Match Preview: Sochi U-21 vs. Dynamo U-21: Where to Watch, News, and All About the Opponent

Mikhail Kobyakov’s team will play their third match in the group stage of the Youth League 2024 at the stadium of the FC Sochi Academy at the address: Sochi, st. Lenina, 95.

Dynamo fans will be allocated one of the sectors of the arena. Admission to the game is free, there is no need to buy or receive tickets before the match!

You can follow the main events of the match in the match center on our website, as well as on the club’s social networks VKontakte and Telegram.

The meeting starts at 11:00 Moscow time.

By the will of the lot, “Dynamo” in Group “D” received the most diverse opponents: this is the debutant of the Youth League of the ZhFK Sochi, with whom the white and blue will play in the next round, and the original “Strogino” with its promising students, and finally the St. Petersburg “Zenith” " - the current vice-champion and one of the main favorites of the current draw. It was with him that the new season of home matches in Novogorsk was to be opened.

It must be said right away that the team from the banks of the Neva is one of the most inconvenient opponents for the Dynamo youth team. So, before the next personal meeting in Novogorsk on April 28, our girls were able to win only one match out of 4 played against Zenit, and even that happened back in 2022, when Dynamo, under the leadership of Sergei Lavrentiev, played its debut season in history. Since then, the blue and white not only haven’t won against the team from St. Petersburg, but they haven’t scored either – the results of 0:4 and 0:1 last season speak for themselves.

The new meeting in Novogorsk, the first home game of the new season, did not promise an easy ride for Dynamo. If Mikhail Kobyakov's team in the previous round seemed to cope with Strogino away (4:1) without any problems, then Roman Levendeev's team left no stone unturned against the debutants from Sochi - 10:0! Therefore, even in this sense, in principle there could not be any mischievous sentiments.

As the game showed, if there were any, it was only for a short time. The St. Petersburg football youth immediately showed their claims to leadership in the tournament: by the break, Zenit was already leading 3:0, and all three goals were scored by one football player - Daria Sorokina. She added another one at the beginning of the second half and set the score, which we already saw in this confrontation last season - 0:4... However, then these numbers were on the scoreboard in St. Petersburg, and not in Novogorsk.

After this, our team had only one task left - to score at least one goal against Zenit and break this goalless streak, which has been going on since last season. The blue and white had the most real chance to score in the 61st minute, when Polina Kolesnikova put up a great fight in the center, brought in a free Kristina Yakovenko, but the attacker hit straight at Zenit goalkeeper Violetta Isaikina. Alas, Dynamo failed to clear the score before the end of the game.

As a result, Zenit won a very confident victory and secured first place in Group D - with a 100% win rate and a goal difference of 14-0 after two rounds. And there is a suspicion that the young St. Petersburg team will finish this group stage at the top of the table.

— The match started very poorly for us - we immediately made a blunder in our own penalty area, for which we received a goal. Due to this, plans for the game have shifted slightly. After conceding the goal, we sagged psychologically to a certain extent, it was a blow, the girls were confused and could not take the initiative into their own hands. At the same time, Zenit applied quite high pressure and subsequently repeatedly caught us making our own mistakes.

In the second half, we asked the girls to let go of the score a little and play active, aggressive football. In general, the second half of the meeting turned out to be double-edged – both teams had opportunities. Unfortunately, we didn’t score, although we wanted to save our face and show our character, — this is how Mikhail Kobyakov, head coach of the Dynamo youth team, described his players’ match against Zenit.

Blue and white midfielder Anastasia Orlova summed up her results of the meeting with the vice-champions of the Youth League:

— It's a tough game. We lost concentration in the first 15 minutes, got an early goal and fell apart, unable to gather ourselves. Then we conceded two more goals, after which, unfortunately, we were unable to come back.

In the second half we evened out the game a little. Perhaps the substitutions worked - the coach made targeted changes to tired players, so after the break we looked fresher.

Is it realistic to fight with such a “Zenith”? I think yes. It was necessary to show from the first minutes who wanted to win more. The opponent managed to do this, but not so much for us.

However, the whole struggle in Group D, in which our team plays, is still ahead. At least for second place. Despite Strogino's big victory over Sochi, thanks to their advantage in head-to-head matches, the Dynamo team remained second in the table and have a good chance of continuing to fight for medals this season.

The white-and-blue's opponent in the 3rd round is the youth team of WFC "Sochi". Like WFC "Dynamo", the Sochi club appeared quite recently – in 2023, and played its first official match in history in June last year, when it debuted in the Krasnodar Krai Cup.

Accordingly, in the 2024 season, the Sochi team debuted again – this time in the Youth League. Here, the club from the south of Russia is also following the path of "Dynamo", as the white-and-blues also started with the youth team, and then stepped into the Super League. However, unlike "Dynamo", "Sochi" still feels extremely uncomfortable even at the youth level: in the very first match, they were thrashed in Saint Petersburg by the vice-champion "Zenit" with a score of 0:10 (!), and in the 2nd round, they suffered a heavy home defeat to "Strogino" – 0:3… Not 24:0 like "Fakel" from "Krasnodar", of course, but still not much to be pleased about. However, everything is ahead for the Sochi team – the first goals and the first victories. The main thing is that they do not come in the next two matches against "Dynamo".

The Sochi youth team is led by 32-year-old Dmitry Kosenko, who has been working with the team since its creation.

Despite being debutants, the Sochi club's roster already includes players associated with "Dynamo": of course, this includes forward Alexandra Shevchenko (18 matches, 1 goal, and 1 assist for the white-and-blue youth team in the 2023 season) and midfielder Annabelle Kipasa Maniki, who played for "Dynamo" teams of different ages, including being included in the youth team's squad in the 2023 season, but never played for it.

The first ever confrontation between the two clubs in the Youth League will be officiated by a refereeing team led by Ksenia Goryacheva from Ryazan, assisted by lineswomen Alyona Berdnikova and Arina Samarina (both from Saint Petersburg).

Previously, Kurkina officiated "Dynamo" matches: in the Youth League – against "Zenit" (3:2), "Yenisey" (2:1) and "Rostov" (3:1); and in the Super League – against "Rostov" (2:0) and CSKA (1:3).

The balance of victories and defeats for "Dynamo" under Goryacheva's officiating: 5 matches – 4 victories, 1 defeat, goal difference 11-7.