Translated material
Catch up and overtake
Anyone can become a leader in the Russian Championship
The leaders in the Russian championship change in each round. A couple of weeks ago, Moscow topped the standings, then Zenit and Torpedo joined it, and yesterday Spartak climbed to the very top. Such frequent changes of leaders are quite natural. There is no team in Russia now that can be called unconditionally the best. Two successful games and you're at the top. One wrong move - and again only in a large group of pursuers.Spartak took the lead with one single goal. But it is worth a lot, since it was scored in Tomsk, where the local Tom not only have not lost in this championship, but have not even conceded a single goal. In the Siberian city, CSKA and Shinnik failed to score, and Zenit, which was gaining momentum at that moment, suffered its first defeat in the championship. It’s difficult to say what confuses guests in Tomsk so much. Either the live heavyweight horse Lazurny, who is brought out for luck before every home match, or the quality of the football field, which really looks more like a pasture for the team’s four-legged mascot. But in the 8th round of the championship, Tom still conceded at home, and this goal became decisive in the match between the Premier League debutant and the most titled club in the country. Cavenaghi, who received a place in Pavlenko’s lineup due to an injury, scored in the 77th minute, converting almost his team’s only chance in this match.
We have already become unaccustomed to Spartak, which is at the top of the standings. But they began to get used to Dynamo’s defeats. In the last round, Romantsev’s team lost the fourth match in a row. As in previous matches, I lost on purpose. “Amkar,” which seemed to remember well how last fall, saving “Dynamo” from relegation, was “nailed” in Moscow, decided to get even with the “blue and whites.” Moreover, in this match the referee has already made key decisions in controversial situations in favor of the guests. The referees did not count Derlei's goal, scored when the score was 1:1, and literally in the response attack Amkar gained the right to strike from the 11-meter mark. And again, the penalty was not at all certain. But it can hardly be said that Amkar won undeservedly. In almost all combats, the guests came out victorious, and Dynamo with all its Portuguese players, by and large, had no chance of winning back.
It is unlikely that Oleg Romantsev did not appear at the post-match press conference as a sign of protest against the refereeing. By the way, for the first time during my work at Dynamo. Surely the most titled coach in Russia still understands what his team is like now, and therefore considered it unnecessary to again complain about the referees and bad luck.
But who fortune smiled on in this round was “Alania”. Last week, the Vladikavkaz club was not licensed by the RFU due to the fact that it had not resolved a number of financial issues. As the team managers assure, the cost of these issues is 400 thousand dollars. Money for a Premier League club is ridiculous, and therefore Alania, having filed an appeal against the decision of the RFU, is counting on a review of the case in its favor. Most likely, the Vladikavkaz team will get out of this situation, as they did in yesterday’s match with Rubin. During this meeting, Alania lost with a score of 0:2 and 1:3, but by an incredible coincidence, managed to score three goals and win a hopeless match.
Results of the 8th round matches. "Dynamo" - "Amkar" - 1:2 ( Siseru 16 - Linkar 23, Pyatibratov 52 - from pen. ), "Lokomotiv" - "Rostov" - 4:0 ( Evseev 50, Loskov 60 - - from pen., 68, Khokhlov 85 ), "Tom" - "Spartak" - 0:1 ( Pavlenko 77 ), "Alania" - "Rubin" - 4:3 ( D. Bazaev, 55, G " Moscow" -- 0:0.
Russian Championship
| 1. "Spartak" | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 15--6 | 16 |
| 2. "Moscow" | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 6--1 | 15 |
| 3. "Torpedo" | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 12--4 | 14 |
| 4. Zenit | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 15--9 | 14 |
| 5. "Lokomotiv" | 8 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 9--2 | 14 |
| 6. “Wings of the Soviets” | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 7--8 | 12 |
| 7. "Ruby" | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 9--10 | 11 |
| 8. "Saturn" | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7--5 | 10 |
| 9. "Amkar" | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 6--8 | 10 |
| 10. Dynamo | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 8--16 | 9 |
| 11. "Tom" | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 5--7 | 9 |
| 12. CSKA | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 8--1 | 8 |
| 13. "Alania" | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 8--17 | 7 |
| 14. "Terek" | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 5--14 | 7 |
| 15. "Shinnik" | 7 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 6--7 | 7 |
| 16. "Rostov" | 8 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 4--15 | 2 |