Dynamo Bureau: how the blue and white started the preseason

The players of Dynamo Moscow have finished the pre-season tournament in the UAE, which took place as part of the first winter training camp. Rolan Gusev's team drew in regular time with two Chinese clubs, winning and losing once in penalty shootouts — Shanghai Shenhua (2:2, 5 on penalties:3) and Chengdu Rongcheng (1:1, 3:4 on penalties ). The last of the two meetings took place on the evening of January 26. These games were the first for the blue and white team under the new coaching staff.

The preparatory period

Even before the start of the BetBoom Dynamo Global Challenge tournament, Dynamo head coach Rolan Gusev noted the importance of this event in terms of preparing the team for the second part of the season. The club is located in Dubai, where it conducts daily training sessions. He will also train there at the next two training camps, which will be held in February.

However, for the matches against the Chinese, the players, coaches and staff had to travel for more than an hour to Abu Dhabi, where the matches were held at the Banyas Stadium. Every coach of any team constantly emphasizes the importance of high-quality sparring during training camps. The Dynamo management managed to provide their team with such an opportunity from the very beginning of the preparation — within the framework of the tournament organized by the club and its title partner, BetBoom, they managed to play with rivals from the top 3 of the Chinese championship.

Leonid Slutsky's Shanghai Shenhua was second in its league in the previous two years, and Chengdu Rongcheng was third. Last season, 2025, both clubs competed for the championship until the last rounds, but lost the gold to Shanghai Porto.

The first game on January 23 was very unstable for Dynamo. They entered the field with the strongest team, but missed in the 2nd minute due to uncoordinated defensive actions. Two minutes later, Bitello equalized. Just before halftime, another defensive lapse led to the second goal of the Chinese, but immediately after leaving the locker room, the score again became equal through the efforts of Ivan Sergeev.

Apart from two defensive errors, Dynamo had an overwhelming advantage in scoring chances. But most of them did not realize, so it came to a penalty shootout. Except for one shot above the goal, played by a Shanghai player, everything was accurate. And in the end, the blue and white team won 5-3.

In the second half, Roland Gusev conducted a wide rotation of the squad, releasing many young players. It was also on January 26, when Dynamo met Chengdu. It is worth noting that all four goalkeepers were allowed to play in halftime in these matches.

Andrey Lunev came on for the first half against Shanghai. He was replaced by Igor Leschuk, who played the second half and a penalty shootout. Kurban Rasulov started against Chengdu, and after the break Andrei Kudravets took his place. He also played in the penalty shootout. Once again, there were no goalkeeper saves on either side, but this time Dynamo had two misses and the opponent had one. As a result, after a 1-1 draw in regular time, Chengdu prevailed on penalties 4:3.

"It turned out to be a very balanced mini—tournament," Pavel Pivovarov, Dynamo's general director, said after the second match. — Everything was decided again in a lottery — a penalty shootout. Both matches are pretty equal. Good load, good game. A lot of running work. These two matches have been an asset for our players.

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Novices and students

The recent matches with Chinese clubs, as well as the entire training camp in Dubai, are the beginning of the work of the new head coach Rolan Gusev and his assistants. He was confirmed in this position, and before that, in 2025, he played four matches as acting coach — in May after Marcel Lichka's dismissal and in November-December after Valery Karpin's resignation. Gusev has worked as an assistant for both his predecessors since 2023.

When he was a player, Gusev was the leader of Dynamo Moscow, played for the national team at the 2004 European Championship and won the 2005 UEFA Cup with CSKA. Two more legends joined his staff — the winner of the same UEFA Cup with CSKA, the semi-finalist of the 2008 European Championship, Yuri Zhirkov, and the two-time champion of Russia, participant of the 2004 European Championship with Rubin Kazan, Roman Sharonov.

The new physical training coach is Argentine Agustin Kiillaborda. His assistant Juan Gomez also came with him. On January 25, Dynamo held an open training session in Dubai, where it was possible to see how actively and in detail both OFP specialists explain the exercises to the players and monitor their execution. Kiiljaborda has already started giving some instructions in Russian.

The entire process was monitored by the club's management — Alexander Ivlev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dynamo Moscow, and Pavel Pivovarov, CEO, were present at both matches and an open training session.

The day before the first game, Pivovarov held a presentation of the new coaching staff, and then, together with Gusev, presented the first rookie of the team signed this winter, the Brazilian defender David Ricardo. The 23-year-old footballer transferred from Botafogo. Dynamo managed to beat Italian Torino in the fight for him. Ricardo himself has not played with Chinese clubs, but he is due to make his debut for his new club soon.

"I am very glad to be at Dynamo — it is a great honor for me to play for such a great club," the Brazilian newcomer told Izvestia. — I really hope to start playing for my new team soon and I will do everything to help it succeed.

Dynamo's RPL season will resume on February 28, when the blue and white will play at home with the Samara Wings of the Soviets. So far, the team is in 10th place in the championship after 18 rounds. She also continues to fight in the "RPL Way" of the Russian Cup — in March she will have two semifinal matches with Spartak Moscow.