The blue and white, like a year ago, met with the railway workers at the main stadium of the club and this time took away a victory from Cherkizovo (1:0).
The main question that was expected to arise before the new meeting of Dynamo and Lokomotiv: how did both teams survive the three-week break in the championship related to the games of the national teams?
At Dynamo, this mini-vacation really lasted for three weeks, and considering that only five people left for the national team, which, by the way, is very rare for blue and white, we can say that the preparatory cycle was held in a calm and working rhythm.
What can't be said about Lokomotiv. Knowing the character of the head coach of the railwaywomen Elena Fomina, there this pause was filled with anything but rest and measured work. The club from Cherkizov was preparing for the title match with Zenit St. Petersburg, in which the teams had to find out who was stronger – the current champion of the Winline Super League or the current winner of the Winline Cup of Russia?
This time the best among the best was Zenit, which won the first trophy of the season. Well, Lokomotiv returned to Moscow from Yekaterinburg in order to enter the derby against Dynamo in a week. True, now the railway women will have to play in their native walls, which in meetings with the blue and white has so far given them a one hundred percent result. Dynamovki has never beaten Loko away before: 3 matches – 3 defeats, only one goal scored.
Of course, the meeting in Cherkizovo last season stands out. Then two women's teams played each other for the first time at the main stadium of the capital's club – at the RZD Arena. Which, of course, was a big event for our team as well – Dynamo had never played in an arena of this level before. But then they still failed to win and interrupt this joyless guest series in games with railway workers.
Losing 0:3 during the match, the blue and white only managed to score a "prestige goal" at the very end of the meeting. By the way, it was scored by Maria Galai, who once played for Lokomotiv and won both the championship and the Russian Super Cup twice, which this year did not submit to the red-green.
This time, the teams, like a year ago, met again at the RZD Arena, already familiar to Dynamo, and the course of this game did not resemble last year's scenario at all.
If the first five to seven minutes of the meeting passed calmly and did not give any cause for excitement, then the game spun so unpredictably that it was time to grab your head from the number of unused moments. First of all, in the performance of Dynamo football players.
The first such episode happened already in the 9th minute, when Elena Shesterneva perfectly threw the ball into the penalty area, it perfectly lay on Nadezhda Koltakova's foot, but our central defender somehow inexplicably did not send it to the goal. Well, the beginning is a terrible misfortune! Then it became even more interesting.
Less than five minutes later, the blue and white organized an excellent counterattack. Anastasia Shlapakova ran forward, got closer to the goalkeeper Tatyana Shcherbak, punched and ... hit the post. Anastasia Kovaleva was immediately finishing off, but the ball, after bouncing off the bar, went away from her. At that moment it seemed: well, if you don't score like that!...
But, as they say, what is to be, cannot be avoided. And the inevitable happened in the 24th minute - Dynamo opened the account! This was done by the same Anastasia Kovaleva, who took advantage of the gross mistake of the defender of "Loko" Alexandra Lazarevich and the uncertain game at the exit of Tatyana Shcherbak. 1:0 – and the blue and white got what they deserved from the very start of the game!
Despite the fact that the hosts of the RZD Arena did not get much in this match, they reacted to the goal in their own goal in a sporty way - they got angry and went to recoup, organizing even a small five–minute onslaught on the gates of Diana Ponomareva. True, all their attacks were smashed by the cold-blooded actions of the Dynamo defense, in which Milena Nikitina looked the best and most confident, stopping all attempts of the railway workers to break through on her flank. All that Loko could count on in the first half were standard provisions, which, frankly speaking, also contained quite a bit of danger for the blue and white.
Having completed the first half in attack with a series of blows, Dynamo football players with a sense of accomplishment went to rest in order to play at least as well in the second half.
The beginning of the second half in many ways resembled the debut of the match. A calm, even some measured pace of the game could even give rise to the idea that the blue and white in the second half would play according to the score and not get into trouble. Moreover, it was obvious that at least Fomina's wards expect to win back.
But then, as in the first half, something a little predictable happened: Again, a gross mistake by the Loko defenders led to a super moment for Dynamo. True, this time Elena Shesterneva had a great chance to score her ball, but after her shot the ball hit the crossbar and left the field. If the Russian striker had scored at this moment, everything for the hostesses in such a game would have been over at the start of the second half. Interestingly, literally two minutes later, Shesterneva was replaced by another striker – Kaylan Williams.
The American got her opportunity to score after ten minutes: the indefatigable Kovaleva's serve reached her, hit Kaylan with her head into the far corner with one touch, but this time the ball slipped past the bar from the outside.
Meanwhile, the railwaywomen went all in and began to open up even more in order to finally open an account for their goals. Again they attacked the gate of Ponomareva, but the way their game turned out that day, they didn't create a single, in fact, scoring moment in the end. It was obvious that they wanted to recoup as soon as possible, but there was more fuss in their actions than real combinations and some kind of game thought.
In this style, the teams played almost to the very end, where two one hundred percent attacks were supposed to finally close all questions about the winner. In both, the main role was played by Kristina Komissarova, who had recently replaced Kovaleva. Kristina did not realize two one-on-one exits (!), and in both cases Lokomotiv goalkeeper Tatyana Shcherbak left her team in the game. If there was something disturbing in this match, it was, of course, the realization of the moments of the Dynamo players.
Nevertheless, it still did not come to a dramatic denouement. The blue and white took a well-deserved victory at the RZD Arena, and Dynamo coach Alexander Katasonov celebrated his first significant coaching success at the head of the Dynamo club.
For full information about the starting lineups and the events of the meeting, see the match center.
The next match of Dynamo will be played on June 21 – away against the Ryazan-VDV Housing and Communal Complex. The meeting starts at 17:00 Moscow time.
Follow the announcements and news of the team on our website and in the club's social networks!