Rubin Kazan v Luch-Energiya Vladivostok preview

By: j | August 2nd, 2008

In one of the most important matches of today, table-leader Rubin Kazan visits relegation threatened Luch-Energiya Vladivostok. This match has enormous implications Rubin Kazan clings to a one-point lead and has very quickly seen much of the pack catch up to it. With our preview, lets first consider recent form:

Recent Form (prior five matches)
Rubin Kazan – combined (0 W, 5 D, 0 L) (3 GS, 3 GA)
May 15 Rubin Kazan 1 – 1 YFK Shinnik Yaroslav
July 5 Samara Kryliya Sovetov 2 – 2 FK Rubin Kazan
July 16 Rubin Kazan 0 – 0 Saturn Moscow
July 20 Terek Grozny 0 – 0 FK Rubin Kazan
July 26 Rubin Kazan 0 – 0 CSKA Moscow

Rubin Kazan – away (2 W, 2 D, 1 L) ( 5 GS, 5 GA)
April 25 Dinamo Moscow 0 – 2 Rubin Kazan
May 6 FC Moscow 1 – 2 Rubin Kazan
May 10 Spartak Nalchik 2 – 0 Rubin Kazan
July 5 Samara Kryliya Sovetov 2 – 2 Rubin Kazan
July 20 Terek Grozny 0 – 0 FK Rubin Kazan

Luch-Energiya Vladivostok – combined ( 1 W, 2 D, 2 L) ( 2 GS, 6 GA)
July 5 Luch-Energiya Vladivostok 1 – 1 FC Khimki
July 12 Amkar Perm’ 2 – 0 Luch-Energiya Vladivostok
July 16 Luch-Energiya Vladivostok 0 – 0 Zenit St Petersburg
July 20 Luch-Energiya Vladivostok 1 – 0 Dinamo Moscow
July 27 Spartak Moscow 3 – 0 Luch-Energiya Vladivostok

Luch-Energiya Vladivostok – home (1 W, 2 D, 2 L) ( 3 GS, 6 GA)
April 26 Luch-Energiya Vladivostok 1 – 3 CSKA Moscow
May 7 Luch-Energiya Vladivostok 0 – 2 Spartak Nalchik
July 5 Luch-Energiya Vladivostok 1 – 1 FC Khimki
July 16 Luch-Energiya Vladivostok 0 – 0 Zenit St Petersburg
July 20 Luch-Energiya Vladivostok 1 – 0 Dinamo Moscow

Clearly as you review recent play it is quite obvious that League leader, Rubin Kazan, is in a state of disarray as they have played to three scoreless draws in successive and championships are not won if you can’t score. The spark that propelled them to the top of the table has apparently returned since the season restarted and they are now facing one of most challenging away sites, Luch-Energiya Vladivostok. Located on the far eastern portion of Russia, the Vladivostok has had an odd season to say the least. For a team perilously close to relegation, they haven’t played that poorly and in-fact four of their seven losses have one goal decisions. With Rubin Kazan having offensive scoring problems the tight marking defensive squad of Luch-Energiya will doubly pose problems. However all that aside, Rubin-Kazan if they get untracked have the mettle and discipline to win the league outright and cannot be underestimated.

Luch-Energiya Vladivostok play a tight defensive game, primarily in a 4-5-1 (although recently we’ve seen more of a (3-5-2) and are capable of shutting down the best of attacks, as they did with both Zenit St. Petersburg and Dinamo Moscow, where they completely frustrated them and didn’t allow a goal. Equally their manager, Zoran Vulić, has found a spark since the break and the recent victory over CSKA Moscow with a last minute goal by Igor Shevchenko signaled a team not ready to throw in the towel. They will have a major disadvantage as ‘keeper Marek Čech is suspended after receiving a red-card late in Spartak Moscow match that they lost and this could be the deciding factor.

Rubin Kazan’s manager Kurban Berdyev has made massive changes to the squad of recent with the only constants internationally capped veterans, defenders Roman Sharonov (Russia) and Stjepan Tomas (Croatia) and midfielder MacBeth Sibaya (South Africa). I expect them to come out in a tight 4-5-1, with Galatasaray alumni Hasan Kabze as the lone-striker.

Enjoy this great Russian Premier League match, which should be getting started in roughly 4 hours from now.