“Spartak” worked on the penalty – Sport – Kommersant

In the United Arab Emirates, a fairly representative in terms of the composition of participants and a non-standard football tournament, the Winter Cup of the Russian Premier League (RPL), has started. In addition to the fact that Spartak, Rostov, Krasnodar and Sochi announced in it will play three matches each, they will also compete with each other in the so-called game challenges, or contests. The total prize fund of the tournament is 10 million rubles. The RPL Cup opened with a match between Spartak and Rostov, in which Muscovites won on penalties – 2: 1.

The organizers of the RPL Winter Cup did everything to go beyond the routine pre-season tournament and draw increased attention to it. First of all, they picked up an interesting composition of participants. Spartak and Rostov, after all, take second and third places in the Russian championship, which will resume in less than a month, while Krasnodar and Sochi recently changed head coaches. And if the Kuban team was headed by an unfamiliar Serbian specialist Vladimir Ivich, then the master of the domestic coaching workshop Kurban Berdyev is now working with the Black Sea team. He returned in the RPL after a three-year break, and this return was perhaps the loudest event of the current offseason.

The organizers of the RPL Cup have prepared a number of surprises. Thus, the format of the tournament provides not only regular matches with the participation of teams, but also a separate competition for club representatives, following the example of hockey star weekends, when players compete in special competitions.

It is known that five game challenges will be included in the program, and which ones are still kept secret. According to some reports, the players, in particular, will have to take a penalty for accuracy and overcome an obstacle course. The team that scores the most points in all competitions will receive a cash prize of 3 million rubles. These “fun starts” will take place on February 4th.

Another innovation will be tested in the RPL Winter Cup. For the first time, match participants, again by analogy with hockey practice, will be able to use such an option as a request to view a disputed moment. Once per half, clubs have the right to use video replay if they have doubts about a goal, a penalty kick or not, a direct red card, or a warning or sending off the wrong player. The judges themselves, in case of disputes, also have the right to review the episode on their own initiative, despite the fact that the protocol of the VAR system is not officially valid at the tournament. Another innovation is that the arbitrators are required to comment on their decisions live after watching the video. And after the final whistle, they, along with the head coaches of the teams and the players, were obliged to give television flash interviews.

The RPL Winter Cup started in sunny Abu Dhabi immediately with a confrontation between the leaders of the Premier League. Spartak and Rostov have already managed to hold a couple of sparrings this year, and successfully, having won two victories each.

The red-whites were still able to freshen up the squad by signing contracts with defenders Alexis Duarte and Tomas Tavares. Plus, striker Keita Balde, who has already scored a goal against the Uzbek AGMK, has finally served a three-month suspension for violating the doping control procedure. But Rostov has not yet shown itself on the transfer market and, even according to the notorious insider information, has not been seen in negotiations with potential newcomers.

Both teams took the match quite seriously and applied active pressure from the first minutes, demonstrating the character of martial arts that was by no means friendly in terms of density. They tried not to cross the boundaries of rigidity, but there were enough joints. Both of them were clearly not indifferent to the result. Do not forget that a solid prize money is due for winning the tournament – 7 million rubles. Why not an incentive? And in defense, everyone worked out, as in an official meeting, which is probably why there were simply no scoring chances for a very long time. Spartak’s Anton Zinkovsky delivered the first shot on target after a promising four-on-three counterattack, and this happened only in the 34th minute. There were no those very controversial points that could lead to the submission of a command request. So it is quite natural that no one managed to open an account before the break.

For the second half, the head coach of Spartak, Guillermo Abascal, released a different squad, in which there was a place, including the new central defender Duarte. A little later, Tavares also made his debut, located on the right. Rostov coach Valery Karpin also made many substitutions. Balde could score against the red-and-whites, but shot from a comfortable position almost into goalkeeper Sergei Pesyakov. But in general, the structure of the game did not change, and the teams still defended much better than they attacked. However, the Rostovites made a mistake in their own half, and Pavel Meleshin almost ran one on one with Pesyakov, who had to rescue his partners at the exit far beyond the penalty area.

Nominally, the second squad of Spartak still played with a certain advantage. Nevertheless, the match rolled to a goalless draw. At the end of regular time, Abaskal exercised his right to request, when Rostov defender Pavel Bocharov touched the ball in the penalty area with his hand after Danil Prutsev’s cross. However, the referee Kirill Levnikov, having reviewed that episode, saw no reason to award a penalty. The game ended with the score 0:0, and then, according to the rules of the tournament, the opponents continued to sort things out in a series of 11-meter kicks. And here, nevertheless, Spartak won – 2: 1. His goalkeeper Alexander Selikhov parried as many as three penalties and forced another Rostovite to miss. At Muscovites, Alexander Sobolev and Balde realized their attempts. Thus, the red-whites took two points, and the yellow-blues got one.

Alexander Ilyin