october 2013michel

3 // Zibi Boniek. Poland’s business card

9 // Arsene and Arsenal ready to celebrate anniversary

13 // Walter’s model. How Mazzarri revives Inter

17 // Kuban Krasnodar writing a new chapter in their history

21 // HSV. From Eurocups till bog

October 2013

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ABOUT US«michel» is an old fashioned monthly magazine about the beautiful game of football. «michel» football magazine was founded in August 2013 by Rolands Juhna and Cristian Liberum.

Rolands JuhnaCristian LiberumAlessio LoginovNastya MendezVladislav Adamishen

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DESIGNCristian Liberum

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Twitter - @lemichelmag

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WRITTEN BY CRISTIAN LIBERUM

ZIBIBONIEK

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bigniew Boniek was once given a nickname Il Bello di Notte by Juventus president Gianni Agnelli, which means Beauty at Night, as Bon-iek was known for his great performances at evening matches. However, Boniek wasn’t only a player, who played in one of the lead-ing European clubs and won some major tro-phies. He was a symbol of Polish football. Even now, many football fans still prefer to associ-ate Poland with Zbigniew Boniek, not Robert Lewandowski or any other football star from Poland. It’s not a surprising fact, as Boniek was one of the first players from socialistic Poland to play abroad and became an influential player in the strongest European league at that time. This is a story about Zbigniew Boniek. Polish football legend.

Boniek was born in Bydgoszcz, a city in north-ern Poland, which is known as a major cul-tural and economical centre in country. As a kid, Boniek joined youth team of his native Bydgoszcz club Zawisza, which was affiliated with Polish army. With Zawisza, Boniek spent nine years, grew up into a very interesting player and later on he was noticed by scouts of Widzew Lodz. Well-known club, which had a nickname The Red Army. 19 years old striker joined club from Lodz in 1975, when Widzew just regained its place in Ekstraklasa. It was a start of his professional career, which later turned into illustrious one.

Young striker quickly made a name for himself in Ekstraklasa and it took just one season to im-press the coaches of Poland national team. His impact was immediate. Boniek scored 7 goals in his debut season in Ekstraklasa, as Widzew finished the 1975/76 season at fifth place. In 1976, Boniek got his first call-up to national team and soon he was wearing the white jersey with Poland’s badge on it. His debut came in a friendly game against Argentina. Boniek didn’t scored any goals and Poland lost 1-2. However, it was a start of his international career, which lasted for the next 12 years. Boniek was always ready to play for his homeland. For example, less than 20 hours after helping Juventus beat Liverpool in the 1985 European Cup final in Heysel stadium (Belgium), Boniek started his country’s FIFA World Cup qualifier away to Albania. National team always was a priority.

Z

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Boniek continued to impress Widzew fans and soon he became a regular starter for Poland national team. Gracile striker never really scored a big number of goals but he always created a lot of goal scoring opportunities for himself and his teammates. After seeing first medals in Ekstraklasa, Boniek was on the way to the first major tournament. 1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina. Four years earlier, Poland had a very successful World Cup journey with a relatively young squad. Stal Mielec striker Grzegorz Lato became the top scorer of this tournament with 7 goals. His goal also was crucial in a third place match against Brazil. Lato scored the only goal and helped Poland to finish third in World Cup. Andrzej Szarmach also had some great moments, scoring 5 goals.

Poland had solid squad for 1978 WC. This time, The White Eagles were left short on their way to the semi-finals. Poland had a strong start in group stage, surprisingly leaving Germans be-hind them. Boniek scored two important goals in last group stage game against Mexico (3-1). In next games, Boniek remained silent. Poland couldn’t get past Argentina (0-2) and Brazil (1-3) and they were out of tournament.

Boniek later commented this journey in Ar-gentina: “The Poland team of 1978 was the greatest Polish team of all time,” he believes. “But we ended up politically in a very difficult ground. Argentina played at home and for that reason it was very protected.”

However, talented Pole got noticed for his brilliant pace and technique. It caught eye of many European scouts but no one could take Boniek away from Widzew at that time. He wasn’t only a football player of Socialistic Po-land back then, he was also a student and it was another reason to stick with Lodz for few seasons more.

1980/81 season turned to be a Boniek’s break-through on European stage. Season earlier, Widzew qualified for the UEFA Cup. Draw wasn’t really lucky for Polish side, as they were drawn against mighty Manchester United, which was a name to fear in European foot-ball. Despite being in a position of underdog, Widzew managed to get past famous English side, thanks to away goal. First leg was played in Manchester and this game ended with a 1-1 draw. In second leg, Widzew did all the best they could to keep a clean sheet. Final whis-tle, score remained 0-0 and Widzew was in the next round!

In later stages, Polish side got even more seri-ous opponents to play against. In second round they met Italian grand Juventus (symbolic meeting for Boniek, isn’t?). Teams caused a lot of emotional moments for their fans. Both games ended with the same score 3-1. Winner was decided in a penalty shoot-out. Widzew won 4-1 and Boniek scored that winning pen-alty. However, celebrations didn’t lasted for long, as Widzew was facing the eventual UEFA Cup winners Ipswich Town. Boniek captained Lodz’s side on disastrous away game. Ipswich left no chances to Polish side and crushed them 5-0. Despite minimal 1-0 at home, European journey came to the end for Widzew.

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In 1982, Boniek saw the turning point in his career. Same I can say about Juventus. Italians finally brought Boniek to Turin. And not only Boniek. Juventus also signed the rising French star Michel Platini. They were described, as two totally different players from different worlds. Platini - that talented and spoiled Frenchman, who comes from a good family. Boniek - that talented and poor guy from socialistic country. Actually, that was simply a exaggeration. Of course, Platini lived in country that had more freedom but Poland wasn’t really a Soviet Union. It lived under rules of communism but anyway, people had more opportunities, than their neighbours in USSR. However, Platini and Boniek had some differences, as a players. Platini had that brilliant vision, technique and his free-kicks were deadly for every goalkeeper. Boniek was gifted with that great acceleration and pace, he relied on it a lot. He was very versatile player, who could easily switch the position and didn’t lose any of his qualities. They to were brought together to improve Juventus positions not only in Italy but also in Europe.

