Russian Premier League: 9 things you should know about Matchday 32

1. Three goals by Spartak Nalchik

In the last match of the year players of Spartak Nalchik managed to send three goals into the net of Terek Grozny – a thing that never happened to them during the whole season. Last year, when Yury Krasnozhan was at the helm of Nalchik, rather than of Russia B, the Caucasian team had successes of that kind three times more often.

2 Lacina Traore’s third goal against Spartak Moscow

The Ivorian striker scored his 15 goal in 27 games for Kuban hitting the net of Spartak Moscow once again. Traore scored a goal in each of the three games against the Red-and-Whites this year: the first two at home and away were nicely converted penalties, but this time Lacina – with a new haircut, by the way – added an open play goal to his record after a clever pass from Marco Ne on the edge of the box.

3. Anton Shunin’s interrupted flight

The goalkeeper of Dynamo Moscow and – on rare occasions – of the Russian national team could use the match against Rubin Kazan to establish an everlasting record: 32 championship games in one calendar year without substitutions. However, half an hour from this decisive moment his plans got disturbed: after a long jump aimed to interrupt a cross, Shunin fell awkwardly on his right hand and immediately asked for a replacement, thus allowing his even younger teammate Yevgeny Frolov to make his debut for Dynamo. What followed was a rare example of how one can build his own success on someone else’s misfortune: the ex-goalie of Mordovia Saransk kept a clean sheet for the remaining thirty minutes.

4. Moscow’s feebleness in Kazan

For the first time since 2005 none of the Moscow-based clubs managed to leave Kazan with a victory: CSKA, Dynamo, Spartak, and Lokomotiv only collected a total of two points and one goal at Tsentralny Stadium. That should help Rubin in their fight for the medals, especially because they were a lot more successful in Moscow (5 points, 2 wins, one draw, one defeat) and because the capital-based teams make a half of Group A. As of today, Spartak, Dynamo, and CSKA are just two, three, and, respectively, four points ahead of Rubin. Now you do the math.

5. Late-comers

Last time we talked about what happened for the first time in the history of the Russian Premier League, now we are closing the calendar year and everyone is trying to tally up. Forward Jovan Golic, midfielder Roman Eremenko, defender Yevgeny Makeev and simply a legend Sergey Semak have all scored their first goals of the championship. The most peculiar thing is that all four goals proved decisive: the goals of Eremenko, Semak and Golic brought victories to their teams, while Makeev’s strike in the last minute against Kuban saved a draw for Spartak Moscow.

6. Karadeniz and the dog

Once upon a time the main Moscow derby was interrupted by a dog that ran out onto the field and even got a yellow card from referee Zakharov. A similar episode happened during the match between Dynamo and Rubin, but this time the players did not get a chance to stroke the dog or play with it. Gokdeniz Karadeniz, the author of a goal and an assist, grabbed the animal under his arm as a natural dog trainer and carried it away from the pitch.

Image: NTV-Plus broadcast

7. Football at -15?C

Sunday’s game in Tomsk is the one you should videotape and show to foreigners curious to know what real Russian-flavored football is like: a snow-covered pitch with brown lines, orange ball, and rosy players in knit hats, tights, and gloves. A week before the trip to Tomsk, FC Krasnodar coach Slavoljub Muslin said his team would prepare to this match in a cryochamber. Judging by how the game evolved, it seems the Serb (who, by the way, bears a striking resemblance to Professor X from the X-Men) didn’t lie to the journalists: even in such an extreme weather Krasnodar was closer to victory, having created more goalscoring opportunities and moving better than the local players in general.

Image: fctomtomsk.ru

8. Fans vs. Roman Shirokov

The most discussed player of the Russian Premier League was very vocal in his opinion last week, calling the Zenit fans «retarded» after they nearly caused the team’s Champions League game against APOEL to be cancelled. The fans apologized, but harbored a resentment: during the whole Lokomotiv game Virazh (i.e. the St. Peterburg counterpart for Italian curvas), kept silent, only booing Shirokov from time to time.

9. Sergey Revyakin’s debut for CSKA

Igor Akinfeev’s injury, Vladimir Gabulov’s loan agreement restrictions, and Sergey Chepchugov’s last hope foul allowed the Matchday 32 to feature a highly significant event: in the last game of the year, 16-year-old goalkeeper Sergey Revyakin made his debut for CSKA Moscow, becoming the youngest player to be fielded in the matches of the national championship in 2011.

Still, Revyakin’s debut was slurred over as it began with a penalty clinically converted by Samuel Eto’o in the 89th minute.

by Nikita Koroteev