I will say that in the least, Kazan doesn't seem like all that bad of a place. Paul And they are celebrating their millenium
As we have been in New Soldiers for over a full season it is time to change the Mothership tagline on the MLS: Teams page. Perhaps "Chicago Fire, funding the league" would be a good replacement.
Wow. I thought London had a big concentration of top-flight clubs. Half of their schedule must be derbies. I asked a friend of mine who is fluent in Russian and has spent time there to take a look at their website, and also about racism in Russia. Here's what he wrote me: "Okay, looking at their website, it looks like Rubin is ranked 10th in the country--they smashed Rostov-on-Don, a pretty decent club, in the last championship, but TsSKA (Central Sports Club of the Army, I'm pretty sure they won last year) went 4:0 against them in the same tourney. The result is they took third in the country [I guess he got muddled between the first and second seasons they were in the league]. It looks like from the history page they used to pretty much suck, so it seems they're on their way up in the world of Russian soccer. I don't see anything about the particular tournaments you mentioned, though I do see that they won the "La Mangi" cup[is this a preseason tournament in Spain]? They also beat a team called "Odd Greenland" in a match in Spain on Feb. 22. The only info about European matches is on the front page of news from the last month, no historical info. Racism is probably a concern for a black player, but less so than for Asians and Caucasians (i.e., Armenians, Georgians, etc.). Of all the non-white ethnic groups in Russia, I would say Vietnamese are hated worst of all, perhaps after the Jews. Most blacks there come from Africa and are usually rather well off, so they don't attract as much ire from Russians."
After finishing third in the league in 2003, Rubin Kazan played in the current UEFA Cup tournament. Crashed out in the first round. Beat Rapid Wien 2-0 in Vienna, which would have anyone booking their tickets for the second round, but somehow they lost the return leg at home 3-0.
Too bad. really enjoyed watching him play, even though he lit up the scoreboard against my DCU. I hope he does well in Russia and somehow can manage to stay warm.
Re: Rumor: Damani Ralph sold to Russian Club? Yes, this is actually what I would be most interested in finding out. All of the articles I have read are very careful to mention a "portion" of the 2 million dollar fee is going to the league (Fire). What is that portion? Is it the majority, is it half, is it less then that? If any of you have any information regarding this aspect of the deal it would be greatly appreciated. In any event this is a huge loss for the league and a huge loss for your team. Damani was a great player. Its sad to see so many of MLS's most promising talents flocking over seas recently, but I guess this is just the golden rule of soccer. The best players go were the money is.
Re: Rumor: Damani Ralph sold to Russian Club? Major allocations are usually 15% of total that MLS gets.
Can we change the Fire forum's tagline to "Making money for our masters"? I think it's very interesting the a team from Tartarstan, for God's sake, can afford to pay $675k per year + the transfer fee. It shows you where the USA stands on the world soccer map: third world.
especially Dinamo (13th) and Spartak (8th) are one of those top 5. Not true. First of all Russian Premier League will be definitely within TOP-5 european national championships in 3-5 years. I would not say that Moscow clubs dominate in Russian championship. From 13 seasons, I think not less than 8-9, won Spartak Moscow. But its epoch is over. Championship is very very competitive and continue to be stronger and stronger year-by-year. And you don't take into account two things: 1) It will be difficult to him to compete with other strikers. Our team plays with one striker very often. 2) He will need time to adapt. European and American soccer are quite different things+set going interaction with other teamplayers etc. So I don't believe he can do much in his first season in our team. ------------- Just wondering, guys. Racism, racism, racism ... so you americans have became accustomed that racism around your and think that If racism exists even in america ( where each people or race lives in its separated enclaves, blacks in our district, whites in other) then Russia should be nothing but crowd of racists. nothing of the kind .... probably nationalists have got some influence among part of the youth, but It comes from the West - Spain, England. We don't have similar things in any considerable sense. It is your country try to use dual standards, consider democracy is for americans and guns are for others, rising religion and national antinomy around the world. why should we care about it? We are tolerant to all races.
Thank you for your insights, Marat. Can we assume you are writing from Russia? I believe many of us would be curious to hear stories of Damani's progress from time to time. What is your club?
So yes, I'm in Russia. I live in Kazan. You can post your questions here http://fcrubin.ru/forum/index.php This is forum of the Rubin Kazan fans. Some can answer your questions on English. We can share photos and video then. just email me. We have even got similar team colours - red and dark-red. Thanx. Good luck with your new season but looking forward to hear about your new talented players.
Here is the video of Ralph's shot in Saturn - Rubin match Go to that URL, click on FREE at the bottom of the page, then wait some time before you receive download link. I wanna ask you for some photos of Ralph. They must be big, and Ralph's face must have dimensions of at least 250x250 pixels. Post link here or send to my e-mail aydarh@yandex.ru Thanks
So did Damani make that cross or was he the one that took the shot? The video quality leaves a lot to the imagination.
Keeper made a save just on the line We could win, but in that match we didn't have any chances to score except that one.. we only defended. The quality is bad because of the channel from which I've recorded video. That day it was very bad.. I Tried google but didn't find any photos, u are the fans, don't u have any photos?
You sure you searched Google? http://images.google.com/images?q=damani+ralph&hl=en&sourceid=mozilla-search&num=20&start=0&start=0 Seems to me there are pages of images.
I think the problem is he is looking for very large pictures. If he is looking for the face alone to be 250x250 pixels he aint gonna find that on google.
Exactly! That is my problem. We're making a patch for a game called ProEvolution Soccer 4 (PES 4), and we make faces for players. Now I have to do Ralph's face but I can't find any large photos with his face. I thought that u as fans of the team he played in would have some photos...