On a trip to Bishkek in June I got my first taste of football in Kyrgyzstan, at a Kyrgyz Premier League match of the capital’s biggest football club, Dordoi Bishkek.
Just not at the stadium that was announced online.
Or on the day that was announced online.
Or against the same opponents.
The game that transpired was against the mid-table Kyrgyzaltyn — a team that’s part of Kyrgyzstan’s national gold mining company — from the town of Kara-Balta, about 100km west of Bishkek.
Both sides missed a couple of chances in an even first half. Dordoi dominated the whole of the second, but Kyrgyzaltyn looked like hanging on for a point, until they conceded a late penalty. The spot kick was put home by Dordoi’s international midfielder Murolimzhon Akhmedov — once, somehow, of Bangladesh Police FC — as the home team took a 1-0 win.
Whatever I was expecting from a game of football in Central Asia, it didn’t involve being surrounded in the stands by hundreds of schoolchildren waving loud clappers.
And I hadn’t imagined Dordoi coming off the field at half-time to their own personalised Russian-language rap.
I also wasn’t expecting such a good game of football — but perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised that the standard was high: Dordoi Bishkek have played in the Asian Champions League in recent years, and many of the squad, like Akhmedov and the defender Suyuntbek Mamyraliev, play for Kyrgyzstan’s fast-improving national team.
Dordoi finished second in the Kyrgyz league this year — behind Abdysh-Ata from the northern town of Kant, who won their third title in a row.
It would be nice to come back to Bishkek next season and see them go one better. If I can find the right place again.
Jonathan Campion is a writer, journalist, editor and linguist, working in the Eurasia region. Read about his work here, and contact him here.
LIFE IN CENTRAL ASIA 