Professional football club “Kuban” has changed its coach

Grigoryan forever, amen

Football club “Kuban” has changed its coach. Alexander Grigoryan was fired three days after the “yellow-greens” lost to Neftekhimik in the ninth round with a score of 2:1.

The coach took charge of Kuban in May 2023. Then the 56-year-old mentor replaced the Belarusian specialist Andrei Sosnitsky. Grigoryan had to save the Krasnodar team from relegation. He played the last three games of last season, with Kuban winning once, drawing and losing once. This result was enough to maintain registration in the second strongest division.

In the new season, under the leadership of Grigoryan, Kuban played nine matches. The Krasnodar team started the season disastrously: they lost three matches in a row to Krasnoyarsk Yenisei, KamAZ and Makhachkala Dynamo, conceded six goals and scored only one. Then there was a victory over Volgar (2:0). Then there was a draw (0: 0) with Sokol, defeats against Shinnik (1: 0) and Alania (0: 1), a draw with Khimki (1: 1), and a loss to Neftekhimik.

Thus, under the leadership of Grigoryan, Kuban held 12 official meetings, in which they won two victories, drew three times and lost seven times.

At the time of the dismissal of the coach, the team with five points is in penultimate 17th place in the standings. It is obvious that the “yellow-greens” were in crisis; they urgently needed change. Actually, Grigoryan himself confirmed this.

“It so happened that from the first day I took over Kuban, there was not a single day spent calmly, everything was devoted to work. I expected that it would happen, as it had happened many times in other teams where registration in the FNL was maintained, and the next season began powerfully and confidently. Unfortunately, it did not happen. My impromptu: “Kuban” was, “Kuban” is, “Kuban” will be… I think, in order to bring it to life, it’s time for me to leave. To clear the way for a person who can now give something to “Kuban”. I think that the results that the team showed by the 9th round do not correspond to the level of the players or the ambitions of the club,” said Grigoryan.

According to the club’s press service, the contract with the coach, which was valid until the end of the season, was terminated by mutual agreement of the parties. It is noted that the name of the new coach of “Kuban” will be announced in the near future. A number of media outlets report that Grigoryan will be replaced by Vadim Evseev. Until recently, this coach headed Voronezh Fakel, which plays in the Premier League, but left the team on September 5.

Perhaps most of all at his post in Kuban, Grigoryan was remembered for his statements. After the first match of Kuban, he concluded the post-match conference with the phrase: “You only need to know one thing: “Kuban” was, “Kuban” is, “Kuban” will be. Forever, amen.” Another of his remarks led to a scandal when the coach called a journalist who called him a “stupid little girl” after she asked if he was afraid of being fired. Grigoryan considered the question offensive and did not apologize for his statement, although a number of sports journalists called on him to do so.

Another representative of Kuban football, Novorossiysk Chernomorets, is performing more successfully in the first league. Konstantin Zyryanov’s team qualified for the second strongest tournament following the results of last season. After nine matches, the Novorossiysk team only defeated Arsenal Tula (2:1) and lost to Shinnik with the same score. The remaining seven matches were drawn. Moreover, four times the score in the match was never opened, and in three cases the game ended with the result 1: 1. Such a performance allowed the debutant of the first league to settle in 13th place in the standings with ten points.

This season, Chernomorets has not been involved in any scandals. The team is doing quite well, despite the fact that it is new to the tournament.

Lost six matches in a row

The Krasnodar volleyball club “Dynamo” began performances this season. In the off-season, Pavel Zabuslaev’s team was left by the finishing player Olga Zvereva. She spent eight seasons at Dynamo (99 games in the Russian Championship and Cup).

Central blocker Ekaterina Yakovleva decided to continue her career in another club. A graduate of the Krasnodar club school, a native of Novorossiysk spent eight seasons at Dynamo, making her debut in the main team on February 17, 2017. Wearing a Dynamo Kuban jersey, she played 21 official matches of the Russian Championship and Cup, winning 77 points for the team. This is 13 games/49 points in the championship and 8/28 in the Russian Cup. Last season, 2022/23, the 22-year-old central blocker played for Dynamo only in the Russian Cup: 3 matches / 11 points.

Libero Varvara Shepeleva also left Dynamo. Last season, the 21-year-old volleyball player made her debut in the Russian Volleyball Super League, playing a total of 14 games – one cup and 13 in the Super League.

The first addition to the team in the offseason was two-time Russian champion striker Maria Vorobyova. Volleyball player who won two Russian championship gold medals with Lokomotiv Kaliningrad. The volleyball player is a native of Moscow. She began playing professionally as part of the capital’s Luch club. Since the 2017/18 season, Vorobyova has been a player in the Russian Super League. She spent three seasons in Zarechye Odintsovo near Moscow, two in Lokomotiv, and in the summer of 2022 she became a player in Uralochka-NTMK from the Sverdlovsk region. She played 123 matches over six seasons, winning 1,134 points for her teams. In 2019, she made her debut in the Russian national team, taking part in the FIVB Nations League, playing seven matches.

Also, finishing player Elena Tkacheva moved to Krasnodar. The Master of Sports of Russia began her professional career in the team of her native Belgorod – “University”. She played 163 games in the Russian Super League, scoring more than 1,200 points. Tkacheva played for five seasons for Leningradka from St. Petersburg, for two years she was a player for Sakhalin from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and for three seasons she played for Dynamo-Metar from Chelyabinsk. With the Far Eastern team, Tkacheva twice won the Cup of Siberia and the Far East. With Leningradka she became a semi-finalist and winner of the 2009 CEV Challenge Cup, with Metar she became a bronze medalist of the 2022 Russian Cup.

Another Dynamo newcomer was 21-year-old blocker Ksenia Sokolova. In the main Russian volleyball league, she played for Proton-Saratov and Zarechye-Odintsovo, playing 52 matches over five seasons.

Dynamo began preparations for the season in mid-July. Until August 5, the team worked in Krasnodar, then held a training camp in Vityazevsk “Volei Grad”.

The first official match of the Dynamo season was held on September 1 in Chelyabinsk as part of the Cup of the 100th Anniversary of Russian Volleyball. The Krasnodar club opened the draw for this tournament and was the first to play with the new Russian-made Volar ball. The rival of Zabuslaev’s team was the champion of Russia, the capital’s Dynamo.

In the decisive plays, Zabuslaev’s players made mistakes, getting under the block and attacking into touch, but the Russian champion did not. As a result, the Muscovites won with a score of 3: 0 (25: 13, 27: 25, 25: 18).

The next day there was a second game against Dynamo Ak Bars from Kazan. Here the game reached a tiebreaker. In the fifth game, the intrigue lived for a long time, but when it became critically important, the opponent, attacking, literally pounded the ball into the floor. The game ended in the defeat of Zabuslaev’s team with a score of 3: 2 (20: 25, 25: 17, 25: 21, 26: 28, 15: 10).

The next day the third meeting took place, against the hosts Dynamo-Metar. Here, too, it came down to a tiebreaker. The game ended with a score of 3:2 (25:13, 22:25, 23:25, 25:16, 15:11). As a result, in the first round in the Urals, Dynamo scored only two tournament points.

The next round of the 100th Anniversary Cup took place in Kazan from September 8 to 10, 2023. There Dynamo Krasnodar first lost to Dynamo-Metar – 3: 0 (27: 25, 25: 22, 25: 21). The next day there was a loss to Dynamo Ak Bars – 3: 1 (25: 23, 25: 13, 25: 27, 25: 21). And at the end – a loss to the capital’s Dynamo with a score of 0: 3 (14: 25, 26: 28, 20: 25).

Following the results of two rounds of the first round of the tournament, the Krasnodar team finished fourth in their group and left the tournament. Now they will continue to compete in the 2023/24 season in the Russian Cup.