David Nehoda, the player’s agent, denied rumors that his client could be moving to Palermo. He was also uninterested in confirming speculation that representatives of the Sicilian club have held talks over the possible transfer of the Czech forward.

“I am [...]]]> Reports out of Italy are suggesting some Serie A interest in CSKA Moskva striker Tomáš Necid.

David Nehoda, the player’s agent, denied rumors that his client could be moving to Palermo. He was also uninterested in confirming speculation that representatives of the Sicilian club have held talks over the possible transfer of the Czech forward.

“I am well-acquainted with the club’s sporting director Walter Sabatini, but I did not call him. Certainly Necid has gained some interest in Italy. But that is not surprising–he’s a good player.”

It is believed that interest in Necid reaches beyond the boot. Sevilla apparently liked what they saw after playing CSKA in the Champions League.

Necid’s agent immodestly placed a hypothetical ten-million euro tag on the 20-year-old. But for CSKA, his transfer would not be advantageous in the immediate future given the thinness of their striking core since the loan departure of Vagner Love. But should the Brazilian return to Moskva in the summer perhaps CSKA could be persuaded by the cash.

Necid joined CSKA form Slavia Praha in January 2009 for 4.5 million euros. Since that time he has played thirty-eight matches for the Army men and scored eleven goals.

CSKA has seen its domestic season become derailed amidst coaching staff turmoil. From the club’s perspective, no season where The Army fails to challenge for the league’s title can be considered a successful one. Nine points behind second place Spartak Moskva going into Sunday’s match with Rubin, CSKA will have to win out [...]]]>

CSKA has seen its domestic season become derailed amidst coaching staff turmoil. From the club’s perspective, no season where The Army fails to challenge for the league’s title can be considered a successful one. Nine points behind second place Spartak Moskva going into Sunday’s match with Rubin, CSKA will have to win out to have a chance at one of the league’s two automatic Champions League births.

Having found some success in this year’s Champions League, it would be a shame to see a talented CSKA squad fail to at least challenge for the third-place, qualifying spot. Going into Sunday’s match at Luzhniki, that spot is held by FK Moskva, whose 48 points puts them two points ahead of CSKA. That CSKA and their talent trailed FK Moskva coming into Match Day 28 speaks to the team’s frustrations.

Only two points back, CSKA can be in third come Sunday night, provided they beat Rubin and fourth place Zenit draws or loses. Whether they can – and whether they can maintain the spot, should they get it – will depend on how they handle the next two match days. Starting on Sunday, CSKA plays both of the league’s leaders, not only creating a tough path between them and third place but also casting them unwittingly into the middle of the two-team title race.

That stretch starts with Sunday’s match against their fellow Champions League participant, Rubin Kazan. Coming off a Wednesday draw with FC Barcelona (Spain) (were they exhibited their best form since their late August shredding of Spartak Moskva), Rubin is primed to take another three points out of Luzhniki. Granted, CSKA has four points in two matches under new head coach Leonid Slutsky and Rubin has gone three years without a result at CSKA, but in both attack and defense, Rubin looks ready to stop the army.

CSKA celebrating their second goal on Tuesday in Manchester

On Wednesday in Manchester (against English champions Manchester United), CSKA seemed to show an attack that could give even the talented, well-organized Rubin back line (that’s allowed a league-fewest 21 goals) trouble, but looking at the goals CSKA scored, they were all a result of mistakes by their opponents. That shouldn’t be held against CSKA, as football is often about taking advantage of opponent’s mistakes. The alarming part is who committed the mistakes for Manchester United. Be the culprit Wes Brown, Fabio de Silva, or Federico Macheda, all of CSKA’s goals came at the expensive of United players who rarely play. It is unlikely CSKA will receive those advantages from Gurban Berdiyew’s selection.

In defense, CSKA again showed weaknesses. The Berezutski twins have been criticized for months, with their detractors saying they have become too slow and lumbering to match-up against top competition. Whether the criticism concerns league or national team play, the critiques are the same, particularly when targeted at Aleksei Berezutski. This may explain why two different CSKA teams have emerged. One CSKA team uses overwhelming offensive talent to defeat their opponents while masking their deficiencies. The other CSKA team has those deficiencies in defense exposed when their opposition has sufficient talent to manage the Krasics and Dzagoevs of the world. Whether you can beat the Berezutskis has become the threshold indicator as to whether you can exploit CSKA.

