From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Aug 2026
Kosmos through in the cup
A 3‑1 win over Torpedo Vladimir, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad24 Aug 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Alexandr Burykin at 21 — 7.90
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alexandr Burykin did not need any: 7.90, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market24 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 The request is on a desk at Kosmos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Kosmos
Ivan Mokshin 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.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match22 Aug 2026
A 1‑0 win over Cherepovets, 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
A performance of 8.17 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Market24 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kosmos, another week without a signature from Ivan Mokshin.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match15 Aug 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Kosmos and Irkutsk in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad17 Aug 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 Kosmos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Ruslan Leonov from Dinamo Barnaul for $36.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Market17 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Orel have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Arseny Belov. The answer from Kosmos has not changed — yet.
Squad17 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 ratings17 Aug 2026
Nikita Yershov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.47. 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
It needed Yaroslav Volkov to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Irkutsk, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Market17 Aug 2026
Ruslan Leonov signs for Kosmos to fix the gap everybody could see
There is a particular relief in a club addressing the thing its own crowd has been shouting about. Ruslan Leonov arrives for exactly that job, and now he has to do it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match8 Aug 2026
A 2-goal lead gone for Kosmos
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Saturn kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Kosmos will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A brace, and Yaroslav Volkov takes the afternoon — 8.07
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yaroslav Volkov provided it, and the 8.07 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad10 Aug 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 Kosmos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.59, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.06, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match8 Aug 2026
A 4‑4 draw with Saturn leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Mikhail Naumov
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Nikita Yershov's contract
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Market10 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Aug 2026
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Yaroslav Volkov, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.98
A mark of 7.98 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nikita Yershov commits to Kosmos for another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Kosmos
Samir Masimov 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.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Ilja Volnov has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Kosmos have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Nikita Yershov has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.26 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Nikita Yershov at his very best
Marked 8.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Kosmos.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.02 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.