Not for joy, but for conscience

27 out of 44 rounds were played in the Russian first division, but the main intrigue - who will enter the Premier League - has already become clear. The first circle revealed three obvious applicants - Kuban, Khimki and Ural. There are practically no other chances. And now the team from Yekaterinburg has lost its rhythm, seven points behind competitors.

In the 27th round, “Ural” lost to “KamAZ”, before that it had not managed to win at home with “Sodovik” from Sterlitamak. And the rivals are clearly not going to wait until the team makes up for lost time.

For all its many differences, today's Khimki and Kuban are somewhat similar - at least in that the head coach of the Krasnodar club Pavel Yakovenko held a similar position in Khimki last season. Relative to the team and the fact that in the preseason neither one nor the other was considered the main favorite. Rather, they seemed “Terek” - a rich club with a serious administrative resource.

“Kuban” in the past season was carried away by inappropriate experiments for the first league: invited a coach of a foreigner - Czech Josef Hovanets. Nothing good came of this undertaking; Khovanets soon left for his homeland. Secondly, the leaders of the Kuban did not step on the same rake - Pavel Yakovenko is well aware of the specifics of work in the Russian first division.

But it turned out that not everything depends on Yakovenko either. This season striker Shamil Asildarov shone in Kuban - scoring 18 goals in 23 matches. Unfortunately, his transfer sheet was not owned by Kuban, but by outsiders who, in the wake of success, sold Asildarov to Moscow Lokomotiv. We worked with a player in Krasnodar, trained, and suddenly - neither Asildarov, nor money.

In Khimki, the situation was even more complicated. Last year, the club was managed by the famous Andrey Chervichenko - invested, bought players. However, at the end of the season, Khimki began to lose points, Chervichenko cooled down and eventually left the club. Khimki, in fact, had to recruit the team again. The coach was called Vladimir Kazachenko. His former pets, St. Petersburg "Petrotrest", became famous for their devastating defeats and organization at the level of factory championships. The coach’s guilt in this disgrace was not much, but special talents in Kazachenka were not foreseen. Nevertheless, they were discerned in Khimki - and correctly done.

However, it is impossible to guess what awaits Kuban and Khimki in the strongest class. The success of the team in the first division does not guarantee her success in the Premier League. “Nalchik” and “Ray” are more likely exceptions to the rule. Sometimes it seems that the team is ready for the game at a high level, and it fails. It happens the other way around: a club with a dubious composition successfully debuts in the top division. Kuban, for example, has a good stadium and money, and a promising coach. But all this is not a guarantee.

Khimki has a very experienced team: Tikhonov, Drozdov, Beschastnykh, Berezovsky. But this can result in both a plus and a minus. The example of “Terek” proves that you cannot hold out on veterans in the Premier League alone - the speeds there are fundamentally different, and the club will have to rejuvenate the squad anyway.

Kirill DEMENTYEV

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