There are discoveries, enchantments and disappointing falls.

Berdyev’s car breaks into RPL

For Kurban Berdyev in Sochi things did not go well, but it is above all a question of relations with the management. For some reason, club president Boris Rotenberg thought that a coach with an established philosophy would suddenly change his approach – and the southerners would start attacking. This did not happen: in the summer the specialist went to Makhachkala.

The Biancoblu were previously close to the playoff zone, now they have jumped straight to the top of the championship. While the coach and players got used to each other, the Makhachkala team dropped points in 5 of the opening 7 matches (3 draws, 2 losses). But after 6 wins in the next 8 matches, they started to fight for the lead. The first place was brought by a breakthrough in November: then Dynamo beat Neftekhimik, SKA-Khabarovsk and Tyumen. The Bianconeri maintain the characteristics of Berdyev’s team: they are 9th in the league in terms of number of goals scored (21 goals in 20 rounds), but they are the ones who have conceded the fewest goals (10 goals).

Now the team has a 1-2 point lead over its closest pursuers. This situation does not guarantee anything, so a tough fight will take place in the spring.

Kaleshin turned Akron into the favorite of the First League – it ended in dismissal

People started talking about the “steel workers” last spring, when they made a noisy run through the lower bracket of the Russian Cup playoffs. In this way we met all the Moscow teams, except CSKA– and beat Torpedo, Lokomotiv, Dynamo and Spartak.

Already in the new season, under the leadership of Evgeny Kaleshin himself, Akron began to build on its success. Now the team was already fighting for leadership in the First League. There were some slippages: after 4 initial victories, Togliatti’s team did not win for 5 consecutive games. During the September-October shock period, the club returned to the top, but again began to decline in height immediately before the break.

At the same time, the coach began to lose patience during press conferences: after being eliminated from the Cup by Volgar, he said that some players do not understand human language and should be strangled. He also got into a fight after the match with Torpedo. The point was a fiery speech after the new defeat of Volgar: Kaleshin spoke about the football system in Russia, which must be broken.

A firing followed, and now it will be much harder for Akron to show the magic it had at the start of the season.

From the Second League to the top of the First in six months – Tyumen enchants

The Urals did a great job: they reached the First League after 4 difficult seasons in the Second. And they decided not to postpone the next turning point: they immediately engaged in the struggle to enter it RPL.

The team lost only in the first 4 rounds SKA-Khabarovsk, but beat Khimki, Enisey and Leningradets. The continuation of August and the beginning of autumn was difficult, but in October the Tyumen team took turns dealing with Volgar, Chernomorets, Neftekhimik, Sokol and Kuban. Only the recent defeat against Leningradets raised doubts – the team is in 14th place.

As a result, Tyumen is engaged in a tense struggle for leadership. The team, like Arsenal Tula and Akron, has 35 points. The league leaders were only ahead by 1-2 points.

Khimki is ready for a comeback, Torpedo has dropped to 8th place

A year earlier, of those who were recently relegated to the Premier League, only Rubin returned – Arsenal remained at the same level, Ufa even went to the Second League. Now Khimki is fighting for tickets to the elite. The Moscow region team is still coached by Andrey Talalaev. Under his leadership, the club suffered only 4 defeats in 20 matches. Everything is back to square one. Khimki beat Dynamo Makhachkala, Akron and Arsenal. But the ambitions have yet to be confirmed: the gap is minimal.

The former Krasnodar coach raises Arsenal

Many managers have emigrated from the Premier League to the First. Along with Torpedo, Pep Clotet dropped in class (he retired later), Andrei Talalaev continues to lead Khimki. Vadim Garanin took a break after Sochi, but is now back to work in Chernomorets.

And after Oleg Kononov, Alexander Storozhuk arrived at Arsenal Tula. The specialist left the Krasnodar system and led the main team when the history of suspension of contracts by foreign players began.

For a new experience, the specialist decided to go to a lower class championship. But here it is possible to build a solid team with less pressure. Since the beginning of September Tula has not suffered defeats in the championship, the winning streak stretched for 4 matches before the break. It is even better for the team that the spring period begins with outsiders: the first opponents will be Chernomorets, Kuban, Volgar and Leningradets. And after the warm-up there will be the fundamental matches with Tyumen and Khimki.

“Sokol” – the sharpest drop in 20 shots

Saratov could well be considered the opening of the championship on a par with Tyumen, if we were talking about it in mid-September. At that point, Sokol, after losing to Rodina, had faced Shinnik, SKA-Khabarovsk, “Torpedo”, shared points with “Kuban” and beat “Khimki”, and after 0:1 from “Leningradets” won over “Volgar”. By the way, I was in 2nd place.

The problems started further. As of the 9th round, Denis Boyarintsev’s team did not gain a single victory and scored a total of 4 points. Now he is in 16th place and his mentor is out of a job.