How did they make it? Maybe picture is the answer…

Good weekend

Alexander Prudnikov
Spartak teenager from B-squad was late substitute and became a winning goal scorer. Prudnikov nicknamed Elephant (Slon) for his physique and he’s one of the best young players in the world. He was completely amazing at Meridian Cup in Barcelona. Here is one of his greatest goals for Europe U-18.

Denis Kiselev
Tom striker powered two in six minutes to equalize from 0:2 against FC Rostov. Maybe it’s all because of Tomsk website announced his cellular number for fans SMS. Kiselev’s nickname is Kisa (brief version of surname but also means little kitten). Well, he can call himself even a Mickey Mouse – the fact is that SMS helps him to score!

Timofey Kalachev
Speedy pace and crazy shot from wide angle – just watch it.

Bad weekend

Lokomotiv Moscow
Railmen lost three in a row, all to neighbor/enemy Moscow teams. If you like chess like Loko coach did, it’s obvious that they need to stop give figures and take something instead.

Saturn Ramenskoe
Got only one point in two home matches. Saturn caught a draw against Krylya Sovetov Samara with Kirichenko equalized on last minute. Now Aliens have 3 draws – more than others as usual. Last season they drawn 18 times and finished 11th so now they can beat themselves.

Spartak Moscow
Won the very principal away derby against Zenit. That was really Saint Petersburg versus Moscow clash and Muscovites suddenly crushed home side by three goals in first half. Juicy was the fact that first was scored by Spartak charismatic leader and captain Egor Titov (video below). And second by Saint Petersburg refugee Vladimir Bystrov, who left Zenit for Spartak last season. He earned a penalty and scored – be sure he would never even try to kick from the spot in another match!

CSKA Brazilians
Ramon and Vagner Love of CSKA score early and late goals to mine a win in Moscow derby against Lokomotiv. These teams strongly argued for first place few years ago and CSKA couldn’t beat Loko for 3 seasons. Now their time has come.

Rubin Kazan
Team from Tatarstan moved from last place thanks to home win against Premier League debutant FC Khimki. Rubin has disadvantage on the way but found time to overtake – winner was scored on last minute.

Ricardo Jesus
Spartak Nalchik forward scored twice against Kuban Krasnodar in South derby. It’s really easier for Brazilian to adopt there, in (comparatively) hot climate.

Bad Weekend

Alexey Rebko
Close before his first national team call, Spartak young midfielder was attacked by hooligans in subway. They broke his jaw and he missed the game. Now he recovered and was put in Spartak start XI but shortly got first yellow card for wearing necklace and second for obstructing opponent. What a kindergarden.

Pavel Pogrebnyak
He’s the man who really hates Spartak and ready for anything in this case. Pogrebnyak even pushed away his teammate to score by himself. But it was the only Zenit goal – his team lost and he was sent off for elbowing opponent.

Look at these people eating seeds together. They came to support FC Rostov with their mouths occupied. Maybe that’s why their team conceded three goals without an answer in first half against Zenit Saint Petersburg. But when they’ve finished their seed reserves, Rostov suddenly scored twice and only the whistle stopped them on the way to draw.

So it’s obviously that you’re have to start supporting your team by getting this crap out of your mouth. And it’s better to do it from the very beginning of the game. But habits are strong. And I think that Rostov not to be a champion soon.

Leonid Slutskiy
Coach of FC Moscow was the triumphant of principal “manager derby” vs Tom Tomsk (read more here). FC Moscow lost their best striker but Slutskiy bet on young forward Roman Adamov and won: he scored twice. Lucky “Russian Mourinho” Slutskiy!

Alexander Gorshkov
He was a hero yesterday, sending cryptic insult to fans; he became a hero once more. Gorshkov participated in three away goals that Zenit Saint Petersburg has scored.

Andrey Tikhonov
Legendary ex-Spartak player and now-leader of Premier League debutant FC Khimki scored from free kick and led his team to first win. And started a blog – first ever for any Russian football player.

Lokomotiv’ scouts
Scouting service of Lokomotiv Moscow signed Romanian forward Razvan Cocis and Brazilian defender Rodolfo. Both scored in first Lokomotiv home winning match.

Bad weekend

Yuriy Klyuchnikov
Referee from Rostov-upon-Don gave a very doubtful penalty kick. Video spots the evidence. Thanks to Kluchnikov, Luch-Energiya got a rare away win and increased number of strange penalty decisions called “Luchpenalty” (yeah, in one word).

CSKA Moscow. They are Horses because their stadium was built on site of stables. They are The Army too – CSKA actually means Central Sports Club (Klub, heh) of Army.