Before his debut for Juventus, Boniek and Platini travelled to Spain, where 1982 World Cup was held. Poland was looking for a chance to improve their positions, compared to previous World Cup edition. This time, Boniek had a moment of his personal glory in a second round game against Belgium. Pole scored a hat-trick and later he said about this game: “Let’s say that the match against Belgium is my business card,” said Boniek. “We were compact, a great group. There weren’t those champions of 1974 and 1978 but we played great football.” Poland advanced to the semi-finals, on their way also getting past Soviet Union team.

Semi-final brought together Poland and eventual champions Italy. Boniek was suspended for this game and it was one of the reasons, why Poland lost. Two goals of Paolo Rossi decided everything and later on, he became the national hero of Italy for his efforts in this World Cup victory. Boniek and Poland had to play a third place match against Platini and France. Despite scoring any goals, Pole led his team to another bronze medal of World Cup. They repeated that memorable achievement of 1974.

Boniek joined Juventus after the World Cup and soon he made his debut for the La Vecchia Signora. Pole immediately be-came a key player for Italian side. In his first season, he played total of 49 games and he scored 10 goals. Numbers weren’t so impressive, as some might think but his role in Juventus was essential. Boniek became a good friend of Michel Platini. They both were foreign players, so they often spent time outside football. Probably, that helped them to understand each other better on pitch too, as duo Platini-Boniek became one of the most feared in Serie A. Giampiero Boniperti, Juventus president during that era, recalled: “They were good friends off the pitch, and they had a wonderful understanding on it. When Platini received the ball, Boniek was already off. And when Platini was making a pass, you knew it would be pinpoint, and when Boniek was running, you knew nobody could catch him.”

Juventus had some great time in Italy and on European stage too. Boniek won every single trophy he could. Serie A, Coppa Italia, European Cup Winners’ Cup, European Cup, UEFA Super Cup and Intercontinental Cup. His mate Michel Platini was unstoppable, winning multiple individual awards, including three consecutive Ballon d’Or awards. Frenchman won all of them playing alongside Boniek. Pole will also always remain the man, who earned that controversial penalty in European Cup final against Liverool. That dramatic and tragic final on Heysel stadium, which took away 39 lives. That was probably the hardest moment in career of Boniek (and all other players, who stepped on the pitch of this stadium). He helped his team to finally win the European Cup, but it was impossible to celebrate this victory, after seeing all that horror what hap-pened on stands...

In 1985, Boniek left Turin and joined another Serie A side AS Roma. Juventus wanted to swap the Polish striker for a tal-ented Danish midfielder Michael Laudrup, who was supposed to become the new partner for Michel Platini. After Boniek’s farewell, Frenchman, who seized three successive Capocannoniere awards alongside the Pole, was asked if he expected to make it four in a row. “No,” he replied. “The Capocannoniere will go to someone who has Boniek as a team-mate.” Platini was full of confidence about his words, as Roma striker Roberto Pruzzo became the Top Scorer of Serie A the next season...

Roma came as an interesting challenge for Boniek. He had to take more responsibility for the results. He was already a 29 years old veteran, who has won almost everything in his career. Only trophies he missed were the international ones, with Poland.

Thanks to the efforts of Boniek (7 goals and multiple assists), Roma was placed second at the end of 1985/86 season. They were just four points short from the Scudetto that was won by his former side Juventus. Veteran also made a good impact in Coppa Italia, as Roma won this trophy, beating Sampdoria in the finals.

Successful run with Roma only helped to build the legacy and earn some praises later. Many legendary players and manag-ers dedicated some good words to Boniek. “There are players with bigger reputations, but very few players better than Bon-iek. He is too good to be restricted to one position,” said Brazilian football legend Pele. Legendary captain of rivals Napoli, Diego Maradona said: “He’s a totally unique player, the best of his kind in the world.” Enzo Bearzot later reflected: “He was a supreme performer both physically and technically, one of the greatest there’s ever been. He was a brilliant goal-scorer and one of the finest creators I’ve ever seen.”

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1986 World Cup was the last major international tournament that Boniek appeared. He scored some goals for Poland in qualification round, prior to World Cup but he remained silent in Mexico. Boniek was 30 years old at that moment and his pace wasn’t so blistering, as it was before. Physically, he started to loss some of those strengths he had at his prime. Captain led his team to the Round of 16, where Poles faced Brazilians. Sócrates and his teammates left no chances to Poland and Brazilians advanced to the 1/4 finals after a stunning 4-0 win. This World Cup left Boniek in the shadow of such names, as Igor Belanov, Gary Lineker, Careca and Diego Maradona.

Boniek’s career in Roma didn’t lasted for a long time. After losing his revered pace, Pole eventually found himself as a sweeper. After winning Coppa Italia in 1986, Boniek couldn’t bring any other trophies to Rome. He still was a valuable part of Roma squad but he never came back to level he had in Juventus. Boniek retired very early, being just 32 years old. Theoreti-cally, he could play for two or three more seasons and maybe help Poland to appear in another World Cup, but his career was over in 1988. His friend, Michel Platini retired a year earlier, also being just 32 years old. Coincidence?

Times has changed now. Poland now is a fully independent country, no one anymore can dictate the rules for them. Polish clubs may lost their strength, if compared with 80’s era but national team has some really bright names in its squad. We have seen a lot of talented Polish footballers in last decade, some of them also earned praises and gained a big attention from the leading European clubs. However, no one was really able to bring national team to the level it had in 70’s and 80’s. Recently, Poland appeared in Euro 2012 they hosted together with Ukraine. This tournament was really nice one, memorable. Still, Poland didn’t impressed and was eliminated from tournament at the group stage... I think it’s a good challenge for the new generation to achieve something what Zbigniew Boniek achieved. He’s a role model and I believe that he will remain as a business card of Polish football till the next major achievement of national team. Robert, Kuba & co, go on!

