Preview of the Winline Russian Cup and the Football Academy - Dynamo match

You can follow the main events of the match in the match center on our website, where a text broadcast of the match will be conducted, as well as on the club’s social networks VKontakte and Telegram. The meeting starts at 16:00 Moscow time.

The live video broadcast of the game will be available for free on the Match Premier TV channel, on the websites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru in the Broadcasts section, as well as in the official Super League community on VKontakte. The broadcast starts at 15:55 Moscow time.

Of course, our girls are waiting for the support of their favorite fans at the stadium! Address of the STC Football Arena, where the meeting with the Football Academy will take place: Tambov, st. Michurinskaya, 150.

Admission to the match with the Football Academy will be free - seats are allocated for Dynamo fans in sector E. There is no need to purchase or receive tickets before the match.

You will be able to enter the stands an hour before the starting whistle.

For those who plan to support our favorite team at the arena in Tambov, we have collected all the necessary and relevant information in one place - right here.

You can always view the full schedule of home and away matches of the Dynamo main team in the 2023 season at this link.

Winline Russian Cup is an annual tournament among women's teams, which has been held by the Russian Football Union since 1992. The USSR Cup took place only once - in 1991, its winner was “Sibiryachka” from Krasnoyarsk (now the Yenisei Sports Complex).

Over the 30 years of competitions in the post-Soviet period, only 9 teams became winners of the trophy:

– “Energy” (Voronezh) and “Zvezda-2005” (Perm) – 7 times each;

– Russian woman (Moscow region) – 5;

– “Lada” (Tolyatti), CSKA – 3 each;

– “Ryazan-VDV”, “Lokomotiv” (Moscow) – 2 each;

– CSK VVS (Samara), Interros (Moscow) – 1 each.

The current winner of the Russian Cup is WFC CSKA, which in October 2023 defeated St. Petersburg Zenit 4:1 at the Rostec Arena in Kaliningrad.

As in the last season, in the Winline Russian Cup 2024, Super League teams began their journey from the 1/16 finals stage. These are Krasnodar, Spartak, Krylya Sovetov, Enisey and Rubin - clubs that took places from 9th to 12th in the overall Super League table last season. All of them, with varying degrees of difficulty, overcame the first round and reached the 1/8. Already here the remaining Super League clubs are entering the fight - the teams that took places from 1st to 8th in the 2023 season. Including Dynamo Moscow, which finished the last championship in 5th place. By the way, last year Dynamo, as a debutant club in the Super League, started right at the 1/16 stage, and ended in the 1/8 with a defeat from the current winner CSKA (1:4).

Three clubs from divisions of a lower rank also made it to the 1/8 participants: “Baikal” (Irkutsk), OSSh (Chelyabinsk) and “Football Academy” (Tambov) - exactly the closest rival of the blue and whites. Thus, the Russian Cup Winline 1/8 final pairs, made up of teams from the Super League and other divisions of Russian women's football, are as follows:

One match of the 1/8 tournament has already taken place - in early June, the capital's Lokomotiv defeated the Chelyabinsk OSS with a score of 16:0 and was the first to reach the quarterfinals, where it will await the winner of the Football Academy - Dynamo pair.

Thus, in case of victory over the Football Academy, Sergei Lavrentiev’s team will meet in the next round with the two-time winner of the Winline Russian Cup (2020, 2021). Before the final, which will be held in October, other Super League clubs may become our girls' rivals - in addition to the already named Lokomotiv, these are WFC Rubin, Chertanovo, Enisey and the current Super League champion Zenit.

The current national cup draw will proceed according to the following formula:

– at the stages of the 1/16, 1/8, and 1/4 finals, the winner is determined by the result of a single match;

– if the match ends in a draw in regular time, the winner at these stages is determined by a penalty shootout;

– in the semi-finals, the winners of the pairs are determined by the results of two matches: one home match – one away match;

– the team that scores more goals in the two matches at this stage advances to the next round of the tournament, if both teams score an equal number of goals in the two matches, then the winner is determined by a penalty shootout;

– the trophy holder is determined in the final match – if a draw is recorded in regular time, a series of penalty kicks is assigned.

The previous match, as part of the 3rd round of the Super League, postponed since March, our team played in Novogorsk against the champions of the Super League 2023 - WFC Zenit from St. Petersburg. This game was supposed to take place on March 23, but due to the tragic events at Crocus City Hall it was postponed and took place only three months after the original date.

