Column from the newspaper "Soviet Sport"
ADVOCATE ADEQUATE
In the meantime, everything is fragmented. Guus Hiddink unveiled a list of candidates for the national team - but for a two-day gathering, and even in the dead season, revelations and discoveries from such a list could not be expected. Lokomotiv, the main mystery of the offseason, sends a variety of news about injuries, newcomers, results of test matches - all this is only more intriguing, by definition there are no answers to pressing questions.
It was possible to watch several matches. One and a half - with the participation of “Zenith”; it is still more convenient to consider the game with Shakhtar as an attraction, because, in fact, the Zenit double took the stand against the Donetsk team, and then it was the other way around. But with Schalke it turned out interesting. The match, it seems to me, showed that the team is becoming more adequate to the hand of the head coach of the Lawyer. With a center forward, the attack line looks much more solid. And the mistakes in defense are not because the defenders are weak. The nature of these errors lies in the fact that the middle line did not cope with the task of meeting an opponent, and this, in turn, is still best explained by an inoperative functional state. So that's the preseason.
EVERYTHING IS THE SAME
CSKA match also left a rather mixed impression. In general, for such matches, it seems to me, you can adopt a useful rule for sorting impressions: it’s worthwhile to rejoice at the good, and it is too early to annoy the weaknesses. Here, for example: Rakhimich made two flagrant fouls in the CSKA - Hapoel match on the Channel One Cup. And both - because he did not have time. Is it worth it to think that perhaps the time is coming to look for a replacement for Elver?
For us - definitely not. Each player, and even more so, according to his schedule, is gaining form. It is important that he be good throughout the season, and not now. It’s just the right time to judge this unless the trainers who know the whole preparatory kitchen.
At the same time, the excellent game of Jo is a good sign. We already know what he is capable of. It was necessary to be convinced only that he was completely healthy and did not lose motivation. And to make sure of this in the first games was not difficult. And there is.
PASSIONS BY AMELIA
One can judge a little bit about some more global trends. Well, in particular, this offseason several leading clubs are making another attempt to invite top-level players to Russia. Marco Amelia, the second goalkeeper of the Italian national team who is interested in Spartak, is certainly such a player. We see how exciting the negotiations are - we don’t yet know their essence, I think we will all find out later, regardless of their outcome. But it is obvious that young talented football players are already ready to consider the Russian championship as a normal, positive stage in their career, on which everything depends not on how the chip breaks out, but on themselves.
So the young Brazilian Ramon says, coming to CSKA, that for him this is a chance to grow up to the Brazil national team. After all, three players have already come in this way to the team before his eyes. In the same way, Spartak turned out to be a useful stage in the career growth of Nemanja Vidic, and Cavenagi in Spartak did not lose either status or price. Why not take Amelia along this beaten path?
Someone, perhaps, is surprised by the train of thought of the Italian goalkeeper. In fact, the situation is quite typical: the time comes to make a choice - to leave Livorno or stay there for a long time. And certainly staying pointless; everything the world could learn about Marco Amelia there, the world has already learned. Top clubs not ripe for an invitation? Great, then you just need to take a new step. At least towards the Champions League. And what will happen next is not a speculative question, but a practical one. Firstly, how will you play in a new place, and secondly, how will you draw up a contract. So that in case of progress it would be possible to go on raising for the benefit of both the club and for themselves.
The same can be said of Asamoa Gyan in principle. At the moment, the transition rests on the position of his current club, but we have already made sure that Loko needs him, and that the player himself sees his perspective in this club. Gyan is 23 years old. He also needs to grow. And you can not consider the issue of growth solely as the ratio between the championships of the countries in which you play. This is the ratio of clubs. And the ratio of earnings, of course, too. And the opportunity - this is perhaps the most important thing - to show oneself from unknown sides. That is - in a new situation.
MYSTERY YAKOVENKO
Of course, the picture of the new season from all these pieces of information can not be combined. A whole group of teams remains on the periphery of our attention, and we know very little about them. Here you have to be guided more by what you knew about them before. And while there is time - and next week we’ll talk about the results of the First Channel Cup, and then about the national team, and then the European cups - I want to share my own interest in the new season. Hope for surprise. I mean the Krasnodar "Kuban".
Baseless talk about the possibility of leaving the club, his main patron of art Oleg Deripaska, turned out to mean that Kuban simply changed the management structure. Concerns for the team, which plays a large group of very interesting youth, now almost gone.
This is the potential of the team. There is a ready-made team that requires point amplification. There are young Yanbaev and Ivanov, there is the opening of last season in the first division - striker Zebelian, who just plays great with his head ... Well, Orekhov defender is already mentioned at all in connection with the first team.
It is very interesting what Pavel Yakovenko will be able to achieve with the team he created. He already had to do with the upbringing of more than one young player, but he still could not take the next step with the pupils. “Kuban”, it seems, will emerge from a quiet information pool only closer to the championship. We’ll see there ...