The tour was opened by zeros – Newspaper Kommersant No. 147 (7348) of 08/13/2022

The fifth round of the championship of Russia opened the match between two clubs from the basement of the standings. Premier League newcomer Fakel played a draw at home – 0:0 – with Ural, who scored the first point in the tournament.

The crisis Ural, which broke up this week after four defeats in a row with head coach Igor Shalimov, entered this match with a line-up slightly refreshed by his temporary replacement Evgeny Averyanov compared to the meeting of the previous round against Spartak, but with the same game. Not exactly sour, but such a game in which there is nothing to cling to in general. Everything is at some average level.

The game of the newcomer of the top division in this sense was at least distinguished by the degree of cheerfulness – high, to match the behavior of the stadium, which this season looks almost the liveliest in the Russian championship. She was more than enough. If you leave some nuances out of the equation, Fakel could be mistaken for some ordinary team not in Russia, but in the English Premier League: it is aimed at selection, after it it rushes forward at full speed, it is not afraid to beat. But these nuances, of course, hurt the eye too much to ignore them.

“Torch” was distinguished, in addition to cheerfulness, by exceptional unluckyness. He constantly had to fulfill set pieces, he was allowed to pick up rebounds from the penalty line. But all to no avail because of falsehood at decisive moments, when a goal is here, next to it.

Only Roman Akbashev was lucky enough to shoot three times from positions that seemed terribly promising. But none of these strikes turned out to be truly dangerous.

After the break, the agility in this match became even greater. First of all, thanks to the “Ural”, which, of course, added, if not in accuracy, then in anger. Episodes, he nevertheless reminded that in his ranks there are not so few football players who have recently been in good standing in the championship. Well, the same Vyacheslav Podberezkin, for example, is active, sharp, able to create witticism.

But the moments he created, of course, were lost against the background of what Fakel built in the middle of the second half. Ruslan Magal seemed to be fumbling with the ball in someone else’s penalty area, but it came to a discount for his partner. The partner was Akbashev, who this time had to shoot the completely defenseless goalkeeper Ilya Pomazun. But the Torch midfielder continued the sad tradition of this evening – the ball flew near the post.

And Ural responded to such an unpleasant moment with its own, no less terrible for the opponent. Andrey Egorychev performed a very good cross on the goalkeeper’s line – soft, rounding the heads of the defenders, in order to exactly lie on the head of teammate Eric Bikfalvi. He beat for sure, without a chance for goalkeeper Ilya Svinov. Fakel was lucky – the ball hit the crossbar.

And the fun on the field continued.

Both teams seemed to have decided that they couldn’t play “correct” football anyway, which means that they could safely play “yard football” – when they didn’t care about building barriers in the middle of the field, when the ball fluttered non-stop from one penalty area to another.

The unpretentious Voronezh audience was delighted. And when Maxim Maksimov sent the ball to the Ekaterinburg nine with his head, she was already ready to die of happiness – there were some centimeters before him. But happiness was spoiled by the fantastic, with hovering in the air “a la Michael Jordan” jump of Pomazun.

Zero draw in this whirlwind miraculously survived. “Ural” scored the first point in the championship. “Torch” actually did not go far from him: he has only three points.

Alexey Dospekhov