On the rainy night of October 3, 2002, CSKA players were leaving the Ennio Tardini stadium with their eyes full of tears. They had let Parma score a deciding goal at the match's final minute. Answering questions from reporters at a subsequent news conference, CSKA head coach Valery Gazayev looked unmistakably upset. That encounter with Parma was the first international match he had trained the club for. I told him then that CSKA would take on Parma again some time in the future and that they would certainly be able to take their revenge. A chance came CSKA's way just two and a half years afterward-quite soon, by soccer standards.
The paradox of the forthcoming CSKA vs. Parma standoff consists in that whereas in 2002 Parma were the favorite, this time around everyone is betting on the Moscow club, an underdog until recently.
Parma are facing another, more serious challenge these days: they need to retain their place in the Italian Serie A League, analysts explain. This is why, they predict, it may well be that playing in the UEFA semifinals will be Parma's second-tier lineup. Parma head coach Pietro Carmigniani has reportedly promised he will have the Muscovites play his standby team.
Carmigniani laments that Parma have not been particularly successful at this year's national championships, so the best players will have to be mobilized to save the club from relegation. The coach also complains about Italian soccer officials' indifference toward his club, citing them the example of their Russian counterparts who have postponed two of the national championship matches to make it possible for CSKA to better prepare themselves for the UEFA Cup.
That said, there is no room for complacency. Of course, Parma no longer have the likes of Nacata, Mutu, and Andrianu, yet there are quite a few young talents on hand, such as the fullback Bonera and the goalkeeper Frey. And then again, the closer one gets to the European Cup finals, the stronger his motivation to win becomes, even if all is not well on the national front.
CSKA have their share of problems, too. Several of the first-tier players have yellow-card offenses behind their belts. So, if anyone of these gets another warning during the match in Parma, he will be suspended from the subsequent home game in Moscow, crucial to CSKA's UEFA Cup ambitions.
And then, the club's relaxed schedule at the national championships might just prove counterproductive: fatigue does not help to win, but keeping oneself in good shape is so much harder when there isn't enough practice in competitive fixtures.
So, it yet remains to be seen what the outcome of the CSKA-Parma standoff will be. Admittedly, though, no Russian club has ever been as close to the much-coveted UEFA Cup title as CSKA are now.
