Aleksandr Buhkarov celebrates Rubin's final goal.
Chris Riordan writes for Russian Football Now, which will regularly be updating World Soccer Reader on Russian football. He wrote the following article summarizing Sunday’s match between league-leading Rubin Kazan and second place Spartak Moscow (or Moskva, as it’s pronounced and spelled in Russian).
The number three played a significant role in today’s epic Russian Premier League fixture between first place Rubin Kazan and second place Spartak Moskva. Entering the hyped up affair, Rubin had a slim one point lead over their Muscovite counterparts. Rubin were the defending champions and on a roll, while Spartak were on the rise after a disappointing 8th place finish the previous season.
Rubin continued their league dominance in very convincing fashion, thrashing the Red and Whites 3 – 0 on the road. The number three came to the forefront as Rubin’s “Big Three” of Sergei Semak, Alejandro Dominguez and Alexander Bukharov each netted for the league leaders. The trio were deadly throughout, using their speed and ball control to lift their squad to an impressive victory. In contrast, Spartak featured the “Big Three” that is no more. Brazilians Welliton and Alex clearly missed the third member of their attacking triangle, the departed speedy winger, Vladmir Bystrov. The man whose name means fast in Russian, had moved back to his hometown in Zenit, thanks to a 15 million euro buyout clause in his contract.
I don’t want to come across saying that Bystrov’s presence would have led Spartak to victory, but it certainly would have kept things a lot closer. His replacement Denis Boyarintsev just doesn’t have the pace and creative flair of his predecessor. Spartak had other deficiencies, but none showed more clear than this void on the right wing. The Moskva club will have to find a way to address this if they are to hold onto their 2nd place standing and an automatic spot in next season’s Champions League group stage. Playmaker Alex seemed to force things more and along with Welliton appeared to overcompensate for the hole on the right flank. Whereas before Alex would take his time distributing the ball, linking up with teammates and building play through the midfield, today he let fly several optimistic long range shots on goal. Welliton pushed out wider than usual and the attacking play was stagnant through the middle.
The first half scoreline of 2 – 0 didn’t do justice to the quality of play and energy on display by both sides early on. Both clubs played a very open, attacking style of football. The play was lightning quick, with the ball being played through the midfield, end to end at full throttle. Rubin nearly scored in the early going, prevented only by Boyarintsev clearing a header off the line. The turning point came around the 30th minute. On a Spartak counterattack, Alex delivered a perfectly weighted probing through ball to Pavel Yakovlev on the left side of the pitch. Yakovlev timed his run perfectly and used his speed to slip past Rubin’s backline. As he charged towards goal, one of his teammates made a darting supporting run towards the box. Instead of centering the ball towards this run, Yakovlev opted to take a shot from an accute angle inside the box. The shot was right at Sergei Ryzhikov, who parried it wide.
Spartak’s failure to take advantage of this breakaway opportunity was quickly punished by Rubin. A Spartak defender deflected a cross through the box away from an onrushing attacker, only for it to fall right at Sergei Semak’s feet. The central midfielder unleashed a laser of a shot into goal that seemed like it might rip through the back of the net after travelling 20 some yards. Spartak’s worries were compounded in the 39th minute. Alejandro Dominguez drew a soft penalty kick from Martin Jiranek inside the box and finished from the spot. After cutting across the grain along the goal mouth, Dominguez was tripped up at his feet. Though it was clearly unintentional, Jiranek went for the ball with his outstretched leg and made slight contact, sending the Argentine toppling to the ground. Part of me wants to say, let them play on in a match of this magnitue. However, soft or not the official did make the correct call.
While the first half was tightly contested, the second half clearly belonged to the club from Kazan. Rubin sealed the deal in the 58th minute. A cross was whipped in from the right towards Alexander Bukharov. Misscommunication between Spartak keeper Soslan Dzanaev and defender Sergei Parshivlyuk led to Bukharov heading home from an accute angle. Dzanaev charged forward to snare the cross, but Parshivlyuk ran back at full speed to deflect the ball high into the air. Bukharov used his athleticism to get around both and drive a header just pass the recovering keeper.
At this point, Spartak truly had the wind taken out of their sails. Rubin finished off the match, maintaining the dominant share of possession and tired their opponents out by knocking the ball around. In the end, hurried long shots and poor finishing were major keys to Spartak’s undoing. Once again the number 3 was important, as Rubin won 3 – 0. With the victory, they jumped to a 4 point lead at the top of the table. Besides Spartak, the next closest club is 9 points away from the summit.
The league title isn’t quite locked up just yet, but Rubin took a huge step towards that today. In their last 5 matches, they have outscored their opponents 15 – 1. If current form has anything to say about it, the Kazan club’s stock is rising, heading into the Champions League.
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