Dynamo celebrated its anniversary with a torch – Kommersant

The next, 25th round of the Russian Football Championship opened with a match in which Dynamo, which until recently looked like a contender for medals, unsuccessfully celebrated the centennial anniversary of the club. But it lost its field – 0:2 – to the Fakel fighting for survival.

Deciding to celebrate the centennial anniversary in 2023 with this match, decorating a more or less routine event with a light show, inviting celebrities and a retro uniform with golden numbers, Dynamo, it seems, did not guess right with the date. In the sense that it was definitely not his best day of the season.

That is, all the Dynamo players seemed to be doing the right thing. They tried to control the ball, stretched the flanks so that the players covering them – Dmitry Skopintsev and Eli Dasa, according to their formal role, are more like defenders – appeared near someone else’s penalty area no less than those who are focused solely on attack. But in a game with a team that would now be preparing for a direct relegation from the Premier League, if there weren’t even more unlucky Torpedo with Khimki in it, those for whom its century is not an empty phrase from Dynamo were probably expecting more – beauty, sophistication. Yes, the dynamics laid down by the “origin”, in the end.

But in the first half, with all these components, there was a terrible deficit. More or less looked only two or three Dynamo attacks. For example, the one that quietly spun through the transverse gears, and spun up, taxied to Fedor Smolov’s strike from a terribly promising position: the forward aimed at nine, but missed. Or the one in which Denis Makarov successfully rushed forward at the right edge, and then laid out the perfect pass to the goalkeeper’s line all the same Smolov. He could no longer miss, but the trouble is that the arbitrators saw the offside even without the help of VAR.

Basically, it was precisely the routine that reigned on the field, which, in theory, on such an evening there should have been a minimum. And Fakel was quite satisfied with the situation: he patiently worked for destruction and succeeded in it. And at the end of the first half, he also deprived Dynamo of an important player. Igor Kalinin drove into Mumi Ngamalyo so hard that he was forced to immediately leave the field. And he left it like this – limping, supported on both sides by the club’s employees, which was absolutely obvious: in the near future, Dynamo had nothing to count on Ngamalyo.

Kalinin was avenged by Arsen Zakharyan. Spinning the ball from a free-kick over the wall, he slammed it into the head of the defender and, it seems, sent him into a light knockdown. But it is unlikely that this circumstance greatly inspired the audience of the Dynamo stadium, which is respectable in the current, “Fan ID era”, at times of 150,000 people. She would be more happy if the ball flew over Kalinin.

But all these troubles were sheer nonsense compared to what happened after the break, with events that made everyone who worries about Dynamo want to go back a little – at least to a boring, but at least not promising disaster first half.

“Torch”, which still did not hit the target, opened the scoring after a high flank canopy, which flew into the Dynamo penalty area that suddenly turned out to be almost empty. Mohamed Braimi made a discount, and Georgy Gongadze shot goalkeeper Anton Shunin.

Dynamo, of course, rushed to recoup and even thought that they recouped when Arsen Zakharyan, ahead of Igor Kalinin, who was too noticeable for some reason, sent the ball into the net. But VAR, together with referee Artem Lyubimov, considered that in the fight against Kalinin, Zakharyan violated the rules and this touch with his foot made the defender lose his balance. Soon, Yaroslav Gladyshev shot luxuriously into the far top corner. But no less luxurious was the jump into it of the Voronezh goalkeeper Ilya Svinov.

And then there was a new Dynamo blunder, now completely personal. Alexander Kutitsky, not experiencing any pressure from the opponents, for some reason put his hand to the side and touched it in the penalty ball. Penalty Gongadze struck convincingly.

The guests – all except, perhaps, Svinov, who is always ready for a feat – closer to the finish of the match, of course, surrendered. But even such a “Torch” was too tough for Dynamo on this solemn, but still clearly not his day. Having lost, the Dynamo team, who were sixth in the championship standings before the 25th round, will get stuck in its middle even more firmly.

Alexey Dospekhov