The stadium in the city of Ashdod looks as if it was recently bombed (albeit not very much hit). A persistent feeling of devastation. For example, locker rooms for teams resemble a construction trailer. True, there are showers and hot water. But these benefits even builders can not be surprised.
There is no scoreboard at the stadium, and its installation is not expected. They say that the owners of the team want to build a new sports facility. One of the owners of the club, Revivo, known for playing for Celta, sat in the box of honored guests and thought about something of his own. By the way, anyone could get into the box. One of the Russian journalists managed to get to the accreditation game for the matches of the Krylya Sovetov hockey club.
But they scour the passage to the stadium very carefully. Even stricter than at the airport.
The match dedicated to the city's anniversary (the vice-mayor made the first shot on the ball) was attended by 3,000 spectators, most of whom were former Russians. Some of them were dressed in army colors and placed behind a banner hung on the railing.
Local Israeli youth, fans of "Ashdod" took a place outside the gate and immediately showed themselves not from the best side in the performance of the anthem. At the end of the match, they even tried to arrange a fight with people chanting "Russia, Russia." Everything was ready for a fight. Fans of the local club moved to CSKA fans. Quarrels began. But it didn’t reach the massacre: it was prevented by the police, who acted very ceremoniously - unlike the Russian one.
The game came out a little unintelligible, despite seven goals scored. The army game was nothing new, absolutely. Even the composition was some kind of unnecessarily last year. Many expected the appearance in the main team of Ramon or Dzhaner. It seems that the Brazilian even worked with the main team, but the coach decided not to put him in the “start”. And Janer did not enter the field at all. They say that he suffered a back injury - and now for some time he will not even train. Pessimists claim that he will not play in a tournament in Israel.
Ramon, entering the field in the second half, looked slurred. He had no movement, no defeat, no gears. Only beautiful yellow boots. So once started in CSKA, Daniel Carvalho (but with a different shoe color). Valery Gazzaev, realizing that the Brazilian is simply not at ease, reminded everyone after the match that "Ramon was taken for the future."
But a beautiful goal was scored by Yuri Zhirkov. Entering the penalty area from the right flank, he spun the ball into the far corner of the goal. And although the goalkeeper saw everything and, seemingly, controlled everything, to cope with the blow was beyond his strength.
After the match, Evgeni Aldonin went out to talk to reporters. As soon as he began to answer questions, how did Valery Gazzaev run up to him and whispered something in his ear.
- Are there journalists from the "Soviet Sport"? - reluctantly asked Eugene. And then he began to speak again, without checking the credentials.
This time, Sergei Ignashevich was pleased to hear a question. But in order to answer him, he had not yet tuned in.
- Do you say anything about the game?
- Not.
- And when do you say?
- Someday.
The main thing and we do not forget about this match. Apparently, he somehow remembered Sergei.
Perhaps the fact that Vasily Berezutsky was so furious at one point in the first half that he nearly hit the referee who made a remark to him (the judge seemed to have no yellow cards). No one understood what happened there (joint and joint, a common thing), but this freaked out the player. Gazzaev even rushed to the scene and gave the defender some guidance. He immediately subsided.
The army bus was fenced by a large metal fence, behind which people gathered to say a few nice words to their idols. The players limited themselves to nods and followed to the salon. Only Elver Rahimich went to the fence to get a bag from some woman.
But even at the airport everyone was told that in Israel, nothing can be taken from the hands of strangers.
Alexey Shevchenko