From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.73 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad31 Aug 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market31 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A performance of 10.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match26 Aug 2026
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Torpedo-BelAZ and Belshina in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Aug 2026
A 1‑0 win over Smorgon, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Torpedo-BelAZ — 7.54
1 for Nikita Korzun, marked 7.54, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Maxim Gaevoy beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Great Agbo has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Match22 Aug 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slavia Mozyr have kept their man, and Torpedo-BelAZ go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Egor Nikoporenok has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Torpedo-BelAZ have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Torpedo-BelAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Bykov 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
Triumph
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 40. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Maxim Budko takes the afternoon — 9.05
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Maxim Budko provided it, and the 9.05 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with Vitebsk; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Match15 Aug 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Torpedo-BelAZ have 4 straight wins of it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Brest have kept their man, and Torpedo-BelAZ go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Bykov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Vadim Pobudey and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from Ural for Alexandr Lomovitskiy 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 Aug 2026
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Alexey Tkhagalegov is living that version at Torpedo-BelAZ, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Neman have kept their man, and Torpedo-BelAZ go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
Volna Pinsk will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Daniil Tkachik has pre-agreed a move to Torpedo-BelAZ, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Vadim Pobudey 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Isloch made Torpedo-BelAZ work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sergei Kendysh is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Hleb Rios is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Valery Kavalyou is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Aug 2026
Slutsk will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Torpedo-BelAZ were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The match ball belongs to Steven Alfred, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sergey Ignatovich commits to Torpedo-BelAZ for another 2 years.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.97, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Artem Bykov 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Torpedo-BelAZ asked and Chornomorets said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad3 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 Torpedo-BelAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.32 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.