Digest
Week 31 · 27 July — 2 August 2026
This week: 6 texts, 1 match. Everything in order below, with links.
Matches of the week
· RPL · Matchday 2 · Rostec Arena, Kaliningrad
Three takeaways
- 2:1 — the first win over Dynamo Moscow in official matches in 71 years.
- 28% possession, but the win was built from a set-piece routine and a penalty: without Borisko and Andrade the house still stood.
- The main system turned out not to be a midfield pair, but Talalaev’s game itself.
Texts of the week
-
No ball, no Borisko, no Andrade. How Baltika beat Dynamo Moscow for the first time
28% possession, a win built from a set-piece routine and a penalty, and ratings for every player.
-
Three weeks ago he captained Grenoble. Now he is Baltika's most expensive signing of the summer
On 12 July Loris Mouyokolo led Grenoble out with the armband. On 19 July the pre-season bus left without him: the defender was joining Baltika for 1.5 million euros.
-
The transfer that never happened. Why Ramdaoui spent three days in Russia and turned Baltika down
Mohamed El Amine Ramdaoui flew to Moscow, passed his medical and three days later flew back to Algeria without seeing Kaliningrad.
-
The circle closes: why Latyshonok's return is not a step back
Twice in seven years Baltika took a goalkeeper nobody knew and turned him into one of the best in the country. Now it tries a third time — with the man it all started with.
-
Offor was asked to find a new club. He answered with an RPL record
On 24 July 2026 Chinonso Offor scored against CSKA after 35 seconds — the fastest first goal of a season in Russian league history. A month earlier Baltika had asked him to leave.
-
Borscht, Levin and a goal after 35 seconds. My first evening in an RPL press box
Notes from a Kaliningrad writer in a Moscow press box — a place where football has to be experienced a little more quietly than usual.