| CSKA, Spartak and Lokomotiv pushed aside Nalchik At the beginning of the second round, the Russian championship standings begin to take on a predictable form: CSKA is first, Spartak Moscow is second, Lokomotiv is third. In turn, the main troublemaker “Spartak” from Nalchik began a progressive downward movement. Having lost to the army team, the Premier League debutants dropped to fourth place, and in the next rounds they will still meet with all the other European Cup participants from Russia - the capital's Spartak and Lokomotiv, as well as Kazan's Rubin.
And all this against the backdrop of regular judicial scandals that are reaching a new level. But the exemplary punishment of referee Kulalaev (details on page 11) did not help Spartak. In the next match, the referees again made a mistake in favor of the rivals of Vladimir Fedotov's team. The “Red-Whites” were not saved even by the fact that their match in Vladivostok with “Luch-Energia” was officiated by the Japanese referee Tora Kamikawa. True, it turned out to be very original: the referee in the field was foreign, and the judges on the line were ours, domestic, with all the ensuing consequences. It was one of the linesmen who did not see how, at the beginning of the first half, the ball, after Bazhenov’s shot, ricocheted off the goal line and then flew into the field. So the Spartak goal at the beginning of the match was not counted, but at the very end of the match the goal scored by Luch forward Monarev was obvious, and the hosts, winning 1:0, took three more points in Vladivostok.
Spartak head coach Vladimir Fedotov did not protest. I just noticed that it would be nice for Russian judges to improve their physical shape. The Red-White coach has no time for scandals now. On Wednesday, Spartak will play the return match with the Czech Slovan for access to the group stage of the Champions League. And this game will be decisive for many Spartak players - the club’s owners are very much counting on participation in the main tournament of the continent. Largely because of this, Spartak, having decided to sacrifice points in the match with Luch, did not take more than half of the main team to Vladivostok - Cavenaghi, Mozart, Kovacs and Stranzl. In addition, Pavlyuchenko missed the match due to disqualification, Jenchi and Pianovich were injured, and the team does not count on a quick recovery for Titov, Bystrov and Quincy. So Fedotov will have to think about what lineup he will field on Wednesday for the match with Slovan.
CSKA head coach Valery Gazzaev has no such problems. The result of the first match with Ruzomberok (3:0) is quite conducive to experimentation. But at the same time, the mood with which the army team spent the first half of the last round game with Spartak from Nalchik should alert Valery Georgievich. Leaving a third of the Brazilian national team on the bench (Carvalho, Dudu and Vagner Love were called up to the next training camp of the national team), Gazzaev was unable to make do with the rest of his strength, and CSKA quite naturally lost the first half 0:1, falling for one of the sharp counterattacks of the guests. In order to rectify the situation, it took the entire Brazilian landing party, including Jo. The championship's top scorer, who stopped at the fatal mark of 13 goals scored a month and a half ago, equalized the score, breaking his long dry streak. It happened in the 79th minute. And after another four minutes, Vagner Love took his chance, converting a one-on-one situation.
Lokomotiv also achieved victory. Moreover, Muslin’s team was opposed by the rather formidable “Wings of the Soviets”. But goals from veteran Gurenko and newcomer Asildarov allowed Loko to win a difficult victory - 2:1 and rise to third place in the standings. “We wanted to take revenge for the defeat in Moscow, and we succeeded,” Slavolub Muslin was pleased. - We played better than our opponents. In the second half we quickly managed to score two goals, but we played more defensively than was required of the players. After the goals there was no intention to step back.” By the way, by going on the defensive, the guests could have lost the victory, and “Wings”, who spent the last minutes attacking but only managed to reduce the difference in the score, may well complain about bad luck.
