Tom’ Tomsk v Shinnik Yaroslav match preview

By: j | August 22nd, 2008

This is simply a peculiar match between Shinnik Yaroslav, which before last week, seemed doomed to relegation and Tom’ Tomsk which consistently loses close matches. Tom’ Tomsk have had a murderous schedule over the last three weeks and while pointless, have played quite reasonably well and certainly showing themselves as a squad capable of maintaining a mid-table position and avoiding relegation. Yet offensively their scoring has all but dried up and rely upon opposition errors as opposed to creative flourish. Shinnik Yaroslav on the other-hand has looked positively dismal for much of the campaign and then last week, while the celebration of Zenit Saint Petersburg’s return to the title race was about to start, they decided to put together there best match of the season and demolish the defending champions 3-1 and out-play them in every facet of the game. Simply stated for those that like a predictable match, who knows who will show up for this one and neither club performs on a consistent basis.

Recent Form
Tom’ Tomsk – combined (1 W, 1 D, 3 L)(5 GS, 6 GA)
Jul 19 Tom’ Tomsk 3 – 1 Khimki
Jul 26 Amkar Perm’ 0 – 0 Tom’ Tomsk
Aug 2 Tom’ Tomsk 0 – 1 Spartak Moscow
Aug 9 FC Moscow 2 – 1 Tom’ Tomsk
Aug 15 Tom’ Tomsk 1 – 2 Rubin Kazan

Tom’ Tomsk – away (1 W, 1 D, 3 L)(5 GS, 10 GA)
May 3 Terek Grozny 1 – 3 Tom’ Tomsk
May 10 Lokomotiv Moscow 2 – 0 Tom’ Tomsk
Jul 6 Zenit St Petersburg 5 – 1 Tom’ Tomsk
Jul 26 Amkar Perm’ 0 – 0 Tom’ Tomsk
Aug 9 FC Moscow 2 – 1 Tom’ Tomsk

Shinnik Yaroslav – combined (1 W, 2 D, 2 L)(5 GS, 8 GA)
Jul 12 Shinnik Yaroslav 0 – 0 Samara Kryliya Sovetov
Jul 23 Saturn Moscow Oblast 4 – 0 Shinnik Yaroslav
Jul 27 Shinnik Yaroslav 1 – 1 Terek Grozny
Aug 9 Shinnik Yaroslav 1 – 2 Luch-Energiya Vladivostok
Aug 17 Zenit St Petersburg 1 – 3 Shinnik Yaroslav

Shinnik Yaroslav – home (1 W, 2 D, 2 L)(4 GS, 4 GA)
May 2 Shinnik Yaroslav 2 – 0 Dynamo Moscow
May 10 Shinnik Yaroslav 0 – 1 FC Moscow
Jul 12 Shinnik Yaroslav 0 – 0 Samara Kryliya Sovetov
Jul 27 Shinnik Yaroslav 1 – 1 Terek Grozny
Aug 9 Shinnik Yaroslav 1 – 2 Luch-Energiya Vladivostok

As noted in my preliminary comments, this match is an unpredictable affair and I’ll wait and see on the opening lineup. Shinnik substituted Maksim Burchenko and Dmitri Kudriashov into the midfield early against Zenit and they completely changed the pace of the match including keeping Igor Denisov and Anatoliy Tymoschuk in-check. This will be an interesting match to watch as Shinnik knows with a victory is critical for their relegation battle.