They were good friends off the pitch

and they both had simply amazing

understanding on itGiampiero Boniperti on platini and boniek

Arsene

Arsene

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Arsenal, managed by legendary coach Arsene Wenger is a special team. Not because it is based in London, the capital of England and not because team has a beautiful football stadium and nice colours of football kits. Arsenal is special because of their passion they share to the fans (not only the Gunners fans). Team hasn’t won any trophy since 2005 (last trophy won by Wenger&co was FA Cup) but despite that there are still many people who like this team. These feelings are surrounded all over the fans because they feel it – season 2013/2014 should become one of the best for Arsenal in the last decade.

Right now Arsenal is celebrating a specific anniversary – 10 years since their last Premierleague title won. It was that amazing 2003/2004 season for Gunners when they won Premier League and at the same year, 2003, they beated Southampton in the FA Cup final and got that trophy as well. Two trophies in one year sounds a science fiction for Arsenal to achieve nowa-days. Then it was reality, same as Thierry Henry was the best league goalscorer with 30 goals. Great memories but now let’s get back to present. Doubtfully Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger is a nostalgic person. His job simply doesn’t allow him to stuck deep in good memories. Despite that he has made a great present to all Gunners fans for celebrating this anniversary. On September 28, 2013, after beating Swansea 2:1, Arsenal became the only one leaders of the Premier League with a 15 points in their pockets after being played 6 games. Last time, when Arsenal was leading in the Premier League after 6 stages being played, was in the season 2007/2008. In the last 3 years Arsenal started the season a lot worse. For example, at the same time in the previous season Arsenal had won just 2 games out of 6 and were put already in the middle of the table. Now situation seems a lot different and optimism has a several reasons as well to hope that this season will be very successful for Arsenal.

If we compare the situation in the same 2007/2008 season, we see that already from the beginning other main competitors (Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool) had good start as well. If we go back to present, then situation is clearly different. Manchester United, after several dominant years leaded by the head coach, legendary Ser Alex Ferguson, now after his departure is not the same team at all. At least in this season. It seems to be very hard for Red Devils and already now team lacks this winner psychology and has some problems in squad as well. So for the moment they can’t be called as competitors for Wenger’s team. Similar situation with Chelsea. Jose Mourinho, the Special One is back but it doesn’t look as great as 5 and more years ago. Team often has problems to win matches which they must win and poor start in the UEFA Champions League after a home loss against Basel has made a fine pressure to Mourinho and his side. So that he once even said: „We haven’t lose any hopes to champions title yet.” Sounds rational, unless it wouldn’t be just the end of September.

Probably, most dangerous teams in the Premier League for Arsene Wenger at the moment are three – Tottenham, Man-chester City and Liverpool. From this trio the best impression for the moment has given Tottenham. Team managed a successful start of the Premier League and Europa League, team got few great additions to their squad and their head coach Andre Villas – Boas still remains as a head coach of the team from previous season. It is big advantage. For example, Manchester City. Team was very active in the transfer market this summer, bringing up several elite class players but at the same time its coach Roberto Mancini, who managed the team since 2009, left it and now Manuel Pellegrini is the new coach of the team, being appointed in the summer 2013. And through all this can be clearly seen that team often lacks stability and can’t win several matches in a row, show stable game all 90 minutes. Potential is amazing but not clear will they get the maximum out of it right in this season. What causes Liverpool, then this team is even more a mystery than any others. It has stable squad with high quality players but in the last years it hasn’t managed to show as great performance as it would lead to the UEFA Champions League tournament.

That is one of the reasons why this season could be good for Arsenal in the Premier League. But not the main one. The main one is team’s own performance and playing style. If in the previous season Arsenal had quite problems, first of all, in defensive line, then in this season these problems seems to be solved. Squad in defence has stayed same with Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs and Sagna commanding their posts but the difference from the previous seasons is that these players have adapted more to Premier League playing style, they have gained a lot more experience and they feel each other better than before. There is no such fever in their heads and bodies anymore. And many games have proved it. But of course, good defence can help to get victories, however, it can’t guarantee many wins in a row and score as much goals as Arsenal did this season. And here we go to the Arsenal midfield line.

In the previous seasons fans often said that Arsenal lacks a team leader. A player, who could create some good chances for others for an opportunities on goals, make some inspiration on them or at the end – take the game in his own hands and score. And they were right. Arsenal really had no such player. Now they have. It is former Real Madrid German midfielder Mesut Ozil, who was bought for 50 millions in the last days of transfer market in summer. Noone ever expected such move from Arsene Wenger and team’s management but finally they did it. They proved to their fans that team wants to struggle for the highest achievements once again and to reach that there won’t be enough with the current squad. That’s why Ozil was needed. And so far he makes it clear why Arsenal had to pay so big money for him. He still needs more adaptation time to show his best qualities and score goals but even now can be clearly seen it is a world class player with right football think-ing, perfect sight of the pitch and excellent passing technique. It is not just another one expensive footballer, who came to play some football. He really wants to make this team better and achieve something with it. Anyway, if you come to Arsenal, it is a challenge to get some trophies and titles, because of this long period that Arsenal had without them. Very happy about this transfer was team’s head coach Arsene Wenger.

WRITTEN BY ROLANDS JUHNA

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“He gave a lift to everyone at the club, he will be the point of our team work, team play. He will get better when he fully integrates into the pace of the game. It is not just him, the whole team. We look solid. My job here is to make everyone happy, hopefully they are happy at the moment. When you play against Stoke you don’t expect to score from three set-pieces, it shows how important [Oz-il’s] delivery is. He’s a player, when you look at his numbers, the assists are not a coincidence, they are a reality of his game. He is a great player. Foot-ball is football, good players make good passes, bad players make bad passes. Same in England. He has good pace as well, he plays a lot focusing on passing but he can create.”

Also Ozil admitted that actually because of Wenger he agreed to this move to Arsenal. Former Real Madrid midfielder praised Arsene Wenger for convincing him he belongs at Arsenal, and even went so far as to say he would have joined Arsenal for free.

He said Wenger called him personally on Deadline Day and spoke to him in perfect German. “Something clicked on that phone call. He showed me exactly what I was missing at Real – transparency, trust, and respect. He told me exactly how he views me, how he plans to use me, and what he expects of me. I would have come for free.”

And how it often happens – if you have a one supertalent, super-star or superfootballer in the team, then others also start to play with more confidence and passion. One of such players is Aaron Ramsey. Of course, noone denies he is a very talented player but not coincidence that before he couldn’t use his talent fully. Because he had no support in the centre of the pitch. He tried to break some hard games for Arsenal but often he was unable to do it. Now he has a fantastic support to create good attacks, a player, who can give advise what to do better and what to avoid, a person from whom he can learn more after all. That is what this all is about. First you might feel sorry about spending so huge money but if it is worth it, then later there will be no regrets at all. And Arsenal I believe goes for the second choice.

Arsenal’s future seems to be more brighter now. And team for the moment seems also ready for some titles or at least fine battles for them. Good goalkeeper, experienced defenders, creative midfield line and fine attacking line (Olivier Giroud, Theo Walcott, Lukas Podolski). Arsenal now have the best mix of the squad – high class experienced players like Ozil, Giroud and Koscielny with very tal-ented young players like Ramsey, Wilshere and young talent, 1995 born German midfielder Serge Gnabry, who already has scored a goal in this season for Arsenal in the Premier League game against Swansea. Pretty good for a 18 years old boy to say the least?

The best time, the best opportunities and possibilities for Arsenal to get some title or titles already in this season. It is not now or never situation, it is just a situation called „the time has come”. And Wenger&co knows it.

Arsene Wengeron Mesut Ozil

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WRITTEN BY ALESSIO LOGINOV

How Mazzarri revives Inter

ModelWalter’s

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Most of football experts are positive about changes, although the conservative side looks a bit scared. Nerazzurri legend Sandro Mazzola remains confi-dent. He thinks that club will have a lot more op-portunities with arrival of Erick Thohir. Well, actu-ally it’s historically fair, as Internazionale always had that drift to follow the trend of globalization. There’s no coincidence that Milanese club isn’t going to be a fully Italian anymore.

In fact, adjustments in club’s direction started to ap-pear few months earlier, when Walter Mazzarri be-came the new manager of Inter, after taking place of Andrea Stramaccioni. That wasn’t a typical move from Massimo Moratti. Usually, president of Inter is following his hear, when choosing a new manager. Soon there could be another unusual move from Moratti. Sporting director of Inter Marco Branca is rumoured to be joining PSG soon and his place could be taken by Leonardo. Tifosi gonna be happy about such change, as they don’t have any positive feelings against Branca. Next step could be the change of club’s major shareholder.

Serie A season started not so long time ago but there are few teams, which are getting praised for their performance. Lion’s share of those praises are get-ting players & managers of AS Roma and Napoli for their confident play. Inter seems to be in the shadow. It is a favourite club for coaches and en-thusiasts of tactics. They all are giving a credit to Walter Mazzarri and the quality he has brought to club. Popular Sky24 commentator and editor Fabio Caressa said that this, new Inter has a lot of common moments with Inter’s 2010 model of Jose Mourinho, which won the triple. Former Nerazzurri striker Her-nan Crespo called the manager from Tuscany - the best transfer of Massimo Moratti. Incredible progress of Álvarez and Jonathan has been dubbed in Italian press, as the “Miracle of Mazzarri”.

joined the club this summer. You can also see a very confident foot-ball from Hugo Campagnaro, who knows well the methods of Maz-zarri from the period, when he played for Napoli. There’s not much hype about future perspectives of Mauro Icardi. Young not always gets the place in starting line-up, as he has serious competition: Rod-rigo Palacio and Diego Milito, who recovered from the serious injury. Manager from San Vincenzo was criticized about early farewell to Antonio Cassano. However, at the current stage of season this de-cision seems to be right one, as FantAntonio is one of the biggest disappointments of this season.

Inter still lacks another Cambiasso type midfielder, who could bring a solid effort both - in defence and attack. Radja Nainggolan would be ideal candidate for such role. However, such transfer didn’t happened. Experts are paying attention to another weak link of Nerazzurri - Yuto Nagatomo and Jonathan don’t have are hard to replace. Mazzarri don’t have quality replacement for these two on the bench. While Javier Zanetti is still injured and he will start to train only in November, manager is trying to use Álvaro Pereira, who lacks confidence at the moment. Japanese also sometimes face problems: sometimes he lacks pace to get back to defence and also he gets yellow cards in situations, where it’s possible to avoid them. Latest reports say that Mazzarri is paying a lot of attention in train-ings to Brazilian Wallace (on loan from Chelsea), who could be able to replace Jonathan on the right flank.

If we take a look on players, who are being loaned out, it’s worth to see in action Livorno goalkeeper Francesco Bardi. He’s the best keeper in Serie A at the moment, if we look at the ratings of Ital-ian press (his average rating is 6.58). Also, pay some attention to his teammates - Ibrahima Mbaye and Alfred Duncan.

The reign of

Moratti family

is going to the

end very soon

transfer campaign. Despite all the odds club has (there are rumours that losses of club could be more than €80 million at the end of year), Inter had a thought-ful transfer campaign. Priorities remained the same as in last two years - transfers of young and talented players. Mauro Icardi, Ishak Belfodil and Saphir Taïder

Some features of Mazzari tactics. Walter Mazzarri is mostly using 3-5-1-1 formation, which has the advan-tage of not having any gaps between the lines. Very compact formation. However, after return of Diego Milito, it will change to 3-5-2, as it would be a nonsense to keep benched a healthy Prince. Now this formation

is used only in situations, when team is going to risk. Such exam-ples we saw in the second half against Fiorentina and Juventus. Could Mazzarri switch it to 3-4-1-2, which was his favourite one in Napoli? Now he will have some serious problems to solve. A di-lemma. Lose the balance in midfield to improve the attacking line or to continue playing with one forward, which could lead to some discontent from Senators and younger players, like talented Icardi.

Attacking phase is usually starting from Samir Han-danovic, who is used to play through both central de-fenders - Campagnaro or Jesus. Slovenian goalkeeper will ignate the attack with a long pass only in case, when there’s a chance to create a quick counter at-tack.

Defenders of Inter are strictly playing in the line. When possession is kept on own half, Mazzarri immediately asks his defenders to create extra space (another 3-4 meters) between them to control full width of the pitch. Wingers, Nagatmoto and Jonathan, are moving forward to create a pressure of opponent’s midfield and get some extra space. Such manoeuvre was suc-cessfully used in a match against Juventus.

Andrea Ranocchia is always trying to be in position to get the back pass from Campagnaro and Jesus, in case, if they would be under pressure. Esteban Cam-biasso is also moving back to create more passing op-portunities. Idea is simple. Player with the ball should always have at least three options for the pass.

It’s worth to mention wingers, who always have to be in movement without a ball. This was mentioned as one of the reasons, why Inter couldn’t perform well enough in the final minutes against Juventus and Cagliari. Not all players can handle such exhausting manner of play. Thus, Yuto Nagatomo is often break-ing that almost perfect symmetry in Nerazzurri for-mations.

Esteban Cambiasso has been given a role of Metodista - player, who is responsible about the discipline in mid-field. He has to be a good “destroyer” (when he co-operates with Campagnaro and Juan Jesus) and also a creative player, who helps in launching of attacks.

Fredy Guarin is still lacking some consistency in the role of Mezzala. He can’t stay fully concentrated for 90 minutes. In recent interview, Mazzarri said about this case that sometimes Guarin simply burns out. Maybe, situation could improve with Kovacic - Cam-biasso - Taïder trio playing together. However, Guarin are compensating some tactical weaknesses with his outstanding dedication and work-rate.

Ricardo Álvarez is the key man in attack. He plays to-gether with Rodrigo Palacio. Álvarez is not only good in creating attacks (his pass accuracy is over 90%, suc-cessful dribbles is close to 60%) but also in defence. He’s one of leading players of Inter, in terms of recu-pieri (actions, which led to the change of possession).

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Walter Mazzarri is an amazing hard worker. After each game he immediately starts to watch the game that just ended together with his assistant Nicolò Frustalupi. Even if there was a late match, he doesn’t go to the dinner and eats just a few sandwiches. Sometimes he can spend all night near monitor, watching again and again all the moments, where his team made a mistakes. That helps to work on these mistakes and do not let them happen next time.

Recently, Sandro Altobelli noticed the renaissance of Jonathan, Álvarez and Palacio under the new manager. That’s not a surpris-ing statement, such happened also in previous teams of Mazzarri. Igor Protti and Cristiano Lucarelli in Livorno, Antonio Cassano and Giampaolo Pazzini in Sampdoria, Nicola Amoruso and Francesco Modesto in Reggina. Those are the best examples. There doesn’t ex-ists any secrets or miracles of Mazzarri - it’s a result of daily and hard work. Players have mentioned in interviews that they have to give 100% efforts in trainings. No matter what weather conditions are, Walter doesn’t pull off his suit because of superstitions and his team spends a lot of hours to make everything work perfectly. On match day, there’s a feeling that he’s on the pitch together with his players.

Inter has one serious advantage this season. They aren’t compet-ing in any of European competitions. It’s an advantage against all of their main opponents, except Roma. Now it’s too early to de-mand trophies from Mazzarri at this stage and it would be wrong to criticize him for being placed fourth or fifth at the end of season. If era of Moratti is slowly coming to the end, all those hasty decisions should stay in past. For example, such decisions, like in 1998, when Moratti sacked Luigi Simoni. Experienced manager, who didn’t won Scudetto with Djorkaeff and Ronaldo, is also praising the new Inter but he also warns to be careful with ambitions.

Evolution of Inter should be priority for the next few years. Walter Mazzarri re-launched this project, gave a fresh breath to it. At the moment, Inter is a young and developing team with average age of 25 years. Instability shouldn’t be a surprise for such young team. If Inter will be able to keep the right course till Christmas and after In-donesian investments they will have some money to strengthen their squad with 2-3 players on transfer window, I believe that Nerazzurri will have a great chances to finish the season in leading trio.

It’s possible that Mazzarri could switch his formation to four defend-ers, to keep it compact, as he did it in Napoli. In such case, there would be one extra position available in midfield and it would be possible to play with trio: Álvarez - Palacio - Milito.

Biggest achievement of Mazzarri is a very accurate and well-built defensive line. Attention is paid even to the smallest details. This is a basis for his philosophy. Main strategy in defence is to build a “anti-pressing” system, which is based on the proper possession.

VLADISLAV ADAMISHEN

Krasnodar is a city and the administrative centre of Krasnodar Krai, Russia, located on the Kuban River about 148 kilometers northeast of the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. Population of Krasnodar is 744,995. Krasnodar is the economic center of southern Russia. For several years, Forbes magazine named Krasnodar the best city for business in Russia.

The city originated as a fortress built by Cossacks to defend imperial borders and assert Russian dominion over Circassia, a claim which Ottoman Turkey contest-ed. In the first half of the 19th century, Yekaterinodar grew into a busy centre of the Kuban Cossacks. It was granted town status in 1867. By 1888, about 45,000 people lived in the city, which had become a vital trade centre for southern Russia. In 1897, an obelisk commemorating the two-hundred-year history of the Kuban Cossack Host was erected in Yekaterinodar. The original name meant “Catherine’s Gift” simultaneously in recognition of Catherine the Great’s grant of land in the Kuban region to the Black Sea Cossacks (later the Kuban Cossacks) and in recognition of Saint Catherine, the Martyr, who is considered to be the patron of the city. After the October Revolution, Yekaterinodar was renamed Krasnodar (December 1920).

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It’s always interesting to look on team, which is trying to write a new chapter in its history. Especially, when this team is located in your coun-try. No, I don’t mean Russia national team - its still trying to reach the new heights. This is story about Russian Premier League side Kuban Krasnod-ar, which has finally won its ticket to European football. If you follow the UEFA Eu-ropa League, you probably noticed that Kuban qualified for group stage, after beat-ing Scottish side Motherwell in 3rd qualification round and Dutch side Feyenoord in play-off round.

Story of Kuban Krasnodar began in 1928, under the famous name of the Soviet era - Dynamo. According to some reports, the team has been organized a year ear-lier, in 1927, but documentary evidence of this version does not, therefore, accepted the countdown to the year with the official team organiza-tion, as there are relevant documents in the archives. Affiliation with Dynamo sports society lasted for next 25 years. Later, club from Krasnodar went through sev-eral name changes. Neftyan-ik (1954–1957), Kuban (1958–1960), Spartak (1960–1962) and then Kuban once again.

Overall, in Soviet period Kuban didn’t had any ma-jor success in Soviet cham-pionships or in Soviet Cup. Cossacks rarely appeared in Soviet Top League, mostly spending season after season in second and third division of Soviet football. However, football was very popular in Krasnodar and Kuban’s stadium was often full of lo-cal football fans. Kuban was even awarded with a “To-gether with the team” award in 1980. Club had solid fan base and in early 80’s fans came together and founded oldest Kuban’s supporters group, called Green Mile.

kubanKuban Krasnodar writing a new chapter in their history

krasnodar

WRITTEN BY

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PHOTO BYSTIVULJA

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Kuban made a solid impact in Russian Premier League under Petrescu. In their comeback they finally man-aged to avoid the status of outsider. Lacina Traoré shined throughout the season and his 18 goals helped Kuban to finish season at 8th place. Cossacks were on fire, Petrescu was praised by fans and media, as one of the best managers in league. However, in summer of 2012, Romanian manager decided to leave Krasnodar, as he got generous offer from Dynamo Moscow. Every-one was shocked. No one really expected that Petrescu could leave Kuban so soon. He did and main reason was a need for a new challenge.

In August 2012, Yuri Krasnozhan became the new manager of Kuban. His spell with Krasnodar’s side was really short. He was sacked in January 2013 and his place was taken by Belarussian manager Leo-nid Kuchuk, who previously worked with Moldavian and Ukrainian teams. Despite all these managerial changes, Kuban found a good rhytm and finished the league as 5th, also securing their place in UEFA Eu-ropa League qualification round for the first time. His-torical achievement for Kuban. Despite that, Leonid Kuchuk left club and joined Lokomotiv Moscow. One again, management of Kuban needed to find a new manager for upcoming season and debut in Europa League. Shortly, after Kuchuk left Kuban, another for-mer Romanian football star took a charge of Kuban. This time, it was Dorinel Munteanu, who already had a season long experience in RFPL with Mordovia Sa-ransk.

Prior to 2013/14 season, Kuban sold three of their lead-ing players: Aras Özbiliz (Spartak), Aleksey Ionov (An-zhi) and Vladislav Kulik (Rubin). However, Munteanu also had a chance to strenghten his squad with some new players. Kuban bought three young talents. Lor-enzo Melgarejo (from Benfica), Mohammed Rabiu (Evian) and Gonzalo Bueno (Nacional). Probably the loudest move was the arrival of famous French striker Djibril Cisse. Frenchman spent some time in Qatar and at some point, it looked like his career is going to end. Yet, Cisse made his comeback to Europe and he al-ready has scored few goals in Russian league. You can imagine the excitement that Kuban fans felt when they heard news about arrival of Cisse. That was a good move by club’s management. Cisse is the right player to attract the attention and promote Kuban’s name outside the borders of Russia.

Munteanu may be still looking for the right tactics in RFPL but he did his best to bring Kuban to the Europa League group stage. That was historical achievement for The Cossacks. Kuban showed some quality football against Scottish side Motherwell, winning both games. Just one step was left to the group stage. Kuban had to get past Dutch side Feyenoord - young, talented and quite ambitious team. Serious challenge for the Russians. However, Kuban surprised everyone (includ-ing Russian fans), making a good impression and win-ning both games. Aleksandr Belenov, Ibrahima Baldé and Romanian striker Gheorghe Bucur made a good impact in both meetings. I was really impressed by 33

years old veteran Bucur, who scored a goal in away game and overall, showed a very consistent performance in both meetings. His goal in Rotterdam secured Kuban’s place in group stage. Team wrote a new chapter in Kuban’s history.

Valencia, Swansea and St. Gallen are the opponents of Kuban in Europa League group stage. Russian side al-ready had two disappoint-ing matches against Valencia and St. Gallen, losing both with the same score 0-2. It won’t be easy to recover and find the way to play-off’s. Kuban is left out of right to make mistakes in upcoming games. Few more losses and European journey will quickly come to the end. Munteanu will have to find the right ap-proach for the next games. If Kuban was able to get past such club, as Feyenoord, I be-lieve that it’s possible to get a positive result against these three teams. First matches should be a good lesson for The Cossacks.

