The Bulls are having their best season in history, the Leopards are having their worst.

FC Krasnodar defeated PFC CSKA and went into the winter break as the leader of the Russian championship. PFC Sochi missed out on victory in the last minutes against Orenburg and remained in last place in the Russian Premier League. “MK in Kuban” is about the main sporting events in the Krasnodar region.

Records match

The last match of 2023 was played by the Bulls at home against the Army team. It took place as part of the eighteenth round of the Russian Premier League and became the thirty-first official game against the “red-blues” – this is more than against any other team in the entire existence of Krasnodar. In this game, it was decided whether Vladimir Ivich’s team would go into the winter break as a leader or lose the championship to Zenit – the day before the meeting in Krasnodar, the St. Petersburg team beat Paris Nizhny Novgorod with a minimal score and overtook the Bulls.

Despite the cool weather (+5 °C), the game attracted a record number of fans this season. 32,792 spectators came to watch the match; the stadium was almost completely full. The negative Fan ID factor was completely leveled out in Krasnodar.

Compared to the last match against Orenburg, Ivic made significant changes to the starting lineup. From the first minutes, Moses Kobnan and Ilzat Akhmetov were in the starting lineup.

The Bulls started the match cautiously. For a long time, Ivic’s team could not enter the opponent’s half of the field: the army team immediately took possession of the territory and put pressure on them. Already in the seventh minute, CSKA could have scored: Fedor Chalov picked up speed in the center, shook Junior Alonso and delivered a good tight shot from the approaches to the penalty area. Matvey Safonov saved the team with a spectacular jump. The second moment immediately happened: Chalov made a great run under the pass on the move, burst into the penalty area from the left, after which he paused and played towards the line in the center to the onrushing Abbosbek Faizullaev. The Uzbek shot well, but Vitor Tormena blocked the shot on the goal line.

Nevertheless, Krasnodar maintained the high tempo of the game. It took the Bulls 25 minutes to hit Igor Akinfeev’s first shot on target. In the first half, CSKA looked clearly better, but the score was not opened before the break.

In the second half, Ivic raised the lines, and the “bulls” began to take the initiative. They did it. This allowed Olakunle Olusegun to play dangerously. Akinfeev had to save the team in one episode, however, it turned out that the Nigerian was shooting from an offside position.

In the 62nd minute, Ivich released Alexander Koksharov and Nikita Krivtsov onto the field. They replaced Moses and Akhmetov. The Krasnodar midfielder took to the field especially motivated. Krivtsov entered into martial arts, accelerated, and showed high activity.

CSKA did not retreat and continued to create dangerous moments near Safonov’s goal. In the 67th minute of the match, Kelven dragged the ball from the right into the center, played it to Milan Gaich, who played one-touch to Chalov in the center of the penalty area. The striker hit with a turn, Safonov hit the ball in a jump.

In the 82nd minute, Matvey Lukin successfully intercepted and fired an excellent diagonal to the left into the penalty area to Faizullaev. The midfielder went one-on-one with Safonov, but missed the goal from an acute angle, the ball flew parallel to the frame, and no one was able to complete the shot.

The guests looked preferable in this match, but everything was decided by one episode performed by Krasnodar. In the ninetieth minute, the Bulls earned a free kick. Spertsyan crossed from the left to the far post – the ball flew into the top corner. The crossbar came to the rescue of CSKA. Angular. Spertsyan, already to the right of the flag, crossed to the near post, Krivtsov hit the ball into the near corner with a powerful blow from the goalkeeper’s corner. The standard was played so quickly that CSKA frankly missed it. Akinfeev rushed to save the situation, reached for the ball, but it flew into the net from the hands of the goalkeeper.

The Bulls only needed one shot on target in the second half to win. It became an anniversary event for the club—the 300th in the entire history of the club. Krasnodar’s only and victorious goal in this match became the thousandth in the official history of the club. True, nine of these goals were the result of three technical defeats of the Bulls’ opponents with a score of 0:3.

Krasnodar goes into the winter break as the sole leader of the Russian Championship, with 38 points to its name. The closest pursuer, Zenit, is two points behind. The Bulls are enjoying their best season in their history.

The day after the victory over CSKA, the Krasnodar players and coaches went on vacation. They will gather for training camp on January 18th. Some players will come to Krasnodar, where they will undergo a medical examination before returning to training. Some players will join the team in the United Arab Emirates, where the “citizens” will hold two winter training camps. The first will be held in Dubai from January 21 to February 8, the second in Abu Dhabi from February 11 to 23.

