Footy Matter’s weekly RPL Review kicks off by bringing you up to speed on all the action so far.
A RIDDLE WRAPPED IN A MYSTERY INSIDE AN ENIGMA
Like some great bear reclined atop the globe, with its head in Europe and body stretching east to Japan, reaching from the freezing Arctic in the north to the baked oil fields of Azerbaijan in the south, Russia is mind-bogglingly massive: over 17 million square kilometres, 142 million people, 21 autonomous republics, 27 languages and eleven time zones. Combined with the peculiarities of a modern day state shaped by a Soviet past and a cutthroat-capitalist present, to the uninitiated the Russia can appear complex and alien.
LISTENING TO THE WIND OF CHANGE
So too the RPL, especially when compared to the polished familiarity/inevitability of our own Barclays Premiership – though nobody ever had Footy Matters to help out before.
Importantly, though, the football’s good. The RPL is fifth in UEFA’s national league rankings, closing in on France’s Ligue1 fast. With vainglorious oligarchs increasingly investing in clubs, injecting huge amounts of money almost overnight – Andrey Arshavin took a pay cut to move from the Gazprom backed Zenit to Arsenal last season – and the recent victories for Russian teams in the UEFA Cup (CSKA 2005, Zenit 2008), there’s a real argument to say the RPL is on the rise.
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
And Russia loves the game; it’s one of the few things that remain constant across the nation’s great span. However, the course of true love never did run smooth and so it is with the RPL. Things are done a little, err, differently than in the FA’s corridors of power.
Frankly, it’s precisely these simmering elements of logistical chaos and culture-clash and all the stories they create – coupled with the sense that the RPL is a league on the up – that makes it such an enthralling prospect.
So this column is where you’ll find all the news, views and reviews needed to guide you through to the season’s climax. Without further ado, here’s a glance at how the league has shaped up so far.
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
The RPL is already a good way into proceedings, with 19 of 30 matches having been played. Harsh winters mean the league runs from March through to late November (one of many idiosyncrasies you shall encounter in these posts over the weeks). But despair ye not, for there is much excitement to be enjoyed yet in a season where the top four sides are separated by just seven points.
The Tatar Republic’s Rubin Kazan are top of the pile with 40 points, 39 goals and just 13 conceded, making for an impressive ratio of 2.05 goals for and 0.68 against per game. Formidable away from home, Rubin have amassed 21 points from nine games, the best record in the division, and are still the only side unbeaten on their travels.
One point off Rubin, breathing hotly down their necks, is Spartak Moscow. After swapping Michael Laudrup for Valeriy Karpin as manager early in the season, the Red-Whites have made their Luzhniki stadium a fortress, notching 22 of their 37 league goals at home, winning seven from nine played there largely thanks to Welliton, their Brazilian hitman, who’s leading the scorers charts on 15.
Directly below Spartak are CSKA Moscow, Russia’s most recent powerhouse (or nouveau riche title-buyers), on 33 points. With four games against the other top five sides to play, more than any other team around them, they’ll have to perform well in the run-in to leapfrog into the champions’ berth.
In their last four games since the halfway point, FC Moscow have shipped as many goals as they had conceded in the previous 15. A couple of weeks back they lost their first home game, meaning FC Moscow also lost third place to city rivals, CSKA. With their newfound generosity at the back threatening their proud defensive record (second only to Rubin), FC Moscow’s season looks to be at an important crossroads.
THE DROP ZONE
For any fan of the bottom four that can consider themselves in the relegation dogfight, the goal difference column (or the “it will count for three extra points come the end of the campaign” column, if you’re Richard Keys) must read ominously like the average winter temperatures of their respective home towns – big figures preceded by minus signs. But things are done differently in Russia and it’s actually games won that is the first decider if teams are level on points.
With just 10 points and having shipped a woeful 37 goals, FC Khimki prop up the rest and are most likely for the drop. Spartak Nalchik, meanwhile, are four points better off but also four from safety. Together they currently fill the two relegation spots.
Kuban Krasnodar and FK Amkar Perm are third and fourth from bottom respectively but, with both level on 18 points with four wins each, their goal difference, (-14 and -11) could yet count for/against them. And, with five fixtures featuring the bottom four to come, there’s sure to be as many twists and turns at the foot of the table as there will at the top.
Should be interesting. See you next week.
Na Zdorovia!