Let us remind you that then the blue and white approached the meeting with Zenit with two victories without conceding goals - over Krasnodar (2:0) away and over Lokomotiv (3:0) at home. The victory over the railway workers, by the way, was the first for Dynamo over the Big Three clubs in the Super League.

Now the blue and white were preparing for the game with one of the leaders of the season in a completely different mood. In the last three matches before the meeting with the St. Petersburg club, Dynamo won only one victory - over the outsider Rubin (2:0), but lost to CSKA and Spartak with the same score - 0:1...

Zenit, on the contrary, since the beginning of the season has had an unbeaten streak of 11 matches (10 wins, 1 draw), in which they scored 23 and conceded only one goal!

Although the team from the banks of the Neva did not immediately confirm their favorite status, they indicated it from the first minutes: they turned on a high tempo, operating at such speeds that no one expected from them in such heat before the starting whistle. Until some point, Dynamo acted in approximately the same way, which was also surprising.

Starting from the middle of the first half, Zenit began to look more interesting, which gradually began to take the initiative and get closer to the Dynamo goal. The guests also had chances: until the end of the half, Nelly Korovkina and Gabriela Grzywińska had opportunities to shoot. Our team was able to respond with a moment performed by Najjemba just before the whistle for the break.

Well, immediately after the break, Dynamo fans saw a painfully familiar picture: not even five minutes had passed before... the opponent scored. In the 49th minute, the same Grzywinska scored her eighth goal this season. Considering that Zenit conceded one goal in all Super League games this season, it was, of course, naive to expect that this defense would fall apart in the game against Dynamo.

Hope for this could have been given by Galina Geibieva, who found herself completely alone in front of the Zenit goal, but struck in such a way that the ball, instead of the cherished goal, flew somewhere into the Novogorsk forest behind the back of goalkeeper Natalya Voskobovich.

Only three minutes passed after Geibieva’s killer moment and… Zenit scored again. This time the anti-aircraft guns ran off on a counterattack: Kiki hit the post, and a Costa Rican woman named Chinchilla finished off the rebound into the empty goal.

There was almost half an hour of pure playing time left until the end of the match, but probably even the Dynamo players themselves did not believe in the possibility of winning back against such a Zenit. Although they, of course, had no intention of giving up. The same Najjemba tried to pull the team into the attack and finally score against the St. Petersburg club. But Najjemba alone was not enough.

Already in added time, the blue and white were on the verge of defeat, but Diana Ponomareva saved the game - the Dynamo goalkeeper turned the seemingly dead ball into a corner after a header from the St. Petersburg football player.

Thus, Dynamo lost to Zenit again and, what might be even more offensive, they didn’t score against him again. However, the blue and whites retained 4th place in the standings, as well as being just one point behind third-placed Lokomotiv.

Dynamo's defeat to Zenit marked the end of the first round of the Super League Championship 2024, the results of which were summarized in an interview by the head coach of the white-and-blues Sergey Lavrentyev:

— The first thing the team needs to improve on is aggression. We were not aggressive enough, especially in the matches against the leaders. We also need to increase our attacking power and reliability in defense.

It's hard to name the best or worst match. I can't say that we had a bad game against Zenit, but we lost. Everyone notes our game against Lokomotiv, but there the tactical scheme worked well, the girls executed it well, we found our fast attacks. Overall, until we lost Ksenia Kubichnaya and Irina Drichyova due to injuries, we had a consistent and stable game, which we demonstrated on the field.

As for the other teams, many are now showing their teeth. The championship is no longer a battle of three clubs; every team confidently plays against the leader and provides worthy resistance. Of course, the results vary, but the fact is that there are no more easy matches, and you can't say for sure who will definitely score points. Every opponent fights, competes, and the level of the championship is rising.

Dynamo's opponent in the first round of the Winline Russian Cup is the Football Academy. Founded in 2009 as the Sports School "Football Academy", the Tambov club has been playing in the First League (First Division) among women's teams for 14 years (since the 2010 season).

"Football Academy" quickly became one of the leaders of the second league of Russian women's football. Since 2012, the Tambov club has annually reached the final stage of the championship, where it regularly takes part in the fight for tournament medals. The last five-year period has been especially successful for the “academic” team: in the 2019 and 2022 seasons, the Tambov team won silver medals, and last season they finally became champions of the First League. It is interesting that in the final “Academy” beat “Donchanka” from Rostov-on-Don with a score of 2:0, for which midfielder Lamunat Mustafaeva, now a player for Dynamo Moscow, played.