Waiting for the savior

“Barsy” hosted “Orenburg” at home in the eighteenth round of the Russian championship. The team approached this meeting under the leadership of coach Denis Klyuev.

The undisputed leader of the team, Christian Noboa, took part in this game from the first minutes. The Ecuadorian did not compete at the start line for more than two months. With his return to the base, it became clear how much the Sochi team lacked a midfielder.

In the first half, the resort team beat Orenburg. Most of the attacks came through Noboa. The Ecuadorian himself could have scored in the 33rd minute after a pass from Timofey Margasov. Before the break, the playmaker brought Ivan Ignatiev one on one with Alexey Kenyaykin. The center forward scored, but chief referee Evgeniy Kukulyak initially canceled the goal. It seemed to the referee that there was an offside position. The video replay made it clear that there was no offside. For Ignatiev, this goal was the second of the season and only the first from the game. The once very promising Krasnodar student turned into an ordinary player.

During the break, Orenburg coach David Deogracia made a large-scale change. Four fresh players immediately came into the game. This led to significant changes. The guests began to take the initiative and put pressure. This tactic brought results. One goal by Himmi Marin was not counted. The referee determined that it was scored from an offside position. In the fourth added minute, Lucas Vera easily picked off Yuri Medvedev on the left flank, crossed into the center of the penalty area, where Danila Khotulev overpowered his opponent and headed the ball into Nikita Goilo’s net – 1:1.

Sochi broke a streak of three defeats and went into the winter break with eleven points and in last place in the Russian Championship standings.

It is obvious that the team will have a new coach in 2024. The media are reporting three main candidates for the post of coach of the “resort team”. One of the main contenders is Serbian Zarko Lazetic. Allegedly, Sochi and the 41-year-old specialist have already held negotiations. But now the coach heads the TSC Backa Topola club. Lazetic is a young coach; he started eight years ago as an assistant at Partizan. The Serbian has been working as the main mentor for a little over four years. He took charge of TSC Backa Topola in November 2021, and last season he achieved the best result in the club’s history. The Serbs took second place and qualified for the Champions League. But there they immediately lost in the third qualifying round on aggregate to the Portuguese Braga (0:3 away and 1:4 at home). TSC Backa Topola moved to the group stage of the Europa League, where after five rounds it ranks last, along with West Ham, Freiburg and Olympiacos. In the Serbian Super League this season, TSC Backa Topola is in third place, ten points behind Red Star and Partizan.

The media also report that Slovakian Vladimir Weiss and Czech Pavel Vrba are being considered for the position of Sochi head coach. The first one is now headed by Slovan from Bratislava. With this team, the 59-year-old specialist has won the Slovak championship for the last three years. Weiss has already worked in Russia. From February 2006 to May 2007, he coached Saturn. The team from Ramenskoye played forty matches in the Premier League under the leadership of Weiss, twenty-three of which ended in a draw. The Slovak had only eight wins and nine defeats. In total, during his coaching career, Weiss had five championship titles in Slovakia (two with Petržalka in 2005 and 2008) and five victories in national cups. He took this trophy three times in Slovakia and twice in Kazakhstan with Kairat. Weiss led the Slovakian national team to the World Championships in South Africa in 2010, where they won the group against Italy and reached the eighth final.

Vrba does not currently have a club. In October 2023, the sixty-year-old specialist left Zlín. The reason was the last place in the Czech championship table. In Russia, Vrba was noted for his work with Anzhi. He coached in Dagestan for six months – from June to December 2016. Under his mentorship, Anzhi played seventeen matches in the Russian Premier League, won five victories, drew five times and suffered seven defeats.

Vrba also has many trophies in his career. He won three championships and the Czech Cup with Viktoria Pilsen. Championship and Cup of Slovakia with Zilina. In Bulgaria, Vrba won gold medals with Ludogorets. The mentor was recognized eight times as coach of the year in the Czech Republic. Before heading Anzhi, the specialist coached the Czech national team and brought it to Euro 2016. The Czechs performed poorly at the tournament, winning only a point in matches with Spain, Croatia and Turkey.

So far the media are not considering the appearance of a Russian coach in Sochi. Although this option also cannot be excluded. After all, there are now quite a lot of decent domestic specialists without work, who could also correct the situation in which the silver medalist of the 2021/22 season found himself.