Preview of the Youth League 2024 and the match "Strogino" U-21 - "Dynamo" U-21

Mikhail Kobyakov’s team will play the opening match in the Youth League 2024 at the Yantar stadium at the address: Moscow, st. m. "Strogino" / "Schukinskaya", st. Marshala Katukova, 26.

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.

The opponent of the blue and white in the first game of the new season is the youth team of the Strogino Sports Club. The club has existed since 2004, but made its debut in the Youth League only last season. The team is based in the north-west of Moscow, in the district of the same name, and plays at the Yantar stadium. Opened in 2003, the artificial turf arena seats just over 2,000 spectators.

In the 2023 season, at the preliminary stage of the Youth League, Muscovites under the leadership of Sergei Kozlov took 6th place in Group A and were unable to continue the fight for championship medals. At the final stage of the youth championship for 9-16 places, the capital team also performed unsuccessfully: they lost 7 matches, tied 3 times and won only 4 victories. As a result, 7th place in the group at the final stage and overall 14th among 16 teams. Only the main outsiders of the last championship, Ural and Krylya Sovetov, performed worse.

Accordingly, at the official level, the youth teams “Dynamo” and “Strogino” met only twice - in the Youth League in the 2023 season: on September 10, in the 4th round of the final stage 9-16, the white-blue houses defeated Stroginok with a score of 4:0 (Geibieva – 2, Petrova, Chochieva), but in the return game in Strogino, which took place on October 21, the teams played a goalless draw.

But in friendly matches the youth teams still have parity: Dynamo (1:0) and Strogino (4:1) have one victory each, two draws (1:1 and 4:4).

The new capital derby within the Youth League will be served by a refereeing team led by Anna Kurkina from Moscow, who will be assisted by assistant referees Anastasia Toporova (Omsk) and Alena Berdnikova (St. Petersburg).

Previously, Kurkina had already worked at a Dynamo match - and also with the youth team of the Strogino Sports Club (4:0): September 10, 2023, at the game of the 4th round of the final stage of the 9-16 Youth League in Novogorsk.

Balance of Dynamo's victories and defeats under refereeing by Kurkina: 1 match - 1 victory, goal difference 4-0.

In 2024, 20 youth teams will take part in the Youth League:

Academy "Zvezda-2005" (Perm), Academy of FC "Ural" (Ekaterinburg), "Dynamo" (Moscow), "Yenisei" (Krasnoyarsk), "Zenit" (St. Petersburg), "Krasnodar", "Wings of the Soviets" (Samara), “Lokomotiv” (Moscow), “Rostov” (Rostov-on-Don), “Rubin” (Kazan), “Ryazan-VDV” (Ryazan), UOR No. 5 “Master-Saturn”, “Khimki” (both – Moscow region), CSKA, “Chertanovo” (both – Moscow)

From among the tournament participants who played in the league last season, ZhFK Novosibirsk dropped out, but 5 newcomers were added at once:

“Baltika” (Kaliningrad), “Orenburg”, “Sochi”, “Spartak” (Moscow), “Fakel” (Voronezh)

According to the results of the draw, which took place on March 6, 20 teams were divided into 5 groups - “A”, “B”, “C”, “D” and “D”. The Dynamo youth team will play in Group D in the first part of the tournament, where our opponents will be:

– “Zenith”

– “Sochi”

– “Strogino”

Like a year earlier, the teams will play in two stages. At the first stage, all teams will play two matches with opponents from their quartet. The first and second place finishers in their groups will automatically advance to Group I. The remaining teams will form Group II.

In the final stage, teams from Group I will compete for places from 1st to 10th. In Group II, the holders of places from 11th to 20th will be determined.

Let us remind you that the current champion of the Youth League is ZhFK CSKA, the silver and bronze medalists are St. Petersburg Zenit and Krasnodar, respectively.

The Dynamo youth team took the final 10th place in the 2023 season.

The 2023 season, which was not the most successful for the Dynamo youth team, in which the blue and white were unable to break into the top eight and, accordingly, compete for medals, as was the case in 2022, ended for Mikhail Kobyakov’s team on October 21 with a match with... ZhFK " Strogino" (0:0). Yes, yes, Dynamo closed the last season with a game against Strogino and opens the current season with a match against them.

In fact, the 2024 season for young Dynamo football players does not start now, of course. This happened much earlier - almost 3.5 months ago.

On January 9, the youth team of the Dynamo Sports Club returned from vacation, underwent an in-depth medical examination and held its first training session of the new year.

Dynamo U-21 head coach Mikhail Kobyakov and his coaching staff have planned several training camps for their team this off-season. The young Dynamo team began preparing for the season at the capital's training complex at the Rechnoy Vokzal, and in February they held two training camps - at the base in Novogorsk and in Turkey. In total, during this offseason, the players played about a dozen friendly matches with opponents of different levels. There were grand teams here (games with CSKA - 1:6 and 3:0, Lokomotiv - 0:3, Russian junior national team U-17 - 0:8), and interesting meetings with the debutant of the season WFC Spartak U -21 (a bright victory for Dynamo - 2:0), with the Belarusian youth team U-19 (0:1).

An important event of this off-season for U-21 was the involvement of youth team players in training camps and even friendly games of the main team. Five young football players took part in the preparation of Sergei Lavrentiev’s team for the new Super League season: Polina Golubeva, Nicole Greuli, Daniella Petrova, Ulyana Ryzhikh and Kristina Yakovenko. It is highly likely that one of them will also be involved in work with the base as this season progresses.

As usual, the off-season is a time of acquisitions and losses. Dynamo is no exception. The youth team was joined by several young and promising football players: goalkeeper Ksenia Trofimova, midfielders Lamunat Mustafaeva, Anastasia Linnikova, Taisiya Razvorotneva, Anastasia Gnennaya, forwards Aigul Bagautdinova and Ksenia Skotnikova.

Defender Arina Volobueva, who became a blue-and-white player last season but never took to the field, has finally recovered from all her health problems. And this season, the 17-year-old football player will immediately try on the captain's armband.

Of course, this off-season was not without losses. Firstly, in early January, Alan Chochiev announced her retirement. The striker became Dynamo's top scorer in the Youth League in the 2023 season, but almost immediately after the New Year, the 20-year-old football player decided not only to leave our club, but also to end her football career.

A whole group of our players left the club temporarily, on loan. So, after Liana Kotelnikova, Ksenia Kuzishchina and Anastasia Pervushina went to the Perm Zvezda-2005, Alexandra Nesterovich went to the Belarusian ZhFK Vitebsk until the end of the season, and Alexandra Shevchenko went to the Sochi ZhFK.

This winter, changes also occurred in the coaching staff of the Dynamo youth team. In the 2024 season, head coach Mikhail Kobyakov will be assisted by Lyubov Komarova and Anton Antonov. Komarova took the position of assistant head coach, Antonov - goalkeeper coach. Kirill Zvyagin, who worked as a physical training coach for the U-21 youth team in the 2023 season, was transferred to a similar position at the Dynamo Sports Club Academy.

Just like last season, the team and coaching staff are very much counting on the support of their beloved fans both at home and away matches.

All home games of the Dynamo Football Club this season will be held at the training base in Novogorsk. How to get to VTB UTB “Novogorsk-Dynamo” and support the Dynamo girls can be found here.

But for those who support the blue and white not only in their native Novogorsk, but also follow the team to away matches, await not only the arenas familiar from last season in St. Petersburg and Strogino, but also a pleasant trip to the Black Sea coast in Sochi early May.