retired_-pearl-

My, that's not supposed to happen


Three days later, we hosted Krylja Sovetov in a televised Premiership match. Sovetov’s defense is one of the better one’s in the division, and they showed their class tonight. Our wingers were bottled up all night, and Kerzhakov was starved of service up front. However, it only takes one moment of magic to change the course of the game, and Arshavin and Kerzhakov provided it with a couple one-touch passes finding the Russian assassin all the room he needed to give us the three points.
Zenith St. Petersburg 1, Krylja Sovetov 0

On the 22nd, we traveled to Rostov. Winning brings with it excellent momentum, and we fired three first half goals past the shell-shocked Rostov goalie to ease to victory. Alexandr Kerzhakov had two in the opening twenty minutes, which brought him only two goals behind Derlei for the lead in the division.
Rostov 0, Zenith St. Petersburg 3

Thankfully, my players have the rest of the month off. Russian games seem to come in bunches, primarily because most players will end up playing half as many cup games as league games – and that doesn’t even include Europe, which most Russian teams don’t need to worry about – even the good ones ☹.

retired_-pearl-

July 2005

July dawned with a birthday present for yours truly as one of my rivals deadliest strikers departed our shores. I invited Ivica to my party for some cake and punch and toldhim the only present he needed to bring was his plane ticket to England, but he respectfully declined.

Crystal Palace have come snooping around Pavel Mares and Radel Sirl. Doubtless looking to bolster their squad to survive another year in the Premiership. I name a respectful £2.2M figure for Mares and ask for a similar figure, along with internet-legend Aki Riihilati, for the 24 year old Sirl.

Unfortunately, all of this attention has unsettled Sirl, and he has expressed his desire to move to a bigger club. I, of course, placed him on the transfer list and had Hagen beat him around in practice a-bit. When all you have is an angry Norwegian, every problem looks like it could be solved by an ass kicking.

Our next four games should be an interesting test for us. All against capital teams, we open up with the mediocre Torpedo Moscow – before getting the meat of the schedule with games against Lokomotiv, CSKA and Dinamo.

On the 6th, we hosted Torpedo Moscow at Petrovsky. Things started poorly for the visitors when Andrey Stepanov sent the ball into the wrong net only seven minutes into the game. Things got worse when Arshavin and Kerzhakov linked up yet again and Kerzhakov put another notch on the goalpost with a competently taken goal. Olexandr Gorshkov got himself on the scoresheet in the second half to complete the rout and Torpedo Moscow, who’d started with a challenge for Europe, now sank into the lower half of the league.
Final : Zenith St. Petersburg 3, Torpedo Moscow

Kerzhakov picked up a stupid yellow late in the last match, which means he’ll miss the crucial clash with Spartak. With my best player out, I was forced into playing Arshavin at the top, and hoping to steal a goal. We opened well against the title challengers, but without Kerzhakov, we were once again lacking in front of goal. Spartak sensed our weakness, and looked to take advantage, but our defense has been the stingiest in the league, and Spartak would need more than they brought today to breach it. In the 66th minute, Arshavin slipped his marker and was bearing down on goal when he was thrown down from behind in the area. Olexandr Spivak doesn’t miss penalties, and we’d won ourselves a fantastic victory over another top of the table team.
Final : Zenith St. Petersburg 1, Spartak Moscow

The fantastic victory over Spartak brings us to fifteen league games gone for us – half the schedule so far. With that victory, we moved up into clear second in the table – only one point behind Lokomotiv. However, we have a game in hand on them against CSKA in a week’s time.

In the interim, Palace have come back for Mares, offering £1.9M for the fullback. I accept the offer, and phone Mares agent to let him know he can begin negotiations. Palace have refused to follow up on Sirl, doubtless because they value Riihilati so much.

July 16th saw us in Moscow facing off against Dinamo Moscow, who are still stubbornly clinging to a title challenge on the back of Derlei’s goal scoring feats. The uncapped Brazilian has hit the net 13 times in his clubs 16 games so far, yet been largely anonymous against us. This would definitely be a game to remember for the traveling contingent of Zenith fans as we recorded a famous victory. Olexandr Gorshkov got things off to a rollicking start by heading in from a corner and added his second only minutes later in similar fashion. The veteran Ukrainian completed maybe his best half of football ever; scoring a simple strike from the edge of the box after a flowing Zenith move to record a hattrick for the anchorman. The Dinamo coach made wholesale changes at halftime, which backfired in impressive fashion. Only five minutes into the half, the Dinamo goalkeeper cynically yanked down Kerzhakov in the box and was sent off. With all three substitutes made already Dinamo were screwed. Spivak converted the penalty kick for a four-goal cushion. Kerzhakov added two and assisted another for Denisov as we pretty much insulted the Dinamo team at their own place.
Final : Dinamo Moscow 0, Zenith St. Petersburg 7

We set all sorts of records in that one, and really embarrassed Dinamo in front of their own fans. Given the circumstances of the last four goals, most fans didn’t boo the home team for the record loss, and the surreal second half also obscured the fact that we were up 3-0 at halftime and certainly looked like adding more in the second half, real goalie in the net or not.

