In the world of football, Orenburg is perhaps most known for being the birthplace of legendary Lokomotiv Moscow Head Coach Yuri Semin, but since the beginning of this season, the city, that is located near the border to Kazakhstan, has also been the home of a Russian Football Premier League (RFPL) club – FC Orenburg.
Until May, Orenburg was named Gazovik, and their promotion didn’t happen without drama. Due to the fact that the club was, and is, sponsored and owned by the LLC Gazprom-Orenburg, a subsidiary company of Zenit owner and main sponsor Gazprom, Russia’s Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko spoke about the problems with one actor having an interest in two different clubs competing in the same division. To prove they were independent from Gazprom and Zenit, Gazovik changed their name to Orenburg, and the rest is history.
The story of Orenburg is, unlike most others in Russian football, the story of a club who has taken the time to develop gradually and with patience. After spending most of the 90s and 00s in the third and second division, Orenburg earned promotion to the second tier, the Football National League (FNL), for the 2011/2012 season. They only lasted a single season before finishing 16th with just 14 victories in 48 matches.
Back in the second division, the club made one of their most important moves in a long time, when they hired former journeyman defender Robert Evdokimov as Head Coach. During his active career lasting between 1987 and 2004, Evdokimov had represented 15 different clubs, including Spartak Moscow with whom he won a Russian championship during his only season at the club in 1997.
With Evdokimov on the sideline, Orenburg won promotion back to the FNL the following season, where they earned two fifth places in a row before finally winning the division last season. Following the promotion, Orenburg could especially thank striker Artyom Delkin, who had joined the club from FK Tyumen prior to the season, as he got his big breakthrough after a couple of meager years with first Krylya Sovetov and then Tyumen by scoring 16 goals and becoming top scorer in the division.
Despite the impressive manor in which the promotion was secured, 86 points in 38 games, which was by far the highest during the current structure of the league, Orenburg have struggled in the RFPL. One-third into the season, the Blue-Whites are 15th after just winning one game. To make things even worse, they have just scored six goals, and both Delkin and his striking partners Aleksandr Prudnikov and Anzur Sanaya remain goalless.
Nevertheless, it seems that the national team break suited Evdokimov’s men well, as they defeated Tom Tomsk 3-1 last weekend after a fantastic hattrick by Belarussian midfielder Pavel Nekhajchik, and considering the fact that Orenburg have only conceded ten goals this season, three of these coming against Spartak back in September, they will aim at making the game difficult for Zenit with their solid defensive organization and structure.
Toke is Editor-in-chief over at russianfootballnews.com, be sure to check it out for all your RFPL needs.