FC Khatlon steals the headlines in the second weekend of the Tajikistan Vysshaya League action.
A world starved of meaningful football is granted an underdog who’s out to challenge the national heavyweights.
The Bokhtar based club sit joint top on points with two wins from two, after impressing in their 3-2 away victory over highly sought after Khujand.
Emblazoned in their Villareal-esque yellow strip, Khatlon heavily impressed, likely to have won round any neutrals tuning in. Playing direct, possession-based football on a desperately uneven pitch deserves plaudits on any given day, and as for the finishing; Parviz Baki-Akhunov’s goal on the counter underlined their all-round performance.
On the other side of the coin, it was a third consecutive insipid performance by Khujand, who are still trying to find their feet under Nikola Lazarevic. Defensively they look solid, as it has become known by now, but continue to lack a foothold in any game they play; which became telling here as they struggled to engineer much until it was too late.
Khatlon is kept off the top spot on goal difference by six times champions Istiklol, who with less razzmatazz than their 7-0 victory in midweek, was able to comfortably beat CSKA 2-0 at the Central Republican Stadium. The start of the season has proven to be another in the catalogue of Alisher Dzhalilov’s mercurial best, effortless in all he did in Dushanbe, his right-footed strike clinching the points early on.
Matchday three will host the clash of the two early pacesetters. Khatlon will have their work cut out to make it three in a row against the juggernaut that is Istiklol, but, it promises to be an early highlight for the season to come.
Saturday’s matches including Istaravshan’s hosting of Kuktosh witnessed yet more surprises as the recent League Cup victors were humbled at home in a final ten-minute onslaught.
Despite dominating the first half, Istaravshan went down to 10 men after an off the ball scuffle saw Nasim Rasulov see red, allowing Kuktosh to cruise home to a 3-0 victory.
Later, in the big televised match of the day between Lokomotiv-Pamir & Dushanbe, an awkward-looking Izatullo Ruziev diverted clearance went past his keeper to concede the home team victory. After what had been an open, entertaining encounter, a mess of a winner tinged the lasting feeling slightly.
The victors have in fact been one of the more intriguing outfits this campaign so far. Boasting 19 players of Tajikistan’s U-17 World Cup squad, the team is incredibly young to be pulling off such maturity in performance.
It’s the side’s relative veteran, 22-year-old winger Shakhrom Sulaymonov however who is generating the most attention. Following up on his wonder strike from last week against Fazykand, the former Istiklol man forced the winner on Saturday and continually tore open the Dushanbe backline.
The other early match on Saturday saw another promoted side clinch their first victory of the season, as Fayzkand edged out Regar-TadAZ in a five-goal thriller. The away side have yet to get going this season after having lofty ambitions in pre-season, Vaysiddin Safarov’s late winner rubbed salt into an already throbbing wound.
The early narrative has tended to witness the less fancied sides rise up (something to look out for in next week’s top of the table clash).
Another interesting note from the weekend is the sense of humanity towards those affected by Coronavirus outside the country - Saturday's message of solidarity to Spain went viral across the whole world yesterday, a positive message that’ll be the main talking point for weeks to come as a global audience continues to tune in from lockdown.