Russian Super Cup: chances of Zenit and CSKA are weighed

A bit of politics

Domestic football has been hit hard by sports sanctions. And this is not an exaggeration. If in other disciplines our athletes still have the opportunity to play at international tournaments at least in a neutral status, then the players were treated as harshly as possible.

At the beginning of March 2022, FIFA and UEFA made the decision to completely exclude all our national and club teams from all their competitions. And while this order remains unchanged. Yes, representatives of the leading world football organizations came to the last conference of the Football Union. Yes, they said from the podium that together with us they are thinking hard about how to bring Russian football back. Yes, our leaders periodically visit them for various commissions and meetings. You can name a few more such “yes”. But the fact remains that we are out of the game.

And there is no need to have illusions that all this disgrace will end soon – now the qualifying competitions for the 2024-2026 tournaments are already underway. And we do not participate in them.

You ask, why repeat all this, since we are talking about the Russian Super Cup and the start of a new football season? Only then, in order to understand once again – in such a situation, each of our tournaments, each friendly game of the national team and each individual match are of particular importance.

History of the Super Bowl

In the USSR, the Super Cup was called the Cup of the Season, and it was played, as now, by the champion of the country and the owner of the national cup. The tournament was held from 1977 to 1989, but the matches were held irregularly. And after the collapse of the Union, they were completely interrupted for a long 14 years.

The tradition of starting the football season with the Super Bowl returned in 2003. In many ways, this decision was influenced by the creation in 2001 of the Russian Football Premier League, which decided to organize its own tournament following the example of other European countries. The composition of the participants was left the same – the champion and the winner of the Cup. If the same team became the champion and the winner of the Cup, then its rival in the Super Bowl was the vice-champion of the country. And until 2011 they played only in Moscow.

In 2011, the Super Bowl was first decided to be held in another city. And they chose Krasnodar for this. The first away Supercup turned out to be so successful – there were no tickets for the match – that the next year the game was held in Samara. Then there were Rostov-on-Don, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Kaliningrad, and everywhere the stadiums were packed almost to capacity. Of course, they also played in Moscow, and even during the pandemic in 2020, in compliance with all the necessary sanitary restrictions – even the coronavirus could not interrupt the tradition of starting the season with this trophy.

Kazan was chosen for the Super Cup 2023, which has become a true sports capital of Russia. At the end of last season, hockey Ak Bars won the Gagarin Cup, basketball UNICS won the United League, football Rubin won gold medals in the First League and got into the RPL, and volleyball Zenit became the first in the Russian volleyball championship among men’s teams .

Match participants

This time, the reigning champion of Russia, Zenit St. Petersburg, and the Cup winner, CSKA, will compete for the first football trophy of the new season.

For Zenit, the last Russian championship was held in one breath. The team of Sergei Semak almost never gave reason to doubt their superiority. It includes not only the best Russian football players, but also the best legionnaires currently playing in our football.

CSKA also had a successful season. Before it started, the team was led by experienced Vladimir Fedotov. But he did not manage to go the whole distance without recessions. Nevertheless, the army team won the silver medals of the championship, beating Rostov under the leadership of the national team coach Valery Karpin, and Spartak with the Spaniard Guillermo Abascal at the helm. But most importantly, we managed to win the Cup of the country, which last season, due to all international sanctions, was held according to a new, “expanded” scheme. In the final on penalties, Krasnodar was beaten, which is a considerable merit of the best Russian goalkeeper of our time, Igor Akinfeev.

Principal rivals

The Super Bowl promises to be hot. Of course, Zenit has its own personal scores with each of the Moscow teams, but this time the conversation will be different with the army team.

Fuels are added to the fire by football-related rumors, which, perhaps, are just rumors. But this makes them even more piquant, even if they have nothing to do with reality.

What are we talking about?

Zenit has a very good attack. And quite a strong middle. Fully functional protection. But with the goalkeepers, again, perhaps, there are difficulties.

So far, the club’s application for the season includes 36-year-old Mikhail Kerzhakov, the younger brother of the legendary Zenit striker Alexander Kerzhakov and the first number of the team at the moment. And another 28-year-old Alexander Vasyutin, who played only three matches for the base last season, and before that he appeared in goal, again three times, back in July 2020. For a team with championship ambitions, the leader of Russian football, this is clearly not enough. According to some “insiders”, timidly looking over their shoulder, St. Petersburg really wanted to buy Ilya Pomazun from CSKA. Moreover, since 2020 he has been on loan from Ural. But the army team eventually extended the lease agreement with the Yekaterinburg team for another season, either not wanting to strengthen their direct competitor for gold medals, or hoping to return it to their own net if necessary. As it was already in the spring of 2021, Igor Akinfeev was suspected of having a coronavirus. Plus, the permanent captain of CSKA is already 37 years old. And although we all believe that Igor will please us all with his game for more than one year, – age … In general, Pomazun remained in the Urals.

Why might it seem that this upset the management of Zenith? Because it is whispered that Mario Fernandez, who played for CSKA for ten years, grew up in the army club to the football player of the Russian national team and went home to Brazil in 2022 due to personal circumstances, St. Petersburg bought from his current Internacional team, so to speak, without any hints, football is extremely cynical.

The fact is that on June 22, CSKA President Evgeny Giner, answering the question of the correspondent of the “Championship” whether Fernandez would return to the club, said: “Yes.” But then a topic arose with compensation in the amount of about 400 thousand dollars from Internacional CSKA in compensation. And the army team considered it inappropriate to pay any money for a free agent player. The club’s communications director, Kirill Breido, even gave a detailed comment on this in his telegram channel. It will take too long to quote him here, anyone can find him on this social network. The bottom line was that Mario, under a gentleman’s agreement with CSKA, became a free agent. So, any demands for any payments for it are inappropriate.

What happened next? Simply incredible – Zenit seems to have agreed to pay this money to Internacional. And Fernandez is already undergoing a medical examination in St. Petersburg, according to Zenit CEO Medvedev. And soon he may appear on the field in a blue-white-blue T-shirt. True, he will not play in the Super Bowl, but he may well take part in other matches against the army team.

As they say on the Internet: “What a twist!”

When will it start, where to watch and what else will be interesting

The game starts on Saturday at 17.00 Moscow time, it will be shown live by the Match TV channel. The inimitable Konstantin Genich and Alexander Netsenko will comment, more than 24 cameras will be involved in the shooting.

The organizers promise a great concert program, which has already become a tradition at all major football matches held by the Russian Football Union. They are even going to test “fully roll-out stage and music equipment equipped with LED screens for mobile installation when organizing ceremonies. Similar technologies are used at the largest sporting events in the world,” according to the RFU website.

Moreover, from July 13, the tour of the Super Cup itself began around the cities of the Republic of Tatarstan. Accompanied by former national team players Alexei Igonin, Roman Shirokov, Vladimir Gabulov, Andrey Arshavin, Evgeny Aldonin and Ruslan Nigmatulin, the Cup will travel to Nizhnekamsk, Naberezhnye Chelny and Kazan.

Where it will be played by CSKA and Zenit.