Rubin Takes the Lead
 |
| Central Stadium at Kazan, Russia. Photo: Kate Lokteva |
The
home team led the first half in possession, their home field
advantage apparent from the first minutes of the match. However, they
had few serious attempts at scoring. Rubin entered Dynamo's box just
as the match began. Fans saw some solid goalkeeping from Roman
Berezovsky. Rubin's Nelson Valdez took Eremenko's cross inside the
box, but ended up offside. The Portuguese forward's presence made a
real impact for his team. His attempts were often made possible by
teammate Bibras Natkho, whose pass on the 23rd minute allowed Valdez
to take a shot from inside the box. Once again, Berezovsky was there
to save Dynamo. Dynamo's Luke Wilkshire earned his usual yellow for a
slide on Cristian Ansaldi. The most dangerous moment of the first
half occurred on the 35th minute when a fast shot by Karadeniz was
saved by Berezovsky. Ryazantsev shot on the rebound, but Marko Lomic
cleared the ball away in time. Dzsudzsak picked up the ball from
captain Kuranyi, but his shot was wide of the net. Dynamo's best
attempt came from none other than the captain himself, whose shot
from outside the box went high of the far post. Rubin led 63:37% in
possession before halftime. This was the 7th time this season that
Dynamo could not score in the first half.
The
home team began the second half the same way as the first, retaining
possession and creating chances. Natkho's shot on the 48th minute was
saved by Berezovsky. Dynamo's Yusupov was booked, like Wilkshire, for
a foul on Ansaldi. Rubin earned their 4th corner of the match,
leading to Ryazantsev's attempt at the far post, but Semshov was
there to head the ball away. Though both teams were still scoreless,
the guests displayed some great defending that was nice to watch
after their not-so-successful start to the season. Venezuelan forward
Salomon Rondon made his debut for Rubin Kazan on the 63rd minute
after being subbed in for Karadeniz. The former Malaga player was
quite active in the last twenty minutes of the match. Dynamo got a
few crosses into the opposition's box, but lost the ball after a
rebound and several bad passes. Misimovic had a brilliant long cross
to Kokorin, who could have gone one-on-one with the keeper if he had
reached the ball. Rubin earned a free kick at a dangerous position
outside of the 18-yard box after Yusupov's unnecessary foul. The kick
was taken by Eremenko, whose shot from 23 meters graced the far post,
landing in the lower left corner past Roman Berezovsky. There was no
way the keeper could have known where the ball was going, and it
looked as though there was a slight ricochet after the kick, which
may have changed the direction of the ball.
Rubin
takes the 2nd spot on the leader board after the 4th matchday of the
season.
At
this point, you really can't blame interim coach Dmitri Khokhlov – he's
only been with the team for two games, one of which was a Europa
League qualifier against the not-so-technical Scottish team Dundee
United. He hasn't had much time to really make an impact in terms of
RPL results. It'll take lots of patience from both the fans and the
manager to turn the beat around for the legendary team.
Russian
Premier League 2012/2013
-
4th matchday -
Sunday,
August 12, 2012, 11AM (EST)
Rubin
Kazan vs. Dynamo Moscow
- 2:0 (0:0)
Arena:
Central Stadium (Kazan, Russia)
Referee:
Vladimir Kazmenko (Rostov-on-Don)
Goals:
1:0
('78) Bibras Natkho
2:0
('90+) Roman Eremenko
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