They are lighter than last year's. Last year they wore light blue, now it's true sky blue. Which is fine by me.
The WC break sure killed the good run by the Neva Gang; haven't had a positive result since. Yesterday was the last chance for Zenit to have any chance of a top half finish -- the season is effectively over, and they now must concentrate on "making hay" in the UEFA Cup. Some rumors floating around that CSKA has a pretty strong interest in Kerzhakov. I don't think this will happen; Sasha's contract runs until the end of 2003, and more than likely Zenit will bid him a fond farewell sometime next year for the $$$$ if they can't sign him again, which is doubtful. There are 2 unspecified Spanish sides that have been casting glances his way.
UEFA Cup FT Encamp 0 - 5 Zenit St. Petersburg 2' Arshavin 51' Arshavin 59' Spivak (pen.) 65' Makarov 71' Osipov
A pretty slow and unimpressive start, but I'll take the end result. Lots of injuries kept some of the usual Zenit XI either out of teh lineup or of limited use. After what happened to Man U yesterday & Goteborg today....no win is a given.
Zenit lineup: 16 Malafeev 4 Ovsepyan 6 Spivak 7 Ossipov 8 Vjestica 15 Arshavin 18 Filatov 22 Tsvetkov 24 Gorovoi 26 Makarov 45 Konoplev Bench 28 Lossev 10 Mudrinic 47 Miceika No Kerzhakov, Igonin, etc. -- only Arshavin & Malafeev as the Zenit representatives of the Russian National provisional squad named by Gazzayev.
Much needed move to try and shore up the (once again) unreliable back line. I like the Bazaev pickup, kind of surprised Alaniya was willing to part with him. The league season is all but over for the team, not much hope of a top three finish this year, so I would think these moves are with the UEFA Cup in mind..... http://www.uefa.com/competitions/UEFACup/News/Kind=1/newsId=30485.html FC Zenit St. Peterburg have signed a three-year deal with Romanian defender Daniel Chirita and snapped up Dzhambulat Bazaev on loan from FC Alania Vladikavkaz. Chirita joins from FC Nacional Bucuresti. The defender, who has also played for FC Rapid Bucuresti and FC Universitatea Craiova, has won three Romanian titles and eight caps for the national team. Bazaev, an inventive midfield player, will join on loan until the end of the season, with the option of extending the deal.
The unhappy & turbulent 2002 campaign takes another turn: http://www.uefa.com/competitions/UEFACup/News/Kind=1/newsId=31009.html FC Zenit St. Petesburg have appointed their third coach of the season, with Boris Rapoport replacing Mihail Biryukov. Resignation tendered The Zenit board has duly accepted Biryukov's resignation, which he filed following a string a poor results by the St. Peterburg side. In his few weeks in charge Biryukov saw Zenit fall to ninth place in the table, 20 points behind FC Lokomotiv Moskva, albeit with a game at hand. An RPL novice, but he's a SPb favorite -- he's run the Zenit youth academy & also was in charge of Dinamo SPb, currently having a good run in the 1st division (4th) after getting promoted last year. He did well his 1st game, although it wasn't much of a challenge and was certainly not unexpected: http://www.uefa.com/competitions/UEFACup/news/Kind=128/newsId=31583.html UEFA Cup Qualifying Round FC Zenit St. Petersburg 8-0 FC Encamp Dicoansa (Zenit win 13-0 on aggregate) FC Zenit St. Petersburg showed no mercy for FC Encamp Dicoansa tonight with a convincing home victory against the Andorran side....It was the first game in charge for Zenit's new coach, Boris Rapoport, whose team set the record for an aggregate score for a Russian club in European football.
Time to bring this thread back to life... After the 1:1 friendly draw with Shinnik on the 8th, Zenit is back in action today, vs. Krilya Sovyetov, in another friendly. Game starts at 9:30 AM ET and an online match report in Russian is available at http://www.fc-zenit.ru/unsorted/online.htm . Supposedly Piter's Russkoye Radio is also broadcasting the match; since the Piter RR site has a real-time net feed, wonder if the game will be availiable via Real Audio?
I'm going off of the numbers from the site, but it appears that Zenit has drawn again, this time against Krylya. (sp?) What did Capellieri do? I'm going to look for a review at uefa.com and such. Will report back with any links I find. Prof
No English links have anything. Yeah, the game ended in a scoreless tie. That's better than last year's season finale, I guess. Krilya made a lot of substitutions. I can't read a whole lot of Russian, so someone will have to fill me in on exactly what went down. Either way, Zenit 0, Krilya Sovetov 0. Prof
Nothing much. It is hard to get any feel for a game from a match tracker, but it looks like Zenit slept through the 1st half & parts of the 2nd before becoming a bit more active as the game went late into the 2nd half. The team has been fretting a lot about finding a strike mate for Kerzhakov; based on the two friendlies with Shinnik & Krilya, it would seem that their biggest problems is with proper midfield service, rather than the lack of a partner for Kerzhakov. Shinnik & Krilya both are decent sides, so two draws isn't the end of the world, and giving u just the one goal to Shinnik in 180+ minutes is a bit better than I might have expected out of what I think is the team's biggest problem (a suspect back line.) Next friendly on the 21st -- Zenit takes on the Faroe Islands National team, of all squads
Now THIS is a supporter's rally! Why, oh why can't we get this kind of action here? Too chicken to try an IMG post, surely I'll get castigated by someone. If you are under 18, don't look. http://www.pifl.ru/other/zenit/girls.jpg http://www.pifl.ru/other/zenit/girls2.jpg http://www.pifl.ru/other/zenit/girls3.jpg
The links work just fine. Zenit beat Faroe Islands NT 1:0 This just in-- Zenit starts off the season right, beating Saturn 2:1 at Petrovskiy. Zenit tallies by Katulskiy & Kerzhakov, lone Saturn strike by Shurik's favorite Rogachev.
I mentioned on Torpedo boards , that they shoulda kept Rogachev , when he was on tryouts there , before Saturn, 3 years ago , instead we're chillin' with Shirko. Anyway nice win for the Lazio and Uruguay wannabes . I thought that Saturn would have been tougher. How did that great hope of PFL's competitiveness - Yaroshik , look ?
P.S. In the photos , the one the right of #2 has to big of a fold in her behind to be a model . Probably Chairman's daughter . Nice to see Leningrad more Americanized than Bangcock .