Russian Cup, group stage. CSKA didn’t notice Torpedo

Cup of Russia. Group stage. 1st round. Lev Yashin Stadium. Torpedo 0:2 CSKA. Goals: Ermakov, 14, Gaich, 68.

Igor Akinfeev on the bench, a negligible number of spectators (hello to the RFU with his fan passports), Cherdantsev smoking in the commentary position (it can be seen by the old-timers of MatchTV, laws are not written) and another mediocre game of car manufacturers – such is the entourage of the match at the Dynamo stadium.

Army helmsman Fedotov gave rest to the seven main players of CSKA in the cup meeting, but this did not help Torpedo either. CSKA spent a lot of time in the opponent’s half of the field and put high pressure, a bunch of newcomers Mendez – Zdelar was responsible for the creativity. The first “pancake”, however, they turned out lumpy. In reality, the scoring combination with the participation of Mendes, Ermakov and Gaich did not give any result. But in the second – the newly-minted torpedo player Le Tallec, in the position of a central defender, clearly made a mistake. When CSKA scored its first goal, Le Tallec missed Gaich and Kozhemyakin missed Ermakov. It was the latter, when finishing, skillfully sent the ball into the net of Dovbny’s goal. This ball was Ermakov’s debut for the red-blue.

“Torpedo” for the first time approached the bored army goalkeeper Torop only in the 43rd minute, and even then the blow of the car manufacturer was not only in the “milk”, but even further and higher. CSKA also constantly created scoring chances. Diveev, after a corner, hit the crossbar with his head, Mendez missed the ball from a lethal position (it was easier to score there than not to score), and Gaich, once again leaving Le Tallec to “watch football”, for some reason forgave Torpedo. Adolfo, before scoring in the second half, was greedy at least three times and sent the ball not into the net or partners into an empty net, but into the Torpedo goalkeeper. And here the commentator of the match Cherdantsev scored for the second time: for some reason he said to the whole country that Gaich “forced Smolov out of the squad”, who plays for a completely different team …

After the break, the Argentinean continued to play cat and mouse with the Russian Frenchman. But only on the fourth attempt, the army center forward Gaich “punished” Le Tallec by sending the ball into the net of the nominal hosts, setting the final score of the match. Dovbnya, who rescued his slow defenders several times, could not cope with this blow from the Argentinean.

A pair of black-and-white head coaches Nikolai Kovardaev and Nikolai Savichev had nothing to present to Fedotov: neither substitutions, nor shouts from the edge did not “awaken” the car factory workers to active actions. Torop’s first (of two) shots on target came only in the 58th minute.

The most dangerous moment for the Torpedo team was when Kuchaev cleared the ball almost from the goal line. It was the second, and the last, intelligible action of the Avtozavodtsev for the entire match.

The army team in the class brought the matter to a well-deserved victory. Avtozavodtsev also need to either change the coach again, or “reboot” the players and their attitude to the game.

And about the sad: the evening match in Rostov gathered almost 29 thousand spectators (a fan ID is not needed for the Cup games), and in the championship (where this law is in force) less than 8 thousand came in the previous round – in the same city, and at the same stadium . Isn’t it time for the RFU to think!?

When asked by a correspondent of our publication whether the coach was satisfied with the game and why Gaich, having three killer chances, scored only once, CSKA helmsman Vladimir Fedotov answered quite frankly: “We rejoice at this victory. But the coach is probably never completely satisfied. Liverpool won 9-0 in the last match, and there Klopp found flaws. There are always elements of pressure, defense and psychological moments. When we lead in the score, we miss the threads of the game and start playing adventurously. Here, of course, there is where to dig. He (Gaich) had absolutely no game practice, but he had a great desire to show himself and score a goal. When he appeared in Rostov on the field, then in his moment it was possible to make a pass, and then we would have opened the scoring. But he has a great desire, it’s hard to blame him for that. Football is a collective sport, it does not forgive mistakes. And implementation and balance comes with confidence, with great playing time. It is acquired on the football field, there is no other way. But he showed volume, diligence.

My question to Nikolai Savichev at the press conference after the match was that the Avtozavodtsy struck two shots on target at the army goal – and “what was the setting for the game?”. One of the Torpedo coaches clearly laid out the answer: “Two different halves. It is not clear why this is the first. Shackled movements. They were inferior in speed, speed of decision-making. Lots of marriage. CSKA is a fast team, young guys. We played the first half on pressure: high pressure. Failed to get out of the defense. Although prepared, but a lot of marriage. The second half is more interesting. You can write it down as an asset. They began to play more boldly in attack. There were moments. Yes, an optional ball missed. If we had kept the score, we could have counted on more. But they didn’t give up. The setting was to play loosely. We thought that the guys would not be so tight, they would not be afraid to lose, they would show a more spectacular game, emotions. Something went wrong, as planned. I think this is due to the opponent: they offered speed that they couldn’t handle.”

Vladimir Sabadash.

Photo – Sergey Vinogradov.