Third Season
Well that was interesting.
Started off well enough, winning the Belarusian Cup pretty convincingly but it went downhill from there.....
The league didn't start all that well. It was tight at the top and Veras was as low as 7th at some point, but eventually they'd put in a run to get back up there.
As far as CL goes, finally a Belarusian team gets past the first round of qualifying. Rabotnicki of Macedonia. 1-0 away, 6-1 at home. Easy.
Then it starts going wrong.
First in the 08/09 Belarus Cup they're eliminated in the Second round 1-0 to a second-tier team. Not an important tournament, fair enough.
Then the second round of the CL Qualification. Maccabi Petach-Tikva (Israel), the team that beat Dinamo Brest in the UEFA Cup last year.
The away leg was a narrow loss, about 50-50 but the home team took it 1-0.
The return leg was totally one-sided. First goal in 20 minutes, another on the hour. With time running out Veras is looking at the Third round, and therefore guaranteed at least the UEFA Cup proper. It could have been 3-0 a couple of times but wasn't. Deep in injury time, penalty for the Indonesian side. It's converted and 2-1, with time for kickoff and nothing else. Out on away goals.
But at least the league position has been fixed up, right? One round to go, one point ahead. 1-0 up half way through the first time. 1-0 at half time. 1-0 at the hour. 15 minutes to go and, OH ****, a nothing deep cross totally over the lone striker is put into the net by an unpressured Veras defender for an own goal. 1-1. 15 minutes of constant pressure, and nothing. The other result comes in, second place MTZ won their game, and Veras chokes again.
Code:
| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |
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| 1st | C | MTZ-Ripo | | 26 | 14 | 6 | 6 | 44 | 34 | +10 | 48 |
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| 2nd | | Veras | | 26 | 13 | 8 | 5 | 46 | 30 | +16 | 47 |
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| 3rd | | Dinamo Minsk | | 26 | 12 | 7 | 7 | 44 | 33 | +11 | 43 |
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| 4th | | Gomel | | 26 | 10 | 9 | 7 | 37 | 32 | +5 | 39 |
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| 5th | | Darida | | 26 | 11 | 6 | 9 | 37 | 33 | +4 | 39 |
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| 6th | | Dinamo Brest | | 26 | 10 | 6 | 10 | 37 | 37 | 0 | 36 |
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| 7th | | Torpedo Zhodino | | 26 | 10 | 6 | 10 | 35 | 38 | -3 | 36 |
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| 8th | | Naftan | | 26 | 10 | 5 | 11 | 33 | 37 | -4 | 35 |
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| 9th | | BATE | | 26 | 8 | 10 | 8 | 39 | 34 | +5 | 34 |
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| 10th | | Dnepr Mogilev | | 26 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 42 | 44 | -2 | 33 |
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| 11th | | Belshina | | 26 | 9 | 5 | 12 | 38 | 44 | -6 | 32 |
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| 12th | | Shakhter Soligorsk | | 26 | 9 | 4 | 13 | 35 | 39 | -4 | 31 |
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| 13th | R | Lokomotiv Vitebsk | | 26 | 8 | 7 | 11 | 35 | 42 | -7 | 31 |
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| 14th | R | Mikashevichi | | 26 | 3 | 6 | 17 | 23 | 48 | -25 | 15 |
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It's interesting that they got to the top of the league and didn't continue spending and improving. Obviously it cost them because MTZ threw 725k at players (compared to Veras's 400k, after a few mid-season transfers) in response to Veras's domination the year before. Will that become a pattern (the rest of the teams spend to catch up to the champion, who decide they've gotten to the top and don't need to improve)? If so, will it be reciprocated next season? And does this mean that having one super-club WILL drag the league up?
Squad
Code:
| Pkd | Inf | Name | Apps | Gls | Ast | MoM | Pas | Tck | Drb | Sh T | Av Rat|
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| FC | Tut | Vitaly Bulyga | 10 | 4 | - | 3 | 64% | 0.22 | 0.22 | 46% | 7.10 |
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| MC | | Dmitry Chaley | 19 | - | 1 | 1 | 73% | 2.15 | 0.06 | - | 6.47 |
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| MR | | Sergey Gigevich | 19 (3)| - | 4 | - | 67% | 0.20 | 0.15 | - | 6.32 |
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| FC | Inj | Dmitriy Kovalenok | 18 (3)| 8 | - | - | 44% | - | 0.82 | 53% | 7.19 |
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| GK | | Sergey Krasnikov | 26 | - | - | - | 28% | 0.04 | - | - | 6.85 |
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| DC | | Mikhail Krasovskiy | 7 | - | - | - | 83% | 3.29 | - | - | 6.29 |
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| S4 | Wnt | Sergey Nikiforenko | 11 (3)| 4 | - | - | 65% | 0.08 | 1.06 | 55% | 7.00 |
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| DC | Wnt | Yuriy Ostroukh | 7 | - | - | - | 78% | 3.08 | - | - | 6.57 |
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| MC | Wnt | Alyaxey Pankavets | 26 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 73% | 2.09 | 0.13 | - | 6.96 |
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| S5 | | Evgeniy Panteleev | 2 (4) | 1 | - | - | 79% | 2.64 | - | - | 6.17 |
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| - | Inj | Vitaly Rodionov | 10 | 5 | - | 1 | 58% | - | 1.42 | 59% | 7.20 |
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| FC | | Dmitriy Rubnenko | 17 (1)| 2 | 1 | 1 | 51% | 0.42 | 0.72 | 54% | 6.67 |
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| DC | Tut | Anton Ryabtsev | 25 | - | - | 2 | 82% | 2.96 | 0.04 | 73% | 7.12 |
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| ML | Wnt | Victor Sokol | 23 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 56% | 0.23 | 0.98 | 50% | 7.39 |
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| S6 | | Alyaxey Suchkov | 2 (3) | - | - | - | 57% | 1.72 | - | - | 5.80 |
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| - | Wnt | Igor Voronkov | 15 (1)| - | 1 | - | 77% | 2.73 | - | - | 6.25 |
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| S7 | | Evgeniy Zuev | 1 (7) | 2 | - | - | 43% | 0.31 | 2.81 | 61% | 6.88 |
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Belarus in Europe
UEFA Coefficients for Season 08/09
Belarus 41st
Coef. = 3.166
CL = 1 | UEFA = 2 | IT = 1
Highest ranked Club = Dinamo Minsk (378th)
Club Performances
- Veras
Champions League:
Won in First Qualification Round against Rabotnicki (Macedonia).
7-1 aggregate.
Lost in Second Qualification Round against Maccabi Petach-Tikva (Israel).
2-2 aggregate. Lost on away goals.
- Dinamo Brest
UEFA Cup:
Lost in First Qualification Round to Maccabi Netanya (Israel).
2-6 aggregate.
- MTZ-Ripo
UEFA Cup:
Won in First Qualification Round against Omonoia (Cyprus).
4-1 aggregate.
Lost in Second Qualification Round to Lille (France).
0-2 aggregate.
- Dinamo Minsk
IT Cup:
Won in First Round against Teuta (Albania).
3-2 aggregate.
Lost in Second Round to Zürich (Switzerland).
2-4 aggregate.
, the rest are all about 6/6~10/10 (all these figures are Judging Ability/Judging Potential if it's not obvious) but it makes sense that they're not as good because they're all O/S. It's got Britain covered, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe pretty decently covered. One of the physios has 17 for Physiotherapy.
), who finished 5th in the top tier, after going a man down early in the second leg.
, but thankfully it's only 4 all up.