already waiting for it mate, just don't let them put your flag upside down haha.

if i manage to put my thoughts on paper we might have an eastern WSC issue for once...

ursus arctos wrote:

I had always assumed that Wilson was at least proficient in Russian.
Asked around. The feedback so far indicates "nyet".

Magik wrote:

if i manage to put my thoughts on paper we might have an eastern WSC issue for once...
I don't actually recall a single article on Poland, ya know.

I always assumed that Magik was half-Indonesian . . .

That's really shocking news about Wilson, though I'm in someways impressed by his ability to pull it off.

haha yeah because of the flag?

haven't you read excellent previews for Poland before WC 2006 and Euro 2008 by some unknown yet excellent author?

there was a piece about Lech Poznan. it was on position numero cinqo amomg wsc most read articles yesterday. no need to mention it was about Lech notorious firm and how did the club cope with them. basically they let them look after security at the ground and all the problems disappeared immediately...

all the action was moved to the forests...

ursus arctos wrote:

That's really shocking news about Wilson, though I'm in someways impressed by his ability to pull it off.
Next week: More shocking revelations about Jonathan Wilson.

Tbf I don't know when he could've learned it. "Behind the Curtain" was him doing a thorough trip to the places he wanted to visit since he was a child. He doesn't seem to have studied languages at university*. Then he spent 2 years sitting in a monastery... and it wasn't anywhere near Russia, for shure. And since then he seems to have been based in the UK, obviously travelling for his journalistic work, rather than settling in anywhere out East (unlike, say, Marc Bennetts (Football Dynamo) who lives in Moscow).

*He mentions captain a college 2nd or 3rd XI (can't quite remember now), which should place him at one of 3 universities with that system. I wonder if he played at our SG.

PS I haven't been stalking Wilson... errr... I don't think.

Magik wrote:
haha yeah because of the flag?

haven't you read excellent previews for Poland before WC 2006 and Euro 2008 by some unknown yet excellent author?

there was a piece about Lech Poznan. it was on position numero cinqo amomg wsc most read articles yesterday. no need to mention it was about Lech notorious firm and how did the club cope with them. basically they let them look after security at the ground and all the problems disappeared immediately...

all the action was moved to the forests...

(uses the search function)
Ah, I haven't read the Lech one (2002) before. Their hoolies were in some sort of a union with the Spartak and the Crvena Zvezda lot. Need to check up how that's going.

And I do like the WSC tournament previews - well written and insightful. I think I might revisit the 2006 and 2008 ones.

Do a Poland thread.

And the week after that:

Sash08 does a Paxman-style interview of Wilson on OTF TV . . .

How old were you when your family left Russia/USSR?

ursus arctos wrote:
And the week after that:

Sash08 does a Paxman-style interview of Wilson on OTF TV . . .

How old were you when your family left Russia/USSR?

"Jonathan, what are your views on Lobanovskiy fixing matches?..."
(Wilson storms out)

I was 10 1/2. It was still the USSR. Soviet child, me. I do visit, though. Sometimes.

I am also in a comfortable win-win situation re: WC 2018.

Though I never lived there, I still have spent more time in the USSR than in post-Soviet Russia (or the CIS, etc).

Certain aspects of life in the USSR were undoubtedly grim, but only a fool would claim that all of the changes have been for the better.

ursus arctos wrote:
Though I never lived there, I still have spent more time in the USSR than in post-Soviet Russia (or the CIS, etc).

Certain aspects of life in the USSR were undoubtedly grim, but only a fool would claim that all of the changes have been for the better.

Well, when for several generations everything is everybody's, yet nothing is nobody's, once the controls disappear the sense of social responsibility is close to zero and the overriding desire is that of grabbing and pocketing as much as possible with certain predictable results.

The Russian media are focusing on the anti-racist banners at the upcoming West Brom - Spurs match. Given the Russians' attempts to show that, like, they're not the only racists out there, I am rather surprised that no one's done their homework and dug up Big Ron yet.

Sash08 wrote:
ursus arctos wrote:

That's really shocking news about Wilson, though I'm in someways impressed by his ability to pull it off.
Next week: More shocking revelations about Jonathan Wilson.

Tbf I don't know when he could've learned it. "Behind the Curtain" was him doing a thorough trip to the places he wanted to visit since he was a child. He doesn't seem to have studied languages at university*. Then he spent 2 years sitting in a monastery... and it wasn't anywhere near Russia, for shure. And since then he seems to have been based in the UK, obviously travelling for his journalistic work, rather than settling in anywhere out East (unlike, say, Marc Bennetts (Football Dynamo) who lives in Moscow).

*He mentions captain a college 2nd or 3rd XI (can't quite remember now), which should place him at one of 3 universities with that system. I wonder if he played at our SG.

PS I haven't been stalking Wilson... errr... I don't think.

I enjoyed Football Dynamo, what's your take on it Sash08?

Antepli Ejderha wrote:

I enjoyed Football Dynamo, what's your take on it Sash08?[/quote]

On the one hand, I thought the writing wasn't as polished as, say, Wilson's and, perhaps, he did try a bit too hard with the parallels.

On the other hand, he made up for it by the sheer enthusiasm of getting stuck into his material, a lot of travel/interviews/people, he is more culturally aware than Wilson (living there, being a Russian speaker) and I thought it was a very good effort on the contemporary realities in Russian football.

I also think he timed it very well. Russian football was full optimism at the time. The national side knocked out England and then did well at the Euros. Zenit won the UEFA Cup. Moscow held the Champions' League final.

In league news.
Aiden McGeady made his first start (against Saturn) and set up Velliton with a cracking through ball for the 1st goal. Shocking defending led to Saturn's equaliser (there are genuine worries about Spartak conceding hatfuls in the CL) but Welliton rolled a defender to get the winner and his 15th of the season (in 16 league matches), over half of Spartak's goals. Spartak are up to 6th with a trip to 4th placed Spartak Nalchik next week, where they'll probably lose as Welliton is suspended.

In other news bottom-of-the-table Sibir led Alania until the 90th minute before conceding 2 (rubbish) goals. That's them down IMHO.

Sash, i hear that you're definitely switching to autumn-spring league system from 2012. probably you'd have kind of short league championship in first half of 2012, no?

mixed feelings about it to be honest. now i become really convinced that season starting in March is much better for eastern and northern countries. first thing i don't like about the system in which a season starts in July: the break between league rounds is much longer than a break between seasons which does not make much sense...

Giner (the CSKA manager) is behind the push for this. Well, they reckon teams will be better prepared for European competitions and more people will watch the football as so many leave for holidays in the summer. Oh, yeah, and the equivalent of 200 million GBP will be spent on building up the inrfrastructure. Well, how much of that will actually be spent is anyone's guess.

The schedules are here

www.rfs.ru/node/124236
www.sport-express.ru/newspaper/2010-09-14/2_2/

So, the championship that starts in spring 2011 will be a three-stage one, 15+15 + 14 in spring 2012 (top and bottom 8). There is still a three-month break for the winter, which will still be there for 2012/13 but will be narrowed in 2013/14, when the infrastructure should be more or less ready.

Ridiculous, if you ask me. The stadia/indoor arenas will never be ready on time, with the lower division D-3 and down) sides being especially screwed over (but who cares about them). Call me a cