“The Equality Cup is an interesting tournament” – Kommersant FM
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Russian football clubs have begun preparations for the Russian Premier League. The championship will resume in a month, and teams are now registering for off-season tournaments. The first meeting took place in the Equality Cup in Qatar, where Zenit is taking part. Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua beat local Al-Duhail with a score of 1:0. Kommersant FM sports columnist Vladimir Osipov was looking into whether Russian football fans should pay attention to this tournament.
The Equality Cup is an interesting tournament. In addition to the fact that Zenit is taking part here, which acquired another portion of Brazilians, the Chinese team Shanghai Shenhua, led by Leonid Slutsky, came to Qatar. And his confrontation with Zenit will definitely be a special entertainment. After Shanghai’s first victory at the tournament, Slutsky did not hide the fact that he missed coaching: “When you rest a little and gain energy, you already crave this coaching work. Therefore, of course, a year was enough for me to restore my energy. Now every day you “beat your hoof” because there is a new team, a new country, new players, and it is incredibly difficult and interesting.”
So, it’s worth looking at it at least with one eye, especially since all matches of the Equality Cup are shown by the public television channel “Match TV”. Shanghai Shenhua will meet Zenit next week, on February 8, although an allowance must be made for the fact that the tournament is pre-season. Zenit head coach Sergei Semak constantly emphasizes when communicating with journalists that the result is not the main thing here: “We will play in the tournament and, of course, we will try to get as much information as possible about who is ready.”
Another off-season tournament, which starts on February 2 in the United Arab Emirates, will also not go unnoticed by football fans. Firstly, Rostov and Spartak are taking part here, and secondly, the tournament has serious press support, which means that there will be a lot of quotes from coaches and players. Rostov head coach Valery Karpin, for example, said a lot of interesting things even before the start of the matches. The main thing is that Valery Georgievich denied rumors that he was allegedly tired of football:
“They heard a ringing, but they don’t know where it is. I never said that I was going somewhere, that I was tired or anything else. I said that something can happen in the life of any person, he can say: “fuck it all.” Nowhere did I say that I was tired.”
Today Karpin’s Rostov begins the tournament with a match against the team from Dubai Shabab Al-Ahli. We are looking forward to the meeting between Rostov and Spartak next week on February 7th. It is worth saying that the coach of the red-and-whites, Guillermo Abascal, also did not leave his colleagues indifferent when talking to the press, saying that he treats rumors about his resignation with understanding.
The Spaniard looks calm, although after an interview with the general director of the red-and-white Oleg Malyshev about a possible change of coach, many thought that the chair under Abascal was shaking. On the other hand, the young striker from Costa Rica who appeared at Spartak was bought specifically for Abascal’s tasks.
So, it seems that a lot will depend on how Spartak starts in the second half of the season. And here it is worth recalling that the national team begins in the spring in St. Petersburg with a game against Zenit. In the meantime, Spartak is waiting for the RPL Winter Cup matches against Rostov, the Shabab Al-Ahli club and the Kazakh Kairat.
At least from these meetings it will be possible to get a rough impression of the players’ readiness for the season. The main thing is not to expect too much from these matches. Although none of the Russian teams is now capable of disappointing their fans the way Inter Miami and Al-Nasr did the night before.
Imagine how much the fans waited for the friendly match between these teams in Riyadh. After all, this was supposed to be another confrontation between Lionel Messi and Ronaldo. But in the end, the Portuguese was injured, and everything planned collapsed at once. Here it is, the harsh and merciless world of the off-season.
Everything is clear with us – Telegram channel “Kommersant FM”.
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