Russian Dispatch: Week 29 - Rubin Triumph Highlights Hiddink’s Failure

The fate of the Russian Premier League season was decided on Saturday, with Rubin Kazan winning their second successive title. In 2008, the Tatarians’ success was a huge surprise, and many pundits were extremely critical about it.

Rubin played defensive football, and were very efficient at counter-attacking, but that’s where their achievements ended. Fans were also sceptical about Rubin’s chances in the Champions League, fearing the country’s prestige will be damaged by their tactics.

This time, though, nobody can question Rubin’s title glory. It was richly deserved, and coach Kurban Berdyev managed to improve the team’s statistics in every category.

Kazan scored 59 goals with a game left this season, as opposed to 44 in 2008. They conceded only 21, as opposed to 26 last year. Berdyev’s team amassed 60 points with the 0-0 home draw against Zenit on Saturday, and will most probably better last season’s total (also 60) when they play at Kuban next week.

As for European football, it’s impossible to doubt Rubin’s credentials after they took four points from Barcelona, including a famous 2-1 win at Camp Nou, and were close to beating Inter as well. If Rubin win at home against Dynamo Kyiv on Tuesday, they will be firm favourites to qualify from one of the toughest groups in the competition.

The most interesting aspect of this enormous success was put on the spotlight by the press lately, as Russia succumbed to Slovenia in the World Cup qualifying playoffs. The national team played an awful game in Maribor, leaving Guus Hiddink open to criticism for the first time since he took the post in 2006.

The Dutch coach enjoyed semi-god status in Russia, especially after leading the team to play some scintillanting football at Euro-2008. Until Wednesday, his choices were never questioned. In the wake of the Slovenia disaster, however, pundits started to wonder why the best Rubin players never got a chance with Hiddink, despite proving to be in consistently brilliant form throughout the season.

Aleksandr Bukharov is the leading Russian striker in the league with 16 goals. Midfield turbo Aleksandr Ryazantsev is a real asset, not to mention his amazing strike at Barcelona. And Roman Sharonov is a wonderful stopper, clearly better than Sergei Ignashevich and Vasily Berezutsky, so brutally exposed against Slovenia. Why on Earth were they never really even tried in the squad, let alone getting a place in the starting line-up? Only Kazan captain, Sergei Semak, was called by Hiddink on a regular basis, but even he was left out of the first XI in Maribor.

While Semak, Bukharov and Berdyev celebrate their best season ever, Spartak are having one nightmare after another.This time they lost 2-3 to CSKA in the hottest of Moscow derbies, and lost the mathematical chance to overcome Rubin. Only three points were to keep their slim hopes alive for another week, and Valery Karpin’s side started well, with Alex converting the penalty after Igor Akinfeev brought Welliton down in the box.

CSKA responded with goals from Alan Dzagoev and Tomas Necid, but Welliton equalised with his 21st goal of the season, and Spartak went searching for the winning strike. CSKA got it, however, in very dramatic fashion, one minute from time.

In the previous game, Spartak keeper Soslan Dzhanaev, dropped a simple ball over the line in Samara, costing his side the chance to win the title. This time, he failed to hold on to an easy strike by Necid, and agonisingly dropped another ball into his own net. Poor Dzhanaev openly wept after the mistake, consoled by Karpin and his teammates. Luckily for him, the season will end soon, and he will have time to recover proprely. However, it’s open to question whether the best young keeper in Russia can be his former self ever again.

After the goalless draw in Kazan, Zenit needed all their luck to stay in third place, and got some unexpected help from Nalchik who won 2-0 away at FK Moscow and ruined their chances of playing Champions League football.

Lokomotiv won for the third time in a row, 2-0 against Dinamo in a lesser Moscow derby, and are level with Zenit on 51 points. The team from St. Petersburg possess a better goal difference, while their head-to-head record is the same, meaning a win at home against Spartak on the last day will give Zenit the ticket to the Champions League qualifying round. They will surely hope for another horror show from Dzhanaev.

At the other end of the table, Kuban were relegated despite getting their first away win of the season, 1-0 at Terek Grozny. Nalchik and Amkar Perm, 2-0 winners against rock-bottom Khimki, are now safe.

Michael Yokhin, Goal.com