| Lokomotiv caught up with Torpedo in lost points Despite the defeat from their fellow army team, the capital's Torpedo retained first place in the standings. However, the “black and whites” are leading only in points. Its main rival Lokomotiv, having three points less, keeps in mind the missed game with Spartak.
The last round of the Russian Championship was marked by two coaching debuts. Although Valery Gazzaev, who returned to the post of head coach of CSKA, can be called a newcomer with a big stretch. However, a lot depended on the army team's first game this season under his leadership. Lose to CSKA, and hopes for a second championship in a row would turn into pipe dreams. However, Gazzaev managed to get three points. At times his team left quite a good impression, and several attacking combinations became a complete revelation for the Torpedo defense. Jiri Jarosik took an active part in almost all of them. It seems that the Czech legionnaire, having taken a rest for the first half of the championship, decided to get in shape for the European Cups. And the goals in the last three matches are the best proof of this. In the game against Torpedo, Yarosik failed to score. But the Czech took a direct part in the combination that led to the goal: Olic scored after a lightning attack. The Croatian could have scored a double in this match, but his penalty kick hit Borodin's goal post.
In general, the second coming of Gazzaev took us back to the old days, when his teams, while operating successfully in attack, often failed in defense. And in the first half, CSKA fully corresponded to this image. In the central zone, the army defenders acted extremely inattentively. And this was Torpedo’s chance, which, however, the “black and whites” did not take advantage of. By the end of the meeting, both teams were noticeably tired and relied more on chance than on meaningful actions. But even this kind of game almost saved Torpedo: after Rovneiko’s unexpected shot, the ball crashed into Akinfeev’s goal post.
The second debutant, Dynamo head coach Viktor Bondarenko, also celebrated success. For five matches, Dynamo fans were waiting for victory from their team. And even though no special changes occurred in Dynamo’s lackluster game, the main result was achieved. “I really wanted to break the unsuccessful streak of five games, thanks to the guys. Today the result was above all for us, and we achieved it,” Bondarenko said after the match, not forgetting to praise the Latvian striker Prokhorenkov, who played his first match for Dynamo and returned from exile to Tochilin’s double.
After the defeat of Torpedo, it became clear that one of the pursuers would catch up with the “black and whites”. Who exactly was decided in a head-to-head meeting between Zenit and Lokomotiv. Both teams are now considered the best in Russia in terms of the content of the game, and a lot was expected from this match. In principle, the meeting did not disappoint. The hosts moved forward vigorously, the guests, as expected, responded with sharp counterattacks. And one of them became fatal for Zenit: Sychev scored at Loskov’s suggestion. And then Parks, together with Khokhlov, almost killed the intrigue. However, Malofeev rose to the occasion. And then it was time for Muscovites to worry. But the ball fired by Bystrov hit the post.
Zenit did not give up hope of winning back until the last minute. But the added time brought success to Lokomotiv. Pimenov, again from Loskov's pass, increased the score to a strong 2:0.
Results of the 17th round matches. "Dynamo" - "Alania" - 1:0 (Yashin 69) , "Wings of the Soviets" - "Kuban" - 2:1 (Poshkus 42, 50 - Tlisov 63) , "Zenit" - "Lokomotiv" » -- 0:2 (Sychev 17, Pimenov 90) , Torpedo -- CSKA -- 0:1 (Olic 39) , Rubin -- Rotor -- 1:1 (Novotny 48 -- Esipov 25 ) , "Amkar" - "Saturn" - 1:1 (Pyatibratov 38 - from pen. - Medvedev 62 .
Premier League I V N P M O | 1. "Torpedo" | 17 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 31--15 | 34 | | 2. Zenit | 17 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 32--23 | 33 | | 3. "Lokomotiv" | 16 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 23--11 | 31 | | 4. “Wings of the Soviets” | 17 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 30--26 | 31 | | 5. CSKA | 17 | 8 | 7 | 2 | 28--15 | 31 | | 6. "Saturn" | 17 | 4 | 10 | 3 | 19--15 | 22 | | 7. "Ruby" | 17 | 4 | 8 | 5 | 18--19 | 20 | | 8. Amkar | 17 | 4 | 8 | 5 | 13--22 | 20 | | 9. "Alania" | 16 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 16--20 | 19 | | 10. "Rostov" | 16 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 19--24 | 19 | | 11. Dynamo | 17 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 17--19 | 19 | | 12. "Shinnik" | 15 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 9--13 | 18 | | 13. "Moscow" | 15 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 16--18 | 17 | | 14. "Spartak" | 14 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 22--26 | 15 | | 15. "Kuban" | 17 | 2 | 7 | 8 | 15--25 | 13 | | 16. "Rotor" | 17 | 1 | 4 | 12 | 16--35 | 7 |
Andrey VDOVIN
|