In a novel experience for us, we had a whole week off before hosting CSKA. We got our traditional early goal as Kerzhakov continued his incredible July by weaving a way through the Moscow defense to slot in the opener. CSKA are a quality team though, and right before halftime Daniel Carvalho picked up the trash on a cleared corner kick and swerved in a goal of the season candidate to square things up. It was definitely against the run of play, as without Olic up front, they didn’t have the same physical presence and their tricky Brazilians can’t bamboozle my defense if they’re knocked to the turf. The second goal for us was almost anti-climactic, as Kerzhakov poached an Arshavin rebound to give us the lead, the win, and the top of the table.
Zenith St. Petersburg 2, CSKA Moscow 1

For those of you counting, that’s six games so far against CSKA, and four against Dinamo Moscow. We’ve won three of four games against Dinamo, with a 12-0 aggregate scoreline; and taken four of six CSKA, with an 11-4 aggregate scoreline. Both teams will have to wait until 2006 to get another shot at us.

Prior to our last game of the month, I received word that Pavel Mares had agreed to terms with Palace, and was only awaiting a work permit – the hearing was provisionally scheduled to early on the 8th of August. Mares has started in the last few Czech internationals, so I expect him to get it without a problem.

Russian teams start their foray into European competition on the 27th, as CSKA Moscow hosted Croatian side HNK Hajduk in the second round of Champion’s League qualifying. A stale 0-0 draw favors the Croatian side to advance and leave Russia’s co-efficient at crap. Lokomotiv, Rubin and us will all contest the second round of UEFA Cup qualifiers, to be held in August.

The draw for the Second Qualifying Round was conducted, and we drew Albanian side Dinamo Tirana; Lokomotiv will square off against a Cypriot side, and Rubin drew Pasching, from Austria. Both Zenith and Lokomotiv will be considered favorites to advance to the UEFA Cup proper, while Rubin will have an uphill struggle.

We traveled to Alania on the 30th to contest the last game of the month for us. An excellent month got even better, as Alexandr Kerzhakov starred with a brilliant hattrick to keep a top the division, only two points ahead of Lokomotiv.
Alania 1, Zenith St. Petersburg 5

retired_-pearl-

August 2005

Monthly awards are handed out by the Russian Football Association, and despite our league leading form, we’d been denied anything but token spots in the Team of the Month – until July. Alexandr Kerzhakov’s historic July was enough for him to edge out teammate Andrey Arshavin for the Player of the Month award.

On the 3rd of the month, CSKA Moscow were bounced out of Europe 3-1 by Hajduk. Congrats. Spend a ton of money to produce a plethora of gutless, uninspired performances in the league culminating in the embarrassing Champion’s League exit. On one hand, they’re probably the Russian side with the best chance of advancing in Europe, which will doubtless raise our coefficient and a rising tide lifts all boats. On the other hand, they’re not Zenith – so they can go screw themselves.

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August 6th, 2005
Russian Premier League, Match 20
Zenith St. Petersburg vs Lokomotiv Moscow

Zenith(4-1-4-1): Malafeev; Fuzailov, Mares, Hagen, Krizanac; Gorshkov(Denisov); Bystrov(Sumulikoski), Spivak, Radimov, Arshavin; Kerzhakov.

No. 1 vs No. 2. Currently two points ahead of Lokomotiv, this is a chance for us to slip away from them, and hopefully run and hide. On the other hand, a draw sees us maintain the slim lead, and a loss will take Lokomotiv past us – the consequences of which, I do not wish to contemplate. We’ve been fast starters the whole season, and this game was no different. Less than ten minutes in Arshavin played Spivak through to the byline, where the wily Ukrainian winger crossed it back for his wily Ukrainian teammate Gorshkov. Gorshkov, making a late run, was completely unmarked and hit a thunderous volley that left the goalkeeper stranded and our fans in rapture. Zenith 1 – 0 Lokomotiv. Lokomotiv were not a team to be trifled with, and they came right back down the field, only to see Malafeev swallow up Izmailov’s cross with ease. Lokomotiv continued to push forward, and just before the stroke of halftime they looked like equalizing. A corner was cleared poorly, and fell to Vadim Yevseev, who hit a knuckling ball low and hard that took a wicked deflection off of Hagen – though it wrong-footed Malafeev, our stopper was able to reach out and punch the ball away, where it was cleared behind by an alert Mares. At halftime, I yanked Bystrov off. The youngster had had an appalling half – and hardly seemed in the game at all. Protecting a lead, I brought on Sumulikoski and pushed Gorshkov up into the midfield and Arshavin out wide. In the 50th minute, Dmitry Sychev slipped his marker and fired a shot that Malafeev did well to tip round the post, and the ensuing corner resulted in a free volley for the Russian starlet, but Gorshkov threw himself in front of the blast to knock it away. We immediately countered, with Kerzhakov hitting a vicious half-volley on the service from Arshavin that went just wide. Back and forth the game went, but wherever Lokomotiv put the ball, Malafeev was up to the task. No shot got past him, and he was justly rewarded as the Man of the Match.

Final : Zenith St. Petersburg 1, Lokomotiv Moscow 0
MoM : Vyacheslav Malafeev, Zenith

Post-Match : An impressive win that really cements us as title-contenders. We’re hitting a dominating run of form right now and have a real chance to pull away from the Moscow teams and make a deep run into Europe.

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After the match, Werder Bremen came in with a bid for Malafeev of £3.7M. I placed my valuation of the in-form Goalkeeper in the eight-figure range, and informed the German Club they could have Malafeev for the paltry sum of £10M. Needless to say, they did not follow up – though even if they had, I would probably have rejected the offer.

FC Bayern also came sniffing around Andrey Arshavin. I asked for Bastian Schweinsteiger in return, and hopefully they understood just how highly I value the creative midfielder.

Pavel Mares has played his last game for Zenith, as the irritating spaz got his work-permit and signed for Palace today. He played over 100 matches for Zenith in the three years since he joined from Sparta Prague, at a consistently above-average level. I’ve got his replacement lined up, but haven’t quite worked out the fee for him yet. £1.9M will go into the Zenith coffers, and with over 3M in the transfer kitty, I’m thinking two signings before the month is out.

August 11th saw us in scenic Albania to take on Dinamo Tirana in UEFA Cup Qualifying. Without Mares, I was obliged to use Alexy Katulskey at left back, and he performed competently. Though to be fair, I could’ve performed competently against the competition. The Albanians spent the first twenty minutes stubbornly defending in their half, and we were having trouble getting open chances. We finally got a corner kick in the 25th minute, and Olexandr Gorshkov headed home for the opener. With the opening goal out of the way, the Albanians collapsed – conceding three goals to Alexandr Kerzhakov in the next fifteen minutes. They were powerless to stop the striker from simply waltzing right through the defense to put this tie in the books.
Final : Dinamo Tirana 0, Zenith St. Petersburg 4

In the other matches, Lokomotiv couldn’t find the net against their Cypriot minnows, and the Moscow giants will need to do much better or suffer a humiliating exit from Europe. They should’ve taken lessons from Rubin, who overwhelmed Pasching at home to take a 4-0 lead into the second leg in Austria.

Three days later we traveled to Rotor to face the relegation strugglers. It was a nasty, ill-tempered affair that saw both Fuzailov and Sumulikoski taken off. The heat and short turnaround really got to my players, especially the younger ones and we labored to create chances against the stiff defense. Two second half goals from Igor Denisov were enough to give us three points, though an injury-time consolation for Rotor made the score more accurate of the run of play.
Final : Rotor 1, Zenith St. Petersburg 2

retired_-pearl-

A weeks rest should’ve been a god-send, but most of my players were needed on international duty. I watched on the TV as Russia drew with Latvia 1-1 in Riga on the 17th. While I was pleased Arshavin scored the equalizer, I was also concerned about how playing ninety minutes in freezing sleet was going to affect his conditioning.

While I was watching Russia draw with Latvia, the chairman was concluding the transfer of our new left back. Ruben Dario Bustos, Columbian(6/0). For slightly over £1M, the classy fullback is now a Zenith player. His presence in the club immediately makes him the best defender we have. He’s fast and smart with excellent technique. He’s dynamite going forward, and he takes a nice corner. Capable of playing at either fullback position, or in the midfield, the Columbian might even be an upgrade over Mares.

On the 21st, we traveled to Kryjla Sovetov for the first leg of the Russian Premier League Cup Semifinals. Thirty-four thousand fans were in attendance, the largest crowd we’d faced all year, but if anything it seemed it invigorate us. Bustos slotted in at left back and did ok considering he was adjusting to teammates who spoke a different language and the fact that he was playing in near freezing weather in August. We opened up the scoring when Vjestica scored his first goal of the year from a corner. Olexandr Spivak calmly converted a penalty just before halftime and Kerzhakov gave us a dominating lead to take into the return tie at Petrovsky with a late clinical finish. The scoreline was pretty unfair to Sovetov, who were our equals most of the match – but Contofalsky was unbreachable in defense justifiably winning the Man of the Match award, and their keeper had a howler of a game.
Final : Krylja Sovetov 0, Zenith St. Petersburg 3

The Albanians came to pay us a visit on the 24th, needing a 5-0 victory to advance. Instead, we came after them from the outset, Vlad Rad and Kerzhakov netting inside of fifteen minutes. It went downhill from there for the Albanians as Denisov scored one for himself, before Vlad Rad doubled his tally before halftime. At halftime I took off my starlets, and Dragan Cadikovski got a run out, managing to score late before the Albanians grabbed a consolation late in the tie.
Final : Zenith St. Petersburg 5(9), Dinamo Tirana 1(1) : Zenith advance 9-1 on aggregate

In Austria, Rubin proved Pasching’s equal with a hard-earned 1-1 draw, to progress pretty easily 5-1 on aggregate to the first round of the UEFA Cup. Lokomotiv avoided a year of humiliation with a 2-1 victory in Cyprus to advance as well. The draw shall be in a couple of days.

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As August began to run down, clubs began to ask about Kerzhakov. I slapped a £16M valuation on the brilliant young striker, and the big clubs thought it was a joke at first. It seemed that as a lesser club than them, I was obliged to accept unrealistically low valuations for my star players. Well, they can all suck it. Either they pony up the dough, or Kerzhakov stays a Blue-White-Light-Blue. I am NOT going to sell by best player, on pace for 35 goals in all competition, for a pittance – to be paid out in 1/18 of a pittance every month for the next year and a half. All the big clubs backed off.

I’ve often said that my defense needed upgrading, and so I used the rest of my transfer fund to bring in 23-year old Russian center-back Denis Kolodin from Kyrjla Sovetov. My scouts tell me he began his career as a midfielder before moving back into defense where he really found his calling – but he didn’t lose any of the qualities that made him a damn good midfielder in the first place. He’s fast, and can run all game long. Above average in the air, he’s smart at reading the game, and he could tackle the ball off the trickiest of forwards. I’m really, really enthused about this guy. He gives out defense a whole new dimension as the only real complete centerback we have. He can go forward, he can shut down quick, creative forwards – he can rage against the most physical of targetmen – immediate starter.

Kolodin got his debut in a home game against Kuban. Windy and cold are not weather conditions conducive to creative offense, and this game was no different. We looked threatening from a few set-pieces but we lacked a cutting edge to finish off the moves. Kuban offered nothing going forward, content to play for a prosaic draw, and their efforts were rewarded as we had to settle for the point.
Zenith St. Petersburg 0, Kuban 0

As the month ended, the draw for the First round for the UEFA Cup was held. Zenith entered the competition as an unseeded team, which is a kick in the pants for us. In fact, none of the Russian teams were seeded for the competition – when meant each would face an uphill struggle to reach the group stages. Lokomotiv were the first Russian team out of the hat, and I could hear the expletives all the way in St. Petersburg as they drew English team Tottenham. Tottenham’s pacey and skilled attack is going to cause serious problems for the Lokomotiv defense. Rubin were next, and they had the ominous proposition of facing Athletic Club de Bilbao. Finally, our long wait was ended and we found our opponent would be Besiktas – the formidable Turkish side presenting a tough obstacle for progression to the group stage. Oddsmakers have none of the Russian teams making the groupstages, which would be an embarrassing year indeed for Russian teams in Europe.

retired_bootcamp_nat

Nice ditty so far, keep it going!

I must admit that my career in russia was the most memorable so far (back in cm4 days). I was managing your evil enemy the Army Men and the national team by the end of it. Great league though.

retired_liew wai kheng

Agreed, KUTGW

Fingers crossed that you can hold on to take the title It's just a shame that you have to wait so long for the next European season.

retired_-pearl-

Thanks for the kind words guys. It is kind of a hassle that you have to wait 9 months before the next go round in Europe at the end of the season - but I suppose they can't really play football matches in the dead of winter in Russia.

Updates will be a tad sporadic, on account of my computer is gone wonky and I've sent it to get fixed. I'm using a much slower computer now, so updates will take a little longer.