The Tambov club also performs most consistently in another Russian tournament – ​​the Russian Cup. The team has been participating in the national cup since 2014 and for 9 (!) draws in a row it has completed its participation in it at the 1/8 final stage. This season, the “academics” have again reached this stage – and will make their 10th consecutive attempt to overcome it. And the Tambov team began their journey in the tournament from the 1/16 final stage against the Volgograd “Rotor”, where they won the biggest victory in the history of their participation in these competitions - 10:2! At the same time, the cup match was the first and so far the only one for the Tambov team this season, since the First League has not yet started.

The WFC Football Academy is headed by an experienced 65-year-old coach, Vladimir Alekseevich Malyutin, under whose leadership the Tambov team won gold medals in the First League in the 2023 season.

And the current player and main star of the club, forward Natalya Simakina, helps the head coach. The 36-year-old football player, a native of Tambov football, at one time played for major league clubs - Ryazan-VDV (2011-2012, 2013), Donchanka (Azov, 2013) and, attention, the Moscow TsSP Izmailovo . In 2012, when Simakina distinguished herself in several matches for Izmailovo, the capital club was headed by Sergei Lavrentyev, now the head coach of the Dynamo football club. However, having become the champion of Russia as part of Ryazan-VDV in 2013, Natalya was never able to make a career in a big club and returned to her native Tambov. Since 2015, she has been playing for the local football academy, becoming a legend of Tambov women's football.

Last season, when the Academy became the champion of the First League, Simakina, already at an advanced age for football, became not only the top scorer of the tournament (10 goals), but was also recognized as the best player of the championship. Now she is part of Malyutin’s coaching staff and, in fact, serves as a playing coach and captain. But she doesn’t forget about goals on the field: she scored a penta-trick (5 goals) in the match with Rotor in the 1/16 finals and became the leading scorer of the team and the entire tournament.

However, not only Simakina. Another star of the Academy is goalkeeper Olga Nesvetaeva. A native of Tambov and a student of local football, by the age of 23 she managed to play for the Super League clubs Lokomotiv and Rubin. Last May, the goalkeeper left Kazan and returned to the Tambov academy to help his home team win the First League.

Another student of the Tambov football school, 27-year-old defender Anna Stipan, although she has not played for the Football Academy since 2019, managed to leave her mark on the club: together with the team she became the silver medalist of the FIFA World Cup. First division in the 2019 season. In 2020, together with her Tambov teammate Olga Nesvetaeva, she moved to Lokomotiv Moscow, but without playing a single match for the main red-green team, Stipan moved to the Rostov football club, for which she still successfully plays.

In general, despite the status of a First League team, the Football Academy is an original, interesting team with rich traditions and, importantly, produces high-level players.

This was also noted by Dynamo coach Sergei Lavrentyev, answering a question about the blue and white’s closest opponent in the first match of the Russian Cup Vinline:

— We know this team well. “Football Academy” is the strongest team that does not participate in the Super League. She has always been distinguished by her inflexibility and perseverance, so we don’t expect an easy ride.

An important factor, in addition to the playing qualities of Tambov football players, which can help the Academy in a game with our team, are literally the walls of Tambov’s home arena. The fact is that the Football Academy hosts its competitors in a football arena with artificial turf and artificial lighting.

Yes, the blue and white have already had repeated experience of playing in such conditions, the team has been flying to Krasnoyarsk for matches with Yenisei in the arena for three seasons in a row, however, I have no idea yet how the game will turn out on the previously unfamiliar surface of the STC Football Arena in Tambov even the Dynamo coaching staff itself.

— I was not in this arena, so it’s hard for me to comment on the situation. If in the Krasnoyarsk arena there are air conditioners and ventilation and it’s comfortable to play, then it’s difficult to say what it will be like in Tambov, — Lavrentiev cautiously noted on the eve of the match with the Tambov club.

So, despite the obvious status of favorites in which Dynamo will come to Tambov, one can only agree with the coach of our team: no one guarantees an easy victory for Dynamo.

The meeting will be served by a team of judges led by Lyubov Tarbeeva from Kirov, who will be assisted by assistant judges Irina Chechenina (Cherepovets) and Ekaterina Bibikova (Krasnodar).

Anna Kurkina from Moscow has been appointed reserve referee, and Nadezhda Ulyanovskaya from Pushkino will be the match inspector.

Balance of victories and defeats of Dynamo under refereeing Tarbeeva: 3 matches - 1 victory, 1 draw, 1 defeat, goal difference 4-4.