As the Berezutskis form has waned, I’ve often been reminded of the movie Goodfellas. The Martin Scorsese mob epic has a scene where Robert DeNiro’s character Jimmy gets a phone call saying his best friend, Tommy, has been killed by the family for which they worked. “He’s gone, and we couldn’t do nothing about it,” Jimmy is told (euphemistically) by one of Tommy’s murders.

Over the last two months, I’ve wondered if Sergei Ignashevich got a similar phone call two months ago, telling him that the Berezutski brothers were done. “They’re gone, Sergei, and we couldn’t do nothing about it.” If the voice on the other end was giggling and had a Portguese accent, the caller ID probably showed a Greek phone number.

The defense isn’t CSKA’s only concern. In attack, injuries have limited the options they’ll have against a robust Rubin defense.

Injured CSKA wing Mark González

Chilean left winger Mark Gonzalez will be dearly missed. If you were to pick a place to attack Rubin’s back line, it might be Lasha Salukvadze, the solid-if-unspectacular Georgian right back. You could argue that it would be better to go at Cristian Ansalde, something CSKA will undoubtedly let Milos Krasic do, but between Ansaldi and Aleksandr Ryazantsev (if he’s deployed on the left), a team plays with fire if they try to tip the pitch to that side. However, with Mark Gonzalez out, that may be a risk Slutsky should take, with the Tomas Necid-Krasic-Alan Dzagoev triangle (that proved so potent on Tuesday) being his best chance to break through a newly impenetrable Rubin line.

Regardless of how CSKA attacks, Rubin will be poised to counter. While it is unlikely Berdiyew will again opt for the pure-counter team of Champions League play – a lineup that would have Aleksander Bukharov start on the bench – they will still be potent on the counter, particularly if CSKA attacks down Krasic’s side. That tilt of the pitch will allow Gokdeniz Karadeniz to come in from the right wing, play a second supporting striker, and allow Alejandro Domínguez to either play higher or drift to the left to support the link-up play. If none of this sounds good for CSKA, you’re right. Without Mark Gonzalez, their tendency to play lopsided could feed into what Rubin does best.

CSKA is left in the precarious position of hoping Krasic and Dzagoev can be world-beaters, and while those two stars have shined brightly of late, can we expect them to succeed where Messi, Xabi, and Iniesta could not?

If Rubin plays to their potential, they will be able to handle CSKA’s stars and use their fluidity getting into attack to put the suspect CSKA back into precarious positions. If that happens, it will take another wonderful performance from Igor Akinfeev to keep them in the match. If CSKA falls behind, their injuries up-front will prevent them from reinforcing their attack.

CSKA needs something special from Dzagoev or Krasic; preferably, an early goal which will allow them to play a more conservative style that will protect their back line. Else, Rubin looks to build on Champions League success (and Spartak’s shock Saturday loss) to gain a strangle-hold on the Premier League.

During the first half, with the exception of one decent chance from Alexsandr Bukarov that was swept away by Samara’s goalkeeper [...]]]> It was a tale of two very different halves, but in the end Rubin Kazan was able to improve upon their chances of winning their second straight championship, defeating Krylia Sovetov Samara on Friday 4-1.

During the first half, with the exception of one decent chance from Alexsandr Bukarov that was swept away by Samara’s goalkeeper Eduardo Lobos, Rubin failed to build any sustained attack. Despite dominating possession in the first half, Rubin lacked creativity and energy.

Rubin Kazan celebrate their 4-1 victory over Kryla Sovetov

The first half was marred by a number of yellow cards and injuries–the most serious appearing to be a clavicle injury sustained by Rafal Murawski that forced him to leave the match after 39 minutes. It is unclear how serious the injury is, and given that Murawski had started the match for the injured Sergei Semak, Rubin’s midfield could be thin for their upcoming Champions League match against Barca.

Rubin’s much-needed tactical shift in the second half would pay off in spades. By consistently spreading Samara’s defense, pushing the ball foward on both flanks, Gökdeniz Karadeniz and Alexander Ryazantsev were able to create chances in the middle.

The half opened dramatically: at the 48th minute Karadeniz sent a cross in from the right flank that Ryazantsev struck off the crossbar with a header from 10 meters out. The rebound feel directly to Christian Noboa, who finished it off emphatically. For Noboa this goal could not have come at a better time, a clear confidence-builder going into Rubin’s Champions League match on Wednesday.

