Translated material
Control of leadership qualities
Favorites let Moscow ahead again
Far Eastern “Luch” set about straightening out its tournament situation with renewed energy. In the last two rounds in the Far East, two leaders were successively defeated - CSKA and Lokomotiv, and the standings in terms of lost points are again headed by Moscow, which beat the third titan of metropolitan football, Spartak.The revival of "Luch" came as a surprise to his opponents. This year, Sergei Pavlov's team is no longer so convincing at home, and it seemed that the recipe for guest success in Vladivostok had been found: the main thing is to arrive on the day of the match and live according to Moscow time, not paying attention to the seven-hour difference. But as soon as Primorye Governor Sergei Darkin had a tough talk with the head coach, the home field factor began to work again.
In the 13th round, even a careful study of the recording of the CSKA fiasco did not save Lokomotiv from defeat. “History shows that it is almost impossible to learn from other people’s mistakes,” Lokomotiv coach Anatoly Byshovets was left to philosophize, who said that the quality of his team’s play was influenced by a whole range of factors. Which ones exactly, Byshovets refused to specify. But his players were more or less active only in the second half of the match, when they were already losing the lead. “Luch,” in turn, wisely took advantage of the situation and, playing on counterattacks, punished the opponent for his disrespectful attitude.
Lokomotiv can console itself with the fact that it is not the only one of the leaders who lost points in the 13th round. Zenit missed out on victory in the last minutes on the road in Khimki, and CSKA didn’t even come close to it in the home match with Tom. “I can’t explain the latest results of the leaders,” even Dick Advocaat was surprised at the density in the standings. -- We knew the results of the games between CSKA and Lokomotiv, and this gave us additional motivation in the match with Khimki. There was a good chance to come out on top, but we couldn't take advantage of it."
It failed due to a shot from Shirokov, who finished the ball into Malafeev’s goal in the 90th minute after a protracted attack by the hosts. Prior to this, Zenit completely controlled the course of the match, gaining an advantage in the 11th minute - Tymoshchuk converted a penalty for a dubious foul on Arshavin. Khimki, whose head coach Vladimir Kazachenok was in the hospital at that moment, were able to equalize the score and immediately conceded again from Arshavin. Zenit should have brought the match to victory, if not for the inattention of the defenders and lack of luck - already in stoppage time, Zyryanov’s shot hit the crossbar.
But all the local failures of Lokomotiv, CSKA and Zenit pale in comparison to Spartak’s six-game winless streak. The Red-Whites last won on May 6 against Rubin thanks to Boyarintsev’s stray shot, and fortune never gave such gifts to Vladimir Fedotov’s team. So it is possible that from the next round Spartak will be led by a different head coach.
So far, under the current leadership, the team has once again failed to create a single scoring chance at the Moscow goal. The number of errors in the center of defense and midfield exceeded the critical level so much that Spartak could well have lost with a larger score than 0:2. Both goals were scored in the first half of the game. First, Semak took advantage of the inconsistency of the Spartak team when committing an artificial offside, and then Adamov trampled Shishkin and set the final score. The seventy remaining minutes were not enough for Fedotov's team to change the result or at least improve the game.
“You see the result on the scoreboard, there is no game,” club owner Leonid Fedun gave his brief but promising comment immediately after Spartak’s next defeat from Moscow and, in the company of sports director Stanislav Cherchesov, left the stadium.
Results of the 13th round matches. "Spartak" Nch - "Amkar" - 0:1 (Belorukov 59) , "Rubin" - "Wings of the Soviets" - 1:0 (Ryazantsev 42) , "Saturn" - "Rostov" - 1: 0 (Kirichenko 28) , "Luch-Energia" - "Lokomotiv" - 3:0 (A. Ivanov 9, 66, Sheshukov 88) , CSKA - "Tom" - 0:0, "Khimki" - "Zenit" - 2:2 (An. Arkhipov 60, Shirokov 90 - Timoshchuk 11 with pen., Arshavin 69) , "Moscow" - "Spartak" - 2:0 (Semak 9, Adamov 21) . The match "Kuban" - "Dynamo" ended after the issue was signed for printing.
| 1. CSKA | 13 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 18--13 | 21 |
| 2. Zenit | 13 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 18--15 | 21 |
| 3. "Moscow" | 12 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 11--7 | 20 |
| 4. Spartak M | 13 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 14--14 | 20 |
| 5. “Wings of the Soviets” | 13 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 14--11 | 19 |
| 6. Lokomotiv M | 12 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 11--12 | 17 |
| 7. Khimki | 13 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 14--13 | 16 |
| 8. Dynamo | 12 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 12--13 | 16 |
| 9. "Kuban" | 12 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 12--11 | 16 |
| 10. “Beam-Energy” | 13 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 12--13 | 15 |
| 11. "Amkar" | 12 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 13--11 | 15 |
| 12. "Tom" | 13 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 14--14 | 15 |
| 13. "Ruby" | 13 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 12--15 | 14 |
| 14. "Saturn" | 12 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 11--12 | 14 |
| 15. "Spartak" LF | 13 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 7--13 | 12 |
| 16. "Rostov" | 13 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 10--16 | 10 |
Excluding the match "Kuban" - "Dynamo".