Saint-Petersburg - the northern capital of Russia – met the participants of the XVI international tournament “Commonwealth Champions Cup of CIS and Baltic States” with the mild weather. The outdoor temperature was +3 C, but in the afternoon of the first round day it was snowing. But it didn’t stand in the way of football because the matches should be played indoors.
The match between “Zenit” and “Sheriff” started about 40 minutes late due to the grand opening of the tournament. In days of old it took 10-15 minutes. Spectators assembled in abundance on the stands to support “Zenit” - the popular club in Saint-Petersburg. The past Championship of Russia confirmed that. For the first time in its history, the team from banks of the Neva in the year 2006 won the title of the best team of the 6th part of the land.
Our team had the advantage during the whole match. “Sheriff” attacked a lot creating many goal-scoring opportunities. And already on the 18th minute “Sheriff” achieved a success. Newcomer Igor Picusciac, who headed the list of the National Division forwards, unsealed the goal of Alexander Kerzhakov’s brother.
Leonid Kuchuk’s team kept on attacking the opposing goal. Picusciac, Thiago, Wallace, Balima, Gorodetchi were creating dangerous moments in the penalty box of their opponents. The accuracy was just lacking in the finishing touches. Wallace hit the cross-bar from the free kick, Thiago failed to score from the penalty spot, but it was not a spot-kick.
Five minutes prior to the first half everything suddenly turned over. Two smashing counterattacks of the home team unexpectedly finished in goals. The first half of the time ended with the illogical score 2-1 to “Zenit”.
During the whole second part of the match “Sheriff” kept on attacking the goal of Mikhail Kerzhakov. The goal-scoring opportunities appeared one after another but the score was not changed. And at the end of the match the score became 3-1 after the mistake of Simion Bulgaru.
“Sheriff” suffered the defeat which was considered as illogical. In the lobby of CSC “Peterburgskiy” many people asked themselves the question: “How could “Zenit” win?” Certainly, even the youngest players of the club from Saint-Petersburg couldn’t answer this question.
“Sheriff” captain Vazha Tarkhnishvili was only moving his head: ”I saw everything during my life but such thing happened in my professional career for the first time”.
In spite of the defeat, the fight in the tournament goes on. Today “Sheriff” plays against Estonian “Levadia” which could score the goal in the inexpressive match against “Ashkhabad”, Turkmenistan, and won the game with the minimal victory. |
