Three acts of Big Time football are now left for the Russian football fans to see before it quits for the long winter vacation - the national team's qualifier against Estonia in Krasnodar and the two conclusive matches of CSKA at the Champions League group stage versus Porto in Moscow on November 24 and Paris Saint Germain in Paris on December 7. These will not be easy games.
The implications of the Krasnodar match are clear enough. A defeat or even a draw will, most likely, lead to dismissal both of head national coach Georgy Yartsev and president of the Russian Football Union (RFS) Vyacheslav Koloskov.
At the traditional press conference in the run-up to the game against Estonia head national coach Yartsev again complained of the press' bias, the football officials' unwillingness to meet the interests of the national team, the shortage of time for preparation, and the players' bad condition after the just-ended championship. He went to the length of calling Estonia the favourite of the match in which "it will be good if we escape by the skin of our teeth." If it is an attempt to play the old tune with a search for those guilty and insurance against a flop, now is not the right moment for it. The country and society will certainly not forgive Yartsev for another humiliation. And even the long series of injuries which has already become traditional for Yartsev's national team, and the non-appearance of several invited players in the squad because of injuries will not justify a possible setback. That is why nothing else is left for Yartsev but to play to win. Most of the players, however, have just passed through the major nervous strain at the end of the national championship. The moot question is if the national coaches succeed in "fuelling" the players morally and physically.
As for the CSKA players, they can only be taken pity on. After playing for the national team, some of them will have to play two short of the most important matches of the season - within the Champions League tournament. The question of advancing to its next stage is most likely to be decided only in Paris on December 7. One can imagine how difficult it will be for the Army players to prepare well for this game which is crucial to them. After the lost victory in the national championship the club's owners are certainly dissatisfied with the result of their massive investments in strengthening the squad. At the beginning of the season the team was tasked to win the national title and to thereby secure a place in the Champions League for next year.
CSKA failed to win top honours and now has to win in the current competition if they want to play in the Champions League of 2005/2006. The task looks fantastic but, as 18-year-old CSKA and the national team goalkeeper Igor Akinfeyev said about it, "we are duty bound to advance to the next round of the League!" Indeed, who, for example, staked on Porto's victory last year?
