| CSKA doesn't score, but spends Abramovich's money generously No sooner had the break in the Russian Championship arrived than the teams' forwards took a vacation. In eight matches of the 13th round, only nine goals were scored. Again, without waiting for the break, and with it the pre-application period, the clubs had already opened a transfer war.
As always, the army was the first to go into battle. CSKA, using the heavy artillery of Roman Abramovich's millions, is preparing to deal a crushing blow to football Europe. The army club is close to concluding an agreement with the Brazilian Palmeires to purchase striker Wagner Lowe. The estimated amount of the transaction is $10 million. No Russian club has ever allowed this to happen.
This is not the first attempt by CSKA to get the Brazilian forward. In early spring, the president of the army club, Evgeny Giner, already offered $6.5 million for Wagner. The Russians were refused at Palmeires. And as it turned out, it was not in vain - in three months the price jumped one and a half times. Even earlier, an agreement was reached on the transfer of Serbian midfielder Milos Krasnić for $2 million. But as practice shows, for CSKA money is not the main thing. But what is most important for the army team also remains a secret. In any case, there is no game, the staging of which is required from head coach Arthur Jorge. Just as there is no result expected from the Portuguese. In the last round before the break, CSKA again failed to win. Moreover, the country's champions could not beat the Premier League debutant Perm Amkar, whose budget could well fit into the transfer of that same notorious Wagner. And it would be nice if Jorge’s team attacked throughout the match, so that later they would have the right to complain at least about bad luck. But no, Amkar looked little worse than the national champions and achieved a well-deserved draw.
If the championship table had been compiled taking into account the budget, then Lokomotiv would have settled in second place. In terms of gameplay, Semin doesn’t succeed. Everything, of course, can be blamed on the early start associated with the Champions League. But the reasons are most likely different. Lokomotiv is no longer interested in playing in the Russian Championship. But in vain. It’s just that you can’t beat the same “Wings of the Soviets” due to self-esteem. Especially Krylya Sovetov, which includes a player like Andrei Karyaka. The Samara midfielder, who scored 12 goals in 13 rounds, got into amazing shape. Maybe a little earlier than the fans of the Russian national team wanted. But if Karyak had not played the way he is now, it is likely that he would not have gotten a place in the national team. Now Yartsev should have no questions about who should play on the left flank of midfield in his team.
Well, there would be a fierce struggle for third place in terms of budgets. “Saturn” could lay claim to it, which was prevented from adding to its extensive list of draws by the defeat of “Shinnik”, now headed by Oleg Dolmatov. Spartak could also get involved, whose sixth defeat in a row, in fact, puts an end to the Russian career of Italian coach Nevio Scala. Or maybe Rubin, which is paying for last year’s takeoff, would be among the top three budget winners.
Perhaps it is for the best that the amounts of budget expenditure items do not determine the result. It may be that this is just a sign of the starting segment of the championship, which Torpedo finished as the sole leader. One can endlessly argue whether this is a coincidence of circumstances or the result of painstaking work, whether the torpedo men occupied the first line for a long time or whether they will give up their positions after a few rounds. In the meantime, Torpedo is holding on, not allowing itself to lose “its” points. It holds on despite the short bench, despite the ambitions of its millionaire rivals and Zenit constantly breathing down its back.
The St. Petersburg team seems to have firmly decided that this is their Russian Championship. Now is not the time to think about the five-match disqualification of Vladislav Radimov - they will remember about him after the European Championship, and only if Zenit starts losing. In the meantime, the “blue-white-blues” do not regret the loss of their captain. Of course, Zenit has Alexander Kerzhakov, whose shots bring the team the second victory in a row. There is also Vlastimil Petrzhela, who refused to lead the foreign team during the last friendly match of Yartsev’s team before the continental championship. Maybe that's right. It’s hard to imagine Petrzhela at the head of a beach team whose job is to cheer up the Russian team before their trip to Portugal.
Results of the 13th round matches. "Wings of the Soviets" - "Lokomotiv" - 1:0 (Karyaka 23), "Amkar" - CSKA - 0:0, "Zenit" - "Kuban" - 1:0 (Kerzhakov 39), " Dynamo - Rostov - 0:1 (Dantsev 65), Spartak - Alania - 0:1 (Korytko 29), Shinnik - Saturn - 1:0 (Dubinsky 80), "Torpedo" - "Rotor" - 1:0 (Oper 70), "Rubin" - "Torpedo-Metallurg" - 3:0 (Dostalek 51, Bayramov 81, 83) .
Premier League I V N P M O | 1. "Torpedo" | 13 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 26--9 | 30 | | 2. Zenit | 13 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 25--16 | 27 | | 3. CSKA | 13 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 20--10 | 24 | | 4. "Lokomotiv" | 13 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 16--9 | 22 | | 5. “Wings of the Soviets” | 13 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 21--21 | 22 | | 6. "Alania" | 13 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 12--12 | 19 | | 7. "Saturn" | 13 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 15--12 | 16 | | 8. Dynamo | 13 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 14--13 | 15 | | 9. "Amkar" | 13 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 10--16 | 15 | | 10. "Spartak" | 13 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 21--25 | 14 | | 11. “Torpedo-Metallurgist” | 13 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 15--17 | 14 | | 12. "Shinnik" | 13 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 7--12 | 14 | | 13. "Rostov" | 13 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 14--21 | 13 | | 14. "Ruby" | 13 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 14--14 | 13 | | 15. "Kuban" | 13 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 12--19 | 11 | | 16. "Rotor" | 13 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 14--30 | 6 |
Andrey VDOVIN
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