football rambles

 Mash'al are one of the few teams that I had seen ahead of this season, although they didn't seem that great and have got off to a shaky start again this season with one win and two losses.  The club started in  the fine year of 1982.  Up until independence they played in the Uzbekistan Soviet League. In 1992 with independence secured they started off in the first division before gaining promotion in 1994. Their highest finish the club has secured is 2nd in 2005 - a season that saw Shurat Mirkholdirshoev score 20 goals. A job that he had been trusted with after finishing the top scorer in the league the previous season for Navbahor. Unfortunately Pakhtakor pipped them to the championship. The team are usually a mid table outfit and that is probably where their aspirations lie this season. They were relegated in 2012 and were promoted in 2013 and since then have been safe, but not really done anything of note. Mubarak is a city well-known for oil and gas, but unlike some of the

 Well, we have had a bit of time off for international week. I always found the international breaks boring and without being able to go to lower league football due to the pandemic, it could have been worse. Fortunately, the lower divisions in Ukraine are now all streamed on YouTube, so a quality weekend was bookended with the 2 reincarnations of Metalist, my favourites and friends Metalist 1925 and FC Metal. I''ll leave the controversies for the other places on social media where I have spoken about this. It was great to see Metalist 1925 beat promotion rivals and cup winners over Ahrobiznes to really gain a foothold in the race for promotion. After a weekend of watching games in Group A such as Dinaz winning at Bukovyna and Karpaty Halych turning over a lacklustre Chaika, it was time for the much more interesting Group B where the other Kharkiv team, Metal FC took on  Dnipro Cherkasy. It was a really good game.  On Sunday afternoon with an attendance of nearly 9,000 (the bi

I have started concentrating more on the Uzbekistan league this season, but last season I saw a few Navbahor games, mainly because they seemed to be the ones that were on when I had some time and also I was interested in the fact that Andrei Kanchelskis was the manager. He's since been sacked, and to be honest it isn't a massive surprise as they were pretty poor and weren't as entertaining as any of the other games that I have seen this season. That said, they did have a mid-table finish last year and this year have failed to win a game, having posted 2 losses and a 0-0 draw in the opening 3 fixtures. They might want to hurry up in appointing a new manager as caretaker, 69 year old Victor Jalilov doesn't look like he's up for the job anymore. It hasn't always been like this for Navbahor though, in the 1990s in the country's early infancy as an independent state they won the league once and the cup three times. The club were originally founded in 1978 and cal

  Turon are newcomers to the Super League and it really is hard to find much information on them. They come from the town of Yaypan, which has a population of about 16,000. Having watched their recent home game against Lokomotiv it looked like most of the town were in the stadium and the noise that they made sounded like double that. with a draw and two losses in their opening gams, it would be brilliant to see what the atmosphere is like when they actually win a game.  The game against Lokomotiv was especially exciting, although they surrendered a 2 goal lead and centre back Vladimir Kosmynin had an especially eventful game. After firing in Toran's second as early as the 11th minute, he was given his marching orders in the 68th after intentionally handling the ball in the box. Loko got their second from the penalty that ensued. They gained promotion to the Super League this season after being founded in 2017. They seem to have brought in what is pretty much a completely new squad.

  Unlike most of the teams named Lokomotiv in the former Soviet Union, the Tashkent based team are a fairly modern team. They, as you would expect are sponsored by the Uzbekistan railways, but they were not formed until 2002. Despite a bit of a yo-yo existence in the early years, they won the Championship 3 years in a row from 2016 to 2018. This included an impressive doubles in 2016 and 2017. However, it would appear that the glory days are well and truly over, as up to now they have lost their first 2 games, but have a chance to put things right against minnows Toran tomorrow.  The coach in charge for this season is Portuguese manager Micael Secqueira, who joined from Al-Nasr in the UAE league and has a lot of Portuguese teams also on his CV - he never seems to last long anywhere and this could be a challenge too.  Players to watch: Returning from UAE side Khor Fakkan is well travelled centre forward Temurkhuzha Abdukholikov. Loko will need him to be among the goals if they are to ma

  AGMK from the factory town of Olmaliq, which is one of the most polluted places on Earth, were the first team that I watched this season. I had seen some Uzbekistan games last season, but it was their opener against Lokomotiv Tashkent that drew me in to watch and find out more. AGMK were founded in 2004 and are named after the mining company that owns them. They made their debut in the Super League in 2008, despite only finishing  7th in Division one the previous year. In 2009 they renamed themselves Olmaliq after the town and finished 4th in the league. This was the highest finish they achieved under the name Olmaliq. In 2018 they reverted back to being called AGMK and last year they recorded their highest finish of 3rd. A position they are likely to want to at least equal this year. Whether they are good enough to break the dominance of Pakhtakor is a question for another day though. If they were though, it would eclipse their biggest trophy to date - the Uzbekistan Cup that they w

