No. 1, 2010

The Spartak Moscow football club renews its winning traditions

In the 2009 season just past, FC Spartak Moscow was the silver medalist in Russia's Premier League football championship, thereby securing a place in the UEFA Champions League, Europe's most prestigious club tournament. This coming season, with support from its many-year sponsor LUKOIL, the team is seriously bent on battling its way to victory in the Russian Premier League and staging good performance in Europe.

A hard climb back onto the pedestal

Measured by its achievements, Moscow Spartak is the best football club in Russia's history: a twelve-time Champion of the USSR, a ten-time winner of the USSR Cup, a nine-time Champion of Russia, and a three-time winner of the Russia Cup. Spartak is the only Russian club to make it to the semi-finals of all the European cups: the UEFA Cup, the Cup Winner's Cup, and the Champions Cup.

In the words of the club's head coach and general director Valery Karpin, the club now has only one goal: winning first place. The 2008 performance - eighth place in the finals - was therefore a disappointment for the millions-strong army of red-and-white fans. The team was able to quickly overcome their string of failures, though. In the 2009 season,

Spartak ended up in second place, a truly great accomplishment, and will undoubtedly make every effort to realize its championship ambitions in 2010.

Despite Spartak's poor finish in the 2008 championship, great trust was shown Michael Laudrup, then the club's head coach, and he won the opportunity to train the players for the 2009 season. Sadly, the team failed to make any real progress under his leadership. Spartak began last season very badly, losing valuable points in the first few matches. Laudrup, once a great player who knew the taste of major European victories, failed to live up to the club's great expectations.

As many football experts noted, Laudrup was unable to fire his charges with the same Spartak spirit of the victors who earlier won fame as Russia's most popular team. It seemed hard to believe, but after four rounds, the club had only four points to its credit (one win and a tie), and Spartak was a distant tenth from the coveted first place. This was followed by a loss to principal rival Moscow Dynamo in the Russia Cup quarterfinals. Long-overdue radical changes were made. The team and Laudrup went their separate ways, and Spartak General Director Valery Karpin, who was invited to join the club at the end of 2008, took over for him.

While he was a player for Spartak, he was Champion of Russia from 1992 through 1994. Over the next ten years, Karpin played for Spain's Real Sosedad (San

Sebastian) and Selta (Vigo) and was one of the most successful Russian players in the Spanish championship. In the 1998-99 season, according to the authoritative Spanish football magazine Don Balon, Karpin was recognized as the best all-around player in the Spanish championship. Among midfielders, Karpin was always distinguished by his uncompromising and determined nature. He fought hard, holding his own against major stars of world football. At the same time, Karpin proved to be a thoughtful and inventive player.

Oleg Romantsev, under whose leadership Karpin became a three-time Champion of Russia, would later have this to say about the results of the 2009 Russian championship: "When Karpin became coach, Spartak began to change. In their best matches, they played football that would thrill the eyes of a Spartak fan and fire his soul. People once again started coming to the stadium for good reason, and they came with faith in their team." Karpin himself once admitted, "Romantsev was the one who really taught me to play football." It was no accident that, once he had taken over Spartak, Karpin would invite Romantsev to become a consulting coach. Romantsev's world-class experience and knowledge had unfortunately been out of demand in Russia's football league for too long. The return of Spartak's living legend was to the club's benefit: working in tandem, Karpin and Romantsev began to instill the team with winning spirit.

Karpin's debut as coach was difficult: as early as the second game, Spartak had to test its strength against the current champion, Kazan's Rubin. Spartak created a minor sensation by beating Rubin 2-0, demonstrating its almost forgotten "corporate style": audacious offensive football. In the course of the season, the team had its ups and downs, but nothing would shake their determination to win. The suspense would last almost to the end of the season, as several teams were contenders for the championship at once: Spartak, Rubin, Zenit, CSKA, and Lokomotiv. Rubin, however, walked away with the Premier League gold. The team from Kazan made a good showing in the UEFA Champions League, proving themselves the equal of such world football greats as Spain's Barcelona and Italy's Inter.

While taking second place, Spartak also managed to stage very good performance.

Go, Spartak!

"This is the best team in all the time I've been with Spartak," admits LUKOIL Vice President Leonid Fedun, president of the club. The team truly deserves high marks for its eagerness to win. Spartak was the most watched team of the past 2009 season: its home and away games invariably drew huge numbers of fans. It was symbolic that by the average age of the players, Spartak was the youngest team at the championship. Spartak's coaching staff succeeded in attracting a number of talented young players to the team: 19-year-old forward Pavel Yakovlev, 20-year-old defenders Evgeny Makeyev and Sergey Parshivlyuk, and 17-year-old midfielder Jano Ananidze. Jano, the club's Georgian player, was the real discovery of the 2009 season. His clipped passes helped his teammates score important goals on more than one occasion. He was also the youngest player to score a goal in the history of the Russian championship. If they dedicate themselves to the task, these youngsters have the ability to become the number one players of the country's most popular club. The real drivers behind the team today are the Brazilians Alex Meschini and Suarez Wellington, the Austrian Martin Stranzl, and the Czech Martin Jiranek.

Center backs Stranzl and Jiranek - ones of the team's leading players - are the pillars of its defense. Their injury-related absence in several matches had a less than positive effect on the team's final results.

The pundits are calling Alex, who scored 12 goals in the Russian Premier League during the 2009 season, one of the world's best midfielders. It's no wonder that he has recently gotten regular invitations to join the Brazilian national team. There is no doubt that neither he nor Wellington, who at 21 has become the Russian championship's best scorer, would be a round peg in a square hole in any of the world's leading teams. The rivalry among the five-time world champion's offensive line is still improbably great, however, and Wellington himself has already expressed his readiness to acquire Russian citizenship and play for Team Russia. During the championship cycle, Spartak fielded 13 players who had regularly been invited to play in matches of various countries' national teams, both youth and main. In the near future, Spartak plans to fill out its ranks with new footballers capable of further raising the team's quality with an eye to victory in the 2010 Championship of Russia and success in the UEFA Champions League. LUKOIL, Spartak's general sponsor, will of course be extending the club financial support in this undertaking.

Spartak's first new interseason player was the former captain of the Czech Republic's Slavia, 21-year-old defender Marek Suchy, who signed a one-year loan contract with the Moscow team. Marek is capable of playing back and flank as well as center, something of exceptional importance to the team given the unavoidable rotation of the team over the long season. As head coach Valery Karpin promises, the team will acquire at least one top class player for each line.

We should remember too that the team's beefing up is possible thanks to the club's internal reserves as well. Brazilian Ibson Da Silva, a former player for Brazil's champion Flamengo team, and Argentinian Christian Maidana have rejoined the line. Midfielder Ivan Sayenko, the Team Russia player injured at the beginning of last season, and goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa, a top player in Croatia's national team, are gradually getting back into shape. Formidable offensive halfback Alexander Pavlenko, first-class goalkeeper Dmitry Khomich, and others are returning to Spartak after being loaned out.

In preseason training, both the club's newcomers and old-timers will have to demonstrate their readiness to play for Spartak. The best of them will battle for the long-awaited Russian gold medal, and we wish all of them the best of luck!