I would like to say that Kuban is one of those rare Russian teams, which is heading the right direction. Club is famil-iar to their neighbours Kras-nodar. These teams know how to achieve a good results step by step. They are used to work quietly, without all that fancy approach we saw from Anzhi, for example. We all saw how quickly Anzhi raised to the top of Russian league and everything turned into disaster just in a few days, when club management an-nounced about a “new di-rection” for the club. I think this shouldn’t be the case for Kuban. They have the sta-bility and at the moment, everything looks good. Hope-fully, after 4-5 seasons, Kuban could turn not only into regu-lar starter in Europa League (or Champions League), but also a real title contender. They just need time for that.

After USSR and Soviet Top League were dissolved, Kuban continued its journey in Russian Premier League. However, results were bad and later on, club went through the various difficulties. 90’s was a really unstable period in Russia. High crime and corruption rates, many football clubs were affiliated with crimi-nal authorities and overall, situation was quite chaotic. Just few leading clubs were able to bring some stability in long-term and Kuban definitely wasn’t one of them. Team often saw a managerial changes and it was one of main reasons, why in 2000’s Kuban was balancing between the Russian First League and Russian Premier League. Promoted, relegated, promoted, relegated and so on.

Results of Kuban improved with arrival of former Chel-sea star Dan Petrescu at the end of 2009. He led his new team to promotion to Russian Premier League. Kuban earned their ticket to Russian football elite and this time, ambitions were serious. Club’s management tried to bring Kuban closer to the European level. In all terms. Trainings camps abroad, some good additions from transfer market and tremulous work with local fan base. It’s worth to mention that Kuban did a great job, when they brought Ivorian striker Lacina Traoré, after spending €6 million on his transfer. Ivorian need-ed just a single season to prove his talent and after suc-cessful 2011/12 season he was sold to ambitious Anzhi Makhachkala for €18 million. Not a bad business, isn’t it? And this isn’t the only example. Armenian winger Aras Özbiliz was bought from Ajax Amsterdam for €3 million and after solid 2012/13 season he was trans-ferred to Spartak Moscow for a reported fee of €6 mil-lion. For Aleksey Ionov Kuban paid just €200 000 and after season, he joined Anzhi for €5 million. These are good examples, how Kuban earns money on transfers. Of course, you can’t compare Russian side with such superb earners, as Porto or Udinese, but those are still a solid numbers and a good examples.

Kuban is one

of the oldest

football clubs

in Russia It was

founded back in

twenties and it

was affiliated

with the famous

ussr sports

society dynamo

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PHOTO BYARTDRONOV

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WRITTEN BY ROLANDS JUHNA

HSVFrom Eurocups till bog When

golden fish becomes needless

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German Bundesliga season has just started. As expected, immediately in the leading places filled in strongest teams – Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen. All goes by logic so far. In the other side, relegation zone, we can see one newcomer team being in the last place of the tournament - it is Braunschweig. For the moment team’s performance is not equal to the rest of the Bundesliga teams. After it comes Freiburg. Clear that Freiburg is having a huge problems, how else to explain its poor start in the Europa league and awful start of the Bundesliga season (team, which finished 5th in the previous season).

Although it is a painful problem for the team, this article I want to devote to one other team, which stands just one place higher Freiburg. It is Hamburger SV. Team, which is one of the most notable in German football. Hamburger SV currently holds the distinction of being the only original Bundesliga side to have played continuously in the top flight – without ever having been relegated – since the formation of the league in 1963. Team was really competitive back then, pride and passion of German football, often participating in Eurocups. Now it has turned to trash. Why and what changes can be made to get the team up from this trash – in this article.

Situation, that the club from Hamburg is having problems appeared already few seasons ago. It was season 2011/2012, when team was managed by German coach Thorsten Fink, who crawled even till the start of this season despite miserable results already in his first season. If before, since season 2001/2002 (Hamburger finished 11th) there were no talks about finishing out of TOP 10 in Bundesliga, then Fink made it already from the first attempt. Hamburger started that season very poor, by losing 6 matches out of 8, but Fink was not a superhero then as well. All what he managed to do, was finishing the season at the fifteenth place, avoiding a first ever relegation by five points. Of course, it was not the best football that Hamburger was showing then, although they hoped on Fink a lot. They gave him a lot of credit. And at the end it was clearly enough for him to save the post if Hamburger just managed to stay in Bundesliga.

Huge critics got Hamburger’s attacking line first of all. If in defending line-up it was not all fine as well, then that position was often skipped to analyze much. Simply because noone wanted to make heavy critics on such players like Heiko Westermann or Dennis Diekmeier. Some part got club’s goalkeeper Jaroslav Drobny, that’s why on 17 May 2012 team signed a contract with former Bayer Leverkusen goalkeeper Rene Adler. But no matter how good goalkeeper is, he can’t win games, so most accent was put on getting good forward before the start of the previous season. However, actually it was a question of get-ting at least some good forward, not to improve team’s attack rapidly. Because it was clear that strikers Paolo Guerrero and Mladen Petric are leaving the team after the season 2011/2012. No matter what, such names can’t be found easily, especially for the level of Bundesliga. Such type strikers like Petric either cost a lot or they are simply unreachable.

Finally, after long searching and realizing that with restricted financial possibilities it will be impossible to hire some highest class striker, Hamburger and Thorsten Fink made an agreement to sign Polish side Lech Poznan Latvian striker Artjoms Rudnevs. Rudnevs was having a great season in Polish highest division, with scoring many goals and also his price at the end was not that high – Hamburger bought him for 3,5 million euros. All the Hamburger fans and team staff didn’t know clearly what they have just bought, they were hoping on best – that Rudnevs will adapt to the Bundesliga level and start to score goals in Germany as well.

