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September 2005

September dawned with most of the team away on international duty. Which was why I was super-duper pleased to see that the second leg of our Russian Premier League Cup Semifinal was scheduled during the International break. We had a hefty lead from the first leg, and we were at home - so I was confident we would advance. In a stroke of good fortune, Vladislav Radimov came down with a strained calf that kept him out of the national team, but fit enough to feature for us against Sovetov. Radimov was a class above the rest of the team today, as he scored an early goal and set up Igor Denisov to twinkle the lights on the scoreboard. A late Sovetov goal was nothing but consolation for the visitors.
Final : Zenith St. Petersburg 2(5), Krylja Sovetov 1(1); Zenith advance 5-1 on aggregate

International games sandwiched the semi-final, which were vital to Russia's qualifying dreams. Russia started this pair of games two points behind Latvia for the final spot, but with a game in hand. On the 3rd of September, Russia smashed Liechtenstein 7-0 with Dmitry Sychev bagging four goals. Latvia had a tough home tie against Estonia and they slumped to a dreadful 3-1 defeat to allow the Russians to pass them for second place, still with a game in hand. That lead did not last long, as Russia couldn't hold on to a 2-1 halftime lead, supplied by Arshavin and Kerzhakov, and Portugal stormed back to win 3-2. Elsewhere, Latvia surprised Slovakia to steal all three points in Riga with a 1-0 win. The results meant that Portugal officially clinched the group, and that Latvia hold a slim two point lead over Russia in the race for a playoff spot. Results in other groups put the automatic 2nd place spots out of reach. Latvia had a group finishing game against Portugal, while Russia would close with Luxembourg and Slovakia.

In the other Semi, Rubin defeated Spartak Moscow 3-2 to advance to the final 6-5 on aggregate. While many will say Spartak would've advanced had the international games not been played at the same time as the semi-final - I will say that they shouldn't have drawn 3-3 at home with their full complement. The final will be contested over two legs a month apart at the neutral site of Lokomotiv, Moscow. In another bit of fantastic scheduling - the second leg of the final will also occur during an international window.

On September 10th, with most of the team just returned from international duty, we ventured to Lokomotiv to contest the first leg of the Russian Premier League Cup Final. 30,000 fans were in attendance to watch us play Rubin Kazan, and we had a solid traveling contingent to back us up. We got off to another quick start when Kerzhakov latched onto a diagonal ball from Arshavin and slipped it near post to give us an early lead. Arshavin was brilliant down the right wing, slinging in cross after cross against a haggard Rubin defense. Olexandr Gorshkov was magnificent, scoring a majestic hat-trick and Arshavin capped off his brilliant night by taking a goal of his own.
Final : Zenith St. Petersburg 5, Rubin Kazan 0

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September 15th, 2005
UEFA Cup, 1st round, 1st Leg
Zenith St. Petersburg vs Besiktas

Zenith(4-1-4-1) : Malafeev; Fuzailov, Bustos, Hagen, Kolodin; Sumulikoski; Arshavin(Spivak), Sirl, Gorshkov, Radimov(Denisov); Kerzhakov.

My first European game - I didn't eat before the game, I couldn't possibly keep it down. I thought about changing tactics or something, but you gotta dance with them that brung you and so a basic first team strode onto the pitch at Petroksky. We seem to be at our best early in the match, and today was no exception - as we caught Besiktas napping with a quick attack and want-away attacking midfielder Radimov curled in a delicate shot from twenty yards out and we had a strong lead. We failed to capitalize on the lead, for one simple reason - they had better athletes. Their lanky Norwegian Carew was giving us fits up front, and their back four was quick to snuff out any attack we tried to mount. We played better football, and created many more chances, but we couldn't buy that split-second to put a second goal away and we went into halftime with a slim lead. At halftime, I couldn't think of any real changes to make - there's no secret potion that's going to make my guys better athletes, and we were playing the better football. In the second half, the story remained the same - I took a risk and ordered the wingers to play further up the pitch, and brought off the exhausted Arshavin for Spivak. We couldn't break through the determined Besiktas backline though, and remained only one goal ahead. In the 80th minute, a break for us as Yildirim Ahmet was dismissed for persistent infractions and we had a man advantage. As we had before, we immediately went about ceding the advantage to our opponents, and it cost us when Carew out jumped Kolodin to head home past a tame Malafeev for the equalizer. The game finished tied.