A second goal for Rubin was quick to come. A patient build up from Ryazantsev and Macbeth Sibaya led to Karadeniz making a nice run into the middle of the pitch. He then fed Bukharov who slid in a goal inside the left post, his first goal in six weeks.

Jan Koller headed in a cross from Vladislav Ignatyev 5 minutes later to put Samara back in the match. However, the remaining half hour would be completely dominated by Rubin’s newfound attack. Karadeniz headed in a high cross from Ryazantsev at the 63rd minute, followed by Bukharov earning a brace with a well-timed tap in, again from a Karadeniz cross, at the 75th minute.

The match was a demonstration in nuce of the schizophrenic nature of Rubin’s recent play. For 45 minutes they looked mediocre at best, in the next 45 they looked unstoppable. In the end, Rubin has something to build off of: the intensity of their second-half performance harkens back to Rubin’s form of two months ago. In addition to the individual performances of Ryazantsev and Karadeniz, one possible reason is Bukharov’s apparent return to full health.

With the victory Rubin currently stands 4 points in front of Spartak Moskva, who will host Rostov on Sunday.

The other notable Friday action saw Leonid Slutsky’s managerial debut for CSKA Moskva at the Luzhniki. While the Army team was able to win 1-0 over Terek Grozny, it turned out to be a rather unmemorable affair. The only goal came in the 3rd minute from Tomas Necid, who capitalized on a very poor lapse in marking from Terek’s central defense–tapping the ball in from 5 meters out.

Despite the early goal, Necid struggled–at one point sending a point-blank shot well over the crossbar. CSKA on the whole could not create chances, but benefited from Terek own difficulties. While CSKA’s backline (Alexei and Vassili Berezoutski, Sergei Ignashevich, and Georgi Shchennikov) were strong throughout–they just barely escaped with a clean sheet after facing two late scares in stoppage time.
Also on Friday FK Saturn Moskovskaya edged already demoted FC Khimki 1-0. ­Slovenian defenseman ­­­Denis Halilovic scored the goal for the Aliens.

One item that was reported earlier in the week which we failed to pass on was rumors of CSKA Moskva’s brightest stars possibly raided by Real Madrid. It’s an interesting thought, which you can find here – the justification for which [...]]]>

CSKA goaltender Igor Akinfeev to back-up Iker Casillas? That sounds ... weird.

One item that was reported earlier in the week which we failed to pass on was rumors of CSKA Moskva’s brightest stars possibly raided by Real Madrid. It’s an interesting thought, which you can find here – the justification for which is Real Madrid scouts being in Moskva. The article speculates that Madrid could be interested in goalie Igor Akinfeev, attacking midfielder Alan Dagoev, and young striker Tomas Necid.

There are some huge red flags in this rumor’s reporting. First, Real Madrid have scouts everywhere. Their network of formal and informal scouts includes ex-players, relatives of club personnel in addition to the technical director’s legitimate scouting staff. Those deep roster of “scouts” means that Real Madrid could be in play for hundreds of players at any time, if mere presence in a city is the standard.

However, the article says Russian papers are reporting fees are to be discussed. That seems to hint at more than mere attendance, so we should give the article more credit right? Perhaps, except the names being discussed make little sense. First, realize that all of Akinfeev, Dagoev, and Necid are going to be extremely expensive. That’s a work class goalie and two of CSKA’s three best young attackers. The combined total for the three could be around €30 million, maybe?

We have all gotten used to Real Madrid having bottomless pockets, and while it is true they can find money in places other clubs can’t imagine, even they have limits. They essentially ask for money (but it from the government or from their club’s investors), get it, and then have to work within that budget. This season’s budget was such that they eventually had to sell Klass-Jan Huntelaar, Wesley Sneijder, and Arjen Robben to balance their books.

In January, they may have new numbers to work with, making buying the CSKA stars possible, but if you had to consider the positions Madrid are least likely to address, goaltender and attacking players would be the top of the list.

Clubs don’t always make decisions that make sense, so Real Madrid could legitimately be looking at these CSKA players. I doubt it. I don’t know if this rumor is coming from the lips of agents or the fingertips of bored writers, but it doesn’t hold up when scrutinized by common sense.

The rumor does, however, speak to something brought up in the last edition of Russian Football Now’s Podcast: CSKA’s young attackers are going to be sought-after by other clubs, and their ability to get top prices and convert the profits into new players will be critical to this club’s ability to maintain the level of excellence they’ve come to expect.

CSKA's Tomas Necid is one of two Premier League players in Egypt for the FIFA U-20 World Cup