinov
“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.
Match30 Jun 2029
It finished 1‑0, and it was Patrick Schmidt’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Bunyodkor.
Player ratings2 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings2 Jul 2029
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.83 on the card, and the Bunyodkor support went home talking about one name.
Squad2 Jul 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bunyodkor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 May 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bunyodkor can pretend not to have heard.
Match28 May 2029
27 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match26 May 2029
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 12 matches without defeat is a foundation Bunyodkor did not have in the autumn.
Squad28 May 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bunyodkor may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings28 May 2029
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 May 2029
Sherzod Nasrullayev 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.
Squad28 May 2029
“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.
Squad28 May 2029
3 goals and a season average of 7.38. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Boardroom28 May 2029
Wages eat 97% of everything Bunyodkor earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match26 Aug 2028
Bunyodkor cannot stop winning
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Hojimat Erkinov 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 ratings28 Aug 2028
A performance of 9.16 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Market28 Aug 2028
Timur Nematov has left for Andijon in a $9.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.08, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match26 Aug 2028
Mashal made Bunyodkor work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad28 Aug 2028
The manager makes an example of Dmitry Pletnev
“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 ratings28 Aug 2028
Defensive actions: 19, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Marked 8.23 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Defensive actions: 34, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Match5 Aug 2028
Nobody wants to play Bunyodkor right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad7 Aug 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 Bunyodkor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Defensive actions: 23, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad7 Aug 2028
9 goals and a season average of 7.50. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Marked 8.82 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match5 Aug 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bobur Abdiholiqov. 2‑0 against Navbahor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Marked 8.61 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match24 Jul 2028
Bunyodkor refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 42 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market24 Jul 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.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
Defensive actions: 28, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
A defender's afternoon for Itsuki Urata
Defensive actions: 26. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
Nobody could get near Flamarion
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 Jul 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bunyodkor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad24 Jul 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 Bunyodkor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market24 Jul 2028
Flamarion told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Flamarion has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Bunyodkor.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
A defender's afternoon for Marko Bugarin
Defensive actions: 20. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match8 Jul 2028
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Kokand 1912, and it could have been more.
Market10 Jul 2028
Bunyodkor say no — this time
The offer from Obod for Sadriddin Hasanov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad10 Jul 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.
Squad10 Jul 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 Bunyodkor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Hojimat Erkinov
9 goals and a season average of 7.50 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings10 Jul 2028
Nobody could get near Flamarion
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings10 Jul 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.56, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings10 Jul 2028
Defensive actions: 20, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Market10 Jul 2028
The phone has started ringing about Sardor Abdunabiyev again, and this time the name on the line is Obod. Bunyodkor are listening politely and promising nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match20 May 2028
Whatever happens, Bunyodkor do not lose
11 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.
Player ratings22 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad22 May 2028
Sherzod Nasrullayev 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.
Squad22 May 2028
The manager makes an example of Nikoloz Mali
“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 ratings22 May 2028
A defender's afternoon for Marko Bugarin
Defensive actions: 17. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings22 May 2028
Shots: 13, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Match20 May 2028
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Metallurg will be the happier side with the point.
Squad22 May 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Boburbek Yo'ldoshev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings22 May 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 12 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Apr 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bunyodkor may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Defensive actions: 25. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Abdumavlon Abdujalilov 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 ratings3 Apr 2028
A performance of 8.81 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Defensive actions: 20, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Match1 Apr 2028
Qizilqum made Bunyodkor work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Marked 8.30 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad3 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Patrick Schmidt, and the manager let it.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Bunyodkor will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
Defensive actions: 36, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Sherzod Nasrullayev 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.
Match25 Mar 2028
Kokand 1912 made Bunyodkor work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
Marked 8.43 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad27 Mar 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.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad27 Mar 2028
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Bunyodkor have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Somebody is after Flamarion’s shirt
A new face in his position, and Flamarion suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Bunyodkor have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Mar 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.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
The board have signed the man in the dugout to a longer contract, which says more than any statement of support. Stability is easy to promise and costly to keep.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Itsuki Urata commits to Bunyodkor for another 3 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 Bunyodkor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market6 Mar 2028
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Market6 Mar 2028
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Sherzod Hasanov is a Bunyodkor player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Market6 Mar 2028
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Market6 Mar 2028
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 22 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.