  Metallurg Bekabad were founded in 1945 in the same year that the city, which had grown out of a cement factory, was granted city status. Most of their history has been one of mid-table obscurity. Their best ever finish in the Super League was 5th in 2019, they finished 7th last time. They won the Uzbek Soviet Cup in 1985 and 1990. From what I have seen of them so far, they aren’t bad, but aren’t great either - a cup run is probably the best they can ask for. However, on the whole they defend well and have some players who can get forward. Players to watch: Stanislav Andreev, who is a left back who likes to get forward has impressed me in the games I have seen. He was originally at Pakhtakor, but was on loan to Metallurg in 2018 and made the move permanent in 2019. However, at 32 he isn’t one for the future, but he still has pace. In central midfield Evgen Chumak, a Ukrainian who started off at Dynamo Kyiv, but has played almost everywhere in the Soviet Union, at 25 finally seems to h

  Bunyodkor who are another Tashkent side and one of Pakhtakor's fiercest rivals started the season by beating Mash’al Mubarek. Between 2008 and 2013 they were champions in 5 of the 6 years. However, silverware has eluded them over more recent years. Last time out they finished 4th. If the name of the club sounds familiar they have caused a splash in the transfer market in days gone by. Although, they may be more familiar under the name of Kuruvchi. In 2008 they almost signed Samuel Eto’o. However, after a trip to Tashkent with Fabregas, Puyol and Iniesta where it looked like he would join the Swallows he opted to go to Inter instead. Over that period of time though Bunyodkor were eager to burn money and as well as having Scolari and Zico as coaches they also had Rivaldo in the squad from 2008 to 2010. The club isn’t one with a massively rich history, however. They were formed in 2005and played in the Tashkent Regional League, by 2007 they were in the league and 2008 saw their part

Pakhtakor are the reigning champions in Uzbekistan and they started off this season coming back from 2 goals down to win 3-2 against Nasaf, so it looks like they will be a force to reckon with. Looking at their squad there are a number of players that look like they could do a very good job and unlike most clubs they have forked out transfer fees to bring players in.  They are a club with a fine tradition having been the only Uzbek team to play in the top flight of the Soviet League and the only Central Asian team to appear in a Soviet Cup final. They have won the league 13 times since Uzbekistan became independent and the league started in 1992. Between 2001 and 2007 they won the league 7 times and if they win this season it will be their third in a row. The team has not been without tragedy though, like the great teams of Manchester United, Torino and the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Ice hockey team they were involved in an air crash. On route to a game against Dynamo Minsk in 1979, the team

  One of the few benefits of being stuck at home for so long is that you can often put on an extra screen while you work and surreptitiously watch a bit of football. Also with unfortunately not being able to get to any football, the weekends need to be filled with something. During the first lockdown there were at one point only 3 leagues operating; Belarus, Tajikistan and Taiwan. Now this year in yet another lockdown all leagues are operating, and we are now at that sweet spot where pretty much most countries are playing football. Last year the Belarus and Tajikistan leagues were shown on MyCujoo. I’m looking forward to the Tajik league again, but in the meantime they’re showing the Uzbekistan league, which has kick off times and midweek games that are conducive to watching with one eye during the weekday.  I saw a few of the opening matches last week and they were very entertaining. The first game between AGMK and Lokomotiv Tashkent, which AGMK won 2-1 was especially entertaining. Th

The day after attending the match between Inter and Dortmund we were back at the San Siro for the museum and tour. I had thought about only going to the museum, but probably fortunately they didn't offer separate tickets. The museum had a few old pictures, a lot of old shirts and a bit of subutteo, but it wasn't a patch on the Hampden museum that we visited when we went to Celtic. In fact it was only a five minute trip. However, the stadium tour really is access all areas and with two teams sharing the stadium it's fascinating to see how they set up the place differently for the different teams. One thing that I was impressed with as an aside was that Lukaku had a 'boycott the Sun' sticker in his locker. He's Ok with me whatever Ibra might have to say about him! Obviously at the end of the tour you're directed into the club shops, Sean was so impressed with the antics of the Inter ultras the night before he bought an AC Milan top!

 This was the last big football trip I went on before getting ill and before the pandemic started, so just as well it was an absolutely massive one! The San Siro is soon to be demolished (allegedly), so this was one final chance to see what I consider to be the best stadium in the world. Sure, it's starting to look a bit tatty, but the sheer imposing size of it and the atmosphere generated, especially for a big game like this is second to none. Unfortunately, Dortmund had a really poor evening and were hamstrung by injuries. Lautaro Martinez was in fine form for Inter though and bossed the show. He scored on 22 minutes and Candreva added to the score sheet in the dying minutes.  It was a great experience. We couldn't get tickets for the Dortmund end but got some in the Inter end, i must admit that when I got them I hadn't know that they were going to be right in the middle of their ultras.

 The day after the Bohemians game we got on a train from Dublin to Tullamore to catch the hurling game between Offaly and Antrim. Offaly being a team from the Midlands whose golden age was in the early 80s, but were suffering in 2019 were obviously a team that resonate with me. This was actually a close game and really entertaining. Unfortunately, Antrim prevailed 32 (3-23) to Offaly's 30 (4-18) - one more under the posts and they would have done it, but it wasn't to be. When we got back to Dublin, the European Cup Final between Liverpool and Spurs had just started, unfortunately we missed the goal, but we knew who had scored when we were going past a pub back to the hotel.