Nevertheless, Lokomotiv is in the top three. And somewhere nearby there is already Zenit. The St. Petersburg club has a very aggressive selection policy. In addition to two players from the Korean national team and a forward from the Turkish national team, the team included the famous Dutch midfielder Fernando Ricksen, loaned for a year from Glasgow Rangers. In addition, Zenit is showing interest in Juventus striker Marcelo Salayete. The Uruguayan forward doesn’t seem to mind moving to Russia, but Zenit doesn’t seem to need a fifth forward, including the recently acquired Alexander Panov. But if an agreement is reached with Juventus, then it is likely that the St. Petersburg club will still part with one of its leaders, Alexander Kerzhakov. The Russian national team forward received an offer from Newcastle. The English club is ready to pay up to 10 million euros for the Russian striker. If this is really the case, then Kerzhakov will become the most expensive Russian football player - at the moment this unofficial title is held by Igor Semshov, bought by Alexei Fedorychev for Dynamo.
One way or another, Kerzhakov did not appear in the starting lineup of Zenit for the match with Saturn. And it was quite difficult for his team. The hosts had at least two excellent chances in the first half, but in both cases, Zenit was helped out by Vyacheslav Malafeev. After the break, Kerzhakov appeared on the field, and a completely different game began. Now Antonin Kinski had to save his team. And the main time of the match had already expired, “Saturn” missed a sharp attack and Polovinchuk only stopped Kerzhakov, who was rushing to the goal, at the cost of being sent off. But at the cost of this red card, the Moscow region team earned a draw - 0:0.
Among the rest of the results of the tour, Dynamo’s second victory in the championship can be highlighted. Andrei Kobelev's team beat Shinnik, which was practically doomed to relegation, 2:1. The winning goal was scored by Derlei, who managed to hit the Yaroslavl goal a few minutes before the final whistle. Although before this the Brazilian was injured and could have left the field. “I asked him whether he could finish the game, he said that he could, so I didn’t see the point in changing him,” Dynamo head coach Andrei Kobelev recounted the dialogue with Derlei. - We trust every football player who takes the field, and we trust to the end. It was clear that the man was in good spirits and moving well. Why then remove it?
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Results of the 16th round matches. "Luch-Energia" - "Spartak" M - 1:0 (Monarev 88) , CSKA - "Spartak" N - 2:1 (Jo 79, Vagner Love 83 - Kontsedalov 44) , "Shinnik" - - "Dynamo" - 1:2 (Gorak 71 - Romashchenko 15, Derley 88) , "Wings of the Soviets" - "Lokomotiv" - 1:2 (Gusin 82 - Gurenko 47, Asildarov 58) , "Tom" -- "Torpedo" -- 0:0, "Amkar" -- "Moscow" -- 2:2 (Savin 31, 52 -- Adamov 65, Semak 70) , "Saturn" -- "Zenit" -- 0: 0, "Rostov" -- "Rubin" -- 2:1 (Osinov 10 penal, Kalachev 28 -- Dominguez 37 penal)
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Premier League I V N P M O | 1. CSKA | 17 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 28--15 | 34 | | 2. Spartak M | 17 | 8 | 7 | 2 | 36--22 | 31 | | 3. "Lokomotiv" | 17 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 30--20 | 30 | | 4. "Spartak" N | 17 | 8 | 4 | 5 | 25--19 | 28 | | 5. "Tom" | 17 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 19--15 | 25 | | 6. "Beam-Energy" | 17 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 22--20 | 24 | | 7. “Wings of the Soviets” | 17 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 26--21 | 24 | | 8. "Ruby" | 17 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 19--21 | 24 | | 9. Zenit | 17 | 5 | 9 | 3 | 21--19 | 24 | | 10. "Moscow" | 17 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 19--20 | 23 | | 11. "Saturn" | 17 | 3 | 11 | 3 | 15--13 | 20 | | 12. "Rostov" | 17 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 23--29 | 19 | | 13. "Torpedo" | 17 | 2 | 9 | 6 | 15--21 | 15 | | 14. "Amkar" | 17 | 2 | 8 | 7 | 11--25 | 14 | | 15. Dynamo | 17 | 2 | 7 | 8 | 14--24 | 13 | | 16. "Shinnik" | 17 | 1 | 5 | 11 | 9--28 | 8 |
Andrey VDOVIN
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