The most optimistic people hoped that he will score close same amount in Germany than he did in Poland. Very naive of course, at the same time knowing that weakest point of Rudnevs is technique. He has poor quality dribbling for such level, he is almost harmless in the game situation 1vs1. Hamburger coaches and players noticed that already from the first train-ings and friendly games. Here Artjoms can’t take the first pass with a soft touch, here he lost the ball while trying overgo opponent... such situations were many. At the same time few other good and not less important characteristics appeared in the play of Artjoms. First of all, it was his speed and physical abilities. And his working abilities. No matter what, he never gave up and ran for every ball. And second, the crucial one – he had (still has) that phenomenal feeling of being at the right place and right time. He has fantastic prediction and feeling skills, which actually can’t be called real skills, they are just gotten from birth sooner.

Even if at first Rudnevs seemed clumsy, Fink gave him time, till... Rudnevs finally started to score. With each new game his confidence grew. Despite start of the season was not the best for Hamburger, within time team started to play better and better. Midfielders started to feel the game better, by giving more precise and creative passes, Rudnevs teammate, another striker Son Heung-Min, who played for Hamburger since 2010, started to show fantastic game as well. Thanks to that now he plays for Bayer Leverkusen (one step higher). Together with Rudnevs they seemed to get that feeling of goalscoring. Came more wins, more good games and even if team lost, it wasn’t as hopeless as it is now (excluding few games against lead-ers – 2:9 against Bayern Munich and 1:4 against Schalke 04, where team didn’t look as it should be). But such happens. No matter how all went, at the end Hamburger finished 7th and Rudnevs, together with Son, each of them scored 12 goals and filled into TOP 10 goalscorer list of all Bundesliga. All seemed fine, although some alarm calls Fink already made at the end of previous season – he started to let Rudnevs play only from bench. Not in the starting line-up anymore. But noone cared for real, since Fink and his team did a great job, finishing in very high place for Hamburger with its nowadays possibilities. All changed in the next season – season, which is going on now – 2013/2014.

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In the midseason Fink brought up forward Pierre-Michel Lasogga, who was loaned out from Hertha BSC, then from loan returned Hakan Calhanoglu, actually at-tacking midfielder, who was previous loaned out to Karlsruher SC. And team also bought 21 years old former Basel player Jacques Zoua, who actually is not a clear striker as well. But knowing Fink and his strange thinking and sudden antipathy against Rudnevs, it was clear that he stopped to take Latvian striker in serious plans. And first game proved it.

It was to be played in guests against Schalke 04 and ending result was not bad at all for the first game – 3:3. Rudnevs managed to play less than 10 minutes though. Fink at the same time was concerned that there is no place for the Latvian in the starting line-up and let him play from the bench also in the next game. Next game, which Hamburger lost to Hoffenheim at home pitch with the score 1:5. Rudnevs got bit more time to play but still Fink’s ridiculous tactics and player varia-tions made a real mess in the Hamburger’s game. Then came a game against Hertha, where finally Rudnevs got all 90 minutes to play. But since all the team didn’t look by itself then, team lost this game 0:1. And if team plays bad, then Rudnevs even more – because he is clearly de-pendant on good midfielder game. That was it – Fink decided that Rudnevs is not needed for him anymore and stopped to give him any minutes on the pitch at all. And by ironicity of destiny, next game was won by Hamburger (the only win in the season) over newcom-ers and clear outsiders Braunschweig with 4:0. Two goals were scored by Calhanoglu. And it was clear – Rudnevs won’t be able to play anymore. Fink didn’t notice that this win was just an illusion – it was not a big deal to get such sure win over the team, which is at least one big step under the level of Bundesliga. After this game came lose against Borussia Dortmund 2:6 and Fink was sacked im-mediately. Moment, which was awaited for all the fans finally came.

As a replacer of Fink was signed Dutch specialist Bert van Marwijk. All expects him to be the saviour of the team but as his first official game in Bundesliga against Eintra-cht Frankfurt showed – this team sooner can stuck in a bog, than return its good name. Even more, because van Marwijk obviously seems to keep same style from Fink’s times. Something in defence, chaos in midfield line and nothing in attacking line. And also ignorance of Ham-burger’s one of the best scorers in the previous season Arjoms Rudnevs. Of course, as I said, he is not very skilled by some aspects but the main reason why he should play more – because he can score. It is illogical situation, when player, who scores more than 10 goals in such level tour-nament like Bundesliga, in the next season gets ignored almost at all. Luck? Noone can score so many goals just because of luck if he is not skilled for that. Rubbish.

Against Eintracht Hamburger took a draw at Frankfurt’s pitch. Those, who didn’t watch the game might think all things start to go fine for Hamburger. No, they are not. Only because of those sev-eral moments which Frank-furt wasted and only because of their unconfined game at some moments of the game Hamburger managed to get a point. Overall – team at the moment plays for deep relegation and nothing more. Lasogga, who scored a goal in this match, seems to be a lot worse Rudnevs. He is not technical player as well, at the same time he lacks clear speed and is not as versatile as Rudnevs is. In the midfield line nothing bright seems as well. In defence – episodic Ham-burger seems fine, not more than that.

Hopefully, van Marwijk will make a lot of changes and all what I wrote about Ham-burger soon will make my mouth shut up. Hopefully, it was just his first game and now he is analysing every-thing and sees, what players he should give more credit to and how his team should play not to get eliminated from Bundesliga, according to its possibilities. But do I honestly believe in it? No. Team looks like a drawning ship, which sometimes rises up from the depth just because of unclear coincidence of circumstances. Hamburger SV team at this moment looks exactly same. Even more harder will be, be-cause there are not more than 4-5 teams in this season, with whom Hamburger can strug-gle for points. All others seem to be class higher. If van Mar-wijk will manage to strength-en team up, he is a genius. Is he a genius?

even captain is

powerless in

situation when

hamburg is

struggling

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