Spartak Moscow. They are Pigs. Original nickname was Meat (Myaso in Russian) because Spartak’ prototypal team was based on meat-packing plant.

Lokomotiv Moscow. You all know what “locomotive” means. No wonder they are Railmen.

Zenit Saint Petersburg. Zenit won a title only once – in 1984. That caused a mass print of plastic bags with club logo. Then you could easily recognize Zenit’ fans by bag in their hands and call them Bags.

Rubin Kazan. Actually hasn’t a nickname. Maybe we can call them Tatars – they are from Tatarstan.

FC Moskva. Club formed fellowship with Manchester City and claim to be Citizens too. But majority call them Caps – because they former sponsor Luzhkov, Moscow major, wear a funny cap.

Luch-Energiya Vladivostok. Tigers – there are few of them at Russian Far East.

Tom Tomsk. Siberians – they are really that far.

Spartak Nalchik. No nickname. Hillfolks may be the offensive one.

Krylya Sovetov Samara. Winglets – that’s what Krylya means.

Saturn Ramenskoe. Aliens – they might be from planet Saturn.

FC Rostov. It would be very obscenely to call them that way, but they are Farmers.

Amkar Perm. No nickname. Permians?

Dynamo Moscow. Team was always protected by big men in Police Department. So we can call them Cops.

FC Khimki. They are our Rossoneri.

Kuban Krasnodar. They might be Cossacks or simply Cubans.

That’s all. Enjoy it and don’t forget to take a look at the map of Russian football.

Good weekend

FC Moskva
Won the very first match of Premier League at Far East against Luch-Energiya. Vladivostok fans cleaned the pitch for Argentinian Hector Bracamonte who scored ultimate first goal of the season. Last season Luch-Energiya lost in Vladivostok only twice. Now it’s just one slot left.

Igor Shevchenko
Youngster from Samara shot a wonderful left-footed strike to secure Krylya Sovetov dominance over FC Khimki. Unlike another Shevchenko, he did well this weekend.

Team. Won 3 Premier League titles, 3 Russian Super Cups, 2 Russian Cups and UEFA Cup in 2005 – all in last 4 years. Winning of UEFA Cup gained attention to Russian football and soon three Brazilians of CSKA got national team call. Club prosperity related partly to Roman Abramovich but mostly to club president Evgeniy Giner and coach Valeriy Gazzaev.

Stars. Strong Brazilian Diaspora – strikers Vagner Love and Jo, midfielders Daniel Carvalho, Dudu and Ramon. All Russian players of CSKA start XI play for national team – the greatest are keeper Igor Akinfeev and left midfielder Yuriy Zhirkov (here is the sample of his skill).

Transfers. CSKA prefer to target needed players long before transfer and wait for right moment. They signed only two midfielders –Turk Erkin Caner of Manisaspor and Brazilian Ramon of Corinthians who was called “The New Kaka”.

Rivals. Spartak Moscow. CSKA keep beating them for 6 years in every tournament. What a sorrowful story.

Fact. CSKA coach Valeriy Gazzaev promised to shave off his mustache if they win UEFA Cup. They got it – but he didn’t. CSKA rivals always cite this fact – just because they usually got nothing to say.

Team. Has a long, glorious history. Famed with special build of a game, “Spartak style”: back-to-back passing and parallel running. The beginning of XXI century was the great convulsion to Spartak – they’ve lost big coach Oleg Romantsev, sold key players and bought crap instead. Now, after some changes, team is trying to return on past level with coach Vladimir Fedotov, who is old-timer in Spartak’ management.

Star. Egor Titov – long-time captain and the last one who played with famous Spartak’ stars of the past. He was declared “keeper of true Spartak spirit” but unfortunately playing worse and worse. But Spartak’ academy grew some good youngsters – Roman Shishkin, Artyom Dzuba and Dmitriy Torbinskiy now reach the first team.

Transfers. It’s strange but Spartak, who claim to win championship, failed transfer campaign. Main aim was Livorno goalkeeper Marco Amelia but he didn’t arrive and now club have a big problem. They signed Croatian Stipe Pletikosa on last day of transfer period but I’m afraid that won’t be a salvation.

Rivals. Sure it’s another “people’s team” – Zenit St. Petersburg. If you want to have some real Russian football, visit Spartak vs. Zenit (see photo). And another rival is CSKA – not so attended but also very hot derby.

Fact. Vladimir Fedotov said that his team are “the most cheerful” in Premier League. That’s it, Vladimir, that’s it. Only Spartak could left the team bus for going to Champions League match against Inter on subway. And after that concede a goal on 1st minute. Oh yeah. How cheerful.