Final : Zenith St. Petersburg 1, Besiktas 1
MoM : John Carew, Besiktas

Post-Match : Disappointing. We played better, but they were first to every loose ball and won most 50-50 balls due to superior athleticism. I hope we can sneak a goal away from home where Besiktas will be more aggressive and force at least extra time. I fancy our chances in a penalty shoot-out; we have some deadeye marksmen.

In other results Lokomotiv played a game that was almost an exact replica of our game. They grabbed an early lead and battered the Totetnham goal, but a late equalizer by the Lilywhites as they were shorthanded left them a mountain to climb in London. In the other match, Rubin outshone both us and Lokomotiv with a comprehensive 2-0 win over Bilbao. They'll certainly be basquing in the glory of that win. They still have the second leg to go, but they've one foot in the group stages already.

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Three days later, we had FC Moscow in Moscow. FC Moscow is one of the not-good Moscow teams, and they lived down to their billing today, as we walked all over them. In-form in the league at least, Erik Hagen was the shocking star as he scored two headers from corners. Perhaps the instructions to aim for the head of the guy cursing at you in Norwegian had finally sunk in. Kerzhakov grabbed his usual goal, and Arshavin and Denisov completed the rout.
Final : Zenith St. Petersburg 5, FC Moscow 0

Another three days, another league match - fixture congestion is faaaaaaaaaantastic. We hosted Shinnik on this day, and again we opened with a defender heading home the opener - this time Denis Kolodin with the honors. Radek Sirl had two superb second half goals and our defense stifled Shinnik to record another league win.
Final : Zenith St. Petersburg 3, Shinnik 0

A road-trip to Saturn was next on our itinerary, and I made plans to play our stars only sparingly as we had the return leg with Besiktas in only five days. Kerzhakov only got a half in, but made good use of it to score another goal. Saturn struck right back to send us into halftime level on points. The second half was tame, and we looked to get away with only a point, but as things have so often in the league, a lucky bounce broke our way and Denisov buried it to give us another three points and with only five matches left, the title was practically ours.
Final : Zenith St. Petersburg 2, Saturn 1

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September 29th, 2005
UEFA Cup, First Round, 2nd Leg.
Besiktas (1) vs Zenith St. Petersburg (1)

Zenith(4-1-4-1) : Malafeev; Fuzailov, Bustos, Hagen, Kolodin; Sumulikoski; Spivak, Sirl(Denisov), Gorshkov, Arshavin; Kerzhakov.

Besiktas have the lead, on away goals - meaning we had to get something in Turkey. We opened on the attack, and Kerzhakov blazed over from outside the box - but Besiktas' quality started to tell, and they pinned us back for most of the half. In the 25th minute John Carew trapped down a throw-in, before hitting a thunderous volley at goal that no goalie could've saved. Besiktas 1(2) - 0(1) Zenith Malafeev was in spectacular form this day, to keep it at only a one goal deficit, but we couldn't get out of our own half. Again and again, Malafeev produced incredible saves to deny Besiktas and stymie the Turkish clubs attack - but we were so slow in attack and blunted, again and again. Finally a fluke deflection freed Kerzhakov and he was well in the clear, one on one with the goalie and for the only time this season, his assassin instincts let him down. He dithered on the ball, unable to decide what to do - and the Besiktas defense recovered to tackle him clear off the ball. We mustered only one more attack all game, when Arshavin found himself in the clear from Kerzhakov's through ball - but his carefully slotted shot didn't have the velocity to make it into the corner past Rodrigo in goal. Rodrigo tipped the ball wide, and the ensuing corner was well cleared. Besiktas kept the ball in our half the rest of the game and we were ushered out of Europe.

Final : Besiktas 1(1), Zenith St. Petersburg 0(1); Besiktas advance 2-1 on aggregate
MoM: Vyacheslav Malafeev, Zenith.

Post-Match : Too slow, too slow, too slow. Story of the entire game.

In the other games, Lokomotiv held Tottenham scoreless in London, but couldn't manage a goal themselves and were beaten on the away goals rule. Rubin traveled to Spain with a comfortable two-goal lead, but were crushed 4-nil as Bilbao made it a clean sweep of Russian teams from Europe.

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September closed on a bittersweet note. We had stormed to a commanding lead in the Premier League, going into the final five games ten points clear of Lokomotiv - and a dominating first leg win in the Russian Premier League Cup FInal, we were on course for a mind-boggling domestic treble. Considering that Zenith had only ever won three trophies in their 70 year history, it's a fantastic acheivement.

Unfortunatley, all that came to naught in Europe and once again we find ourselves home - unable to get past the first hurdle of the competition.

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October 2005

Five games left in the season, and a combination of six points won by us or lost by Lokomotiv would clinch the title. We hosted Rubin to open the month while Lokomotiv had a stern test away at Dinamo Moscow. For much of the first half, we threatened around Rubin’s goal, but couldn’t break through the determined defense. It took a Spivak penalty in first half injury time to give us a deserved lead. Right after the break, Spivak again scored from the spot – and the wheels came off for Rubin. Arshavin and Denisov scored late to wrap up the points.
Final : Zenith St. Petesrburg 4, Rubin 0

In Moscow, Lokomotiv could only manage a draw against Dinamo as a late Sychev strike cancelled out Derlei’s second half wonder-goal. With that tie, Lokomotiv dropped two more points back of us – to sit twelve points back with only four games to play. The math is simple – they have to win every game they play, we have to lose every game we play.

The next round of Premiership games is on the 15th, after the crucial Russian internationals – in the interim, I have a Premier League Cup to win.

October 11th was the day of the second leg of the Final. The Russian Premier League Cup is only in it’s third year, and Zenith won the competition in 2003 – clearly, it’s a cute little competition – but it’s not one that people will break down and cry if we win. Especially since for the second leg, the bulk of our stars were away with international duty. We played a weakened side and Rubin were well and truly beaten after the first leg, so for the 30k in attendance, it was a dreadful game to watch. A nil-nil final, but another shiny trophy goes back to St. Petersburg.
Final : Zenith St. Petersburg 0, Rubin 0; Zenith Win the Russian Premier League Cup 5-0 on aggregate

Hurray. Winning a trophy not even as old as my toothbrush won’t exactly go down in history as a super-duper achievement – but it’s another trophy that a Moscow team didn’t win – and perhaps some time in the future; maybe in the year 2525, if man is still alive, this trophy will mean something and forever and ever Zenith St. Petersburg will be engraved on it as the 2005 winners.

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Russian Internationals

October 8th, 2005: Russia played Luxembourg in their game in hand in the group, and came out solid 2-0 winners after goals by Zenith duo Andriy Arshavin and Alexandr Kerzhakov. The result moves Russia one point clear of Latvia, who had a meaningless friendly today, for the playoff spot in the group. Russia play Slovakia in Bratislava in four days time, while Latvia will travel to Lisbon to play group winners Portugal.

October 12th, 2005: Russia traveled to Slovakia knowing if they won, they would advance to the playoffs – while a loss or tie would mean Latvia could advance with a win in Portugal. Unfathomably, the Russian team didn’t seem to get the message. Slovakia were easy winners on the night as Contofalsky was rarely troubled in goal and a pair of first half goals left Russian fans frantically scoreboard watching hoping for a Portugal win. Luckily for them, even a Portugal B Side was superior to Latvia, as the Baltic upstarts were throttled 3-0 to see Russia advance to the playoffs.

The playoffs will feature some exciting contests. Russia will face Ireland, Bulgaria will face the Czech Republic and Poland will face a resurgent Scotland team. The playoffs will take place in mid-November.

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To my dismay, our match with Amkar has been rescheduled for the 26th because of a conflict with a Russian Cup game. Already moved once due to TV demands, the match would’ve fallen too close to the Russian Cup 6th round. Apparently, the Russian Cup likes to contest all rounds up to the quarterfinals in the summer and early fall, before finishing the Cup in the spring the following year. However, the entire cup tree is drawn in October, and I was pleased to see we won’t be facing any of the big Moscow teams unless we advance to the final. Our Russian Cup 6th round opponent is Dinamo Bryansk, and after we beat them, we should face Saturn in the 7th round.

On the 15th, Lokomotiv Moscow played host to relegation candidate Amkar. They needed a win to keep pace with us for the title, and should’ve been easy favorites to win it. However, ever since we had defeated them in the 1v2 clash a few months back, Lokomotiv had fallen to shambles. Today, in a must-win game, they were listless and uninspired – Amkar, needing every point they can get, cheerfully held on for a draw and Zenith were champions!

Following the euphoria of the title win, it would be understandable if we came out flat against Bryansk in the first half. But we didn’t. Little-used Cadikovski had a first half brace, and Igor Denisov matched him with a pair of his own with Spivak finishing off the dominant win. We host them in a month’s time with an unsurmountable first leg lead.
Final : Zenith St. Petersburg 5, Dinamo Bryansk

October 22nd, 2005 was the day the trophy officially came to Petrovsky. Our last home game of the season, we played Rostov. Commiserate with the occasion we throttled them before the official trophy presentation ceremony. Kerzhakov got his usual goal and Spivak, Radimov and Gorshkov all also tallied and Rostov were beaten senseless on the day.
Final : Zenith St. Petersburg 4, Rostov 0

With the trophy ours – the rest of the season was a trial run for the reserves and youngsters. All away games, we lost none and produced solid enough displays including a creditable win over Krylja Sovetov.

In the Russian Cup we finished off Bryansk in record fashion with an incredible win, which saw Alexandr Kerzhakov notching his 40th goal in all competitions for the year.

The 7th round against Saturn was a slightly tougher affair. A tough away draw at Saturn in the cold and wet was followed by a decent home win in the cold and dry. We were into the Quarterfinals and would face Kuban in March.

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Before we can get to a season review, the Russian National team had some important games to play in the World Cup Qualifying playoffs. Spain and Greece had finished with the best point tally of any second placed team, and received automatic qualification to the World Cup.

Bulgaria snuck a 1-0 win at home over the Czechs to give them a slim advantage. In Dublin, Ireland were heartbroken as Russia produced a vibrant display and were justly rewarded by Arshavin’s second half strike to take a lead back to chilly Moscow. Across the Irish Sea, Scotland held off Poland 3-2 with a pair of late strikes.

The second leg was merely four days later. The Czech Republic will not be participating in this World Cup, after an early Dmitar Berbatov penalty was enough to give Bulgaria a lead the Czech’s couldn’t overcome. In Poland, Scotland got off to a dream start when Derek Riordan scored his first goal in Scotland colors within the first five minutes. When the Polish went a man down late in the second half Scotland seemed all but sure to go through. But Scotland wouldn’t be Scotland if they didn’t screw up somewhere – and they leaked two soft goals after 80 minutes to fall out on the away goals rule. Russia bossed the second leg against Ireland, but couldn’t breach Shay Given in goal – and paid for it when Roy Keane equalized off of a corner kick. In extra-time, a dubious penalty let Russia sneak back ahead, before a rocketing, deflected volley sealed the win and a trip to the World Cup.

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Season In Review

Zenith had a championship quality team when I arrived after the shock resignation of the previous manager. Though not possessed of terrific depth, the gulf in quality in the Russian Premier League meant that most games we would’ve won anyways. Our title was won by our consistent and solid defense lead by Malafeev and Hagen. Our offense produced some sterling displays, but our defensive record in the league was unmatched by far.

Things got off to a rollicking start as we captured the Russian Cup only a few months into my reign. Heavily favored going into the match, we gave real notice to the title favorites by living up to expectations and capturing the first trophy of the season.

Over the summer months, we were unstoppable. Kerzhakov produced a July of epic proportions to fire us past Lokomotiv and to the top of the table and we cemented our place at the top with a solid victory over Lokomotiv. We easily qualified for the UEFA Cup proper but were swept aside by Besiktas as the Turkish team’s superior athletes won them through. We rebounded from the disappointment of another European stumble to continue to dominate the league and advance in the Russian Premier League Cup – which I can’t seem to care about. We easily won the Premier League Cup, as scheduling quirks did in some of our prime competition – and four days later we watched as Lokomotiv were held to an embarrassing draw at home that confirmed us as champions. We finished the rest of the season in style, without losing even as the reserves played – and qualified easily for the Quarterfinals of the Russian Cup in March.

Zenith Leaders

Goals: Kerzhakov – 40, Arshavin – 16, Radimov – 16, Denisov – 15, Spivak – 15.
Assists: Arshavin – 23, Sirl – 19, Spivak – 17, Bystrov – 12, Radimov – 10

Gaudy stats, but each player featured in about 50 matches.

Season Awards
Goalkeeper of the Year: Sergey Ochinnikov, Lokomotiv; Malafeev finished second in the voting.
Premier League Top Foreigner: Radek Sirl, Zenith – a deserved winner.
Premier League Top Goalscorer: Alexandr Kerzhakov, 21 league goals; Derlei finished second with 19 goals.
Team of the Year: Sirl, Sumulikoski, Arshavin and Kerzhakov made the first team, while Malafeev, Gorshkov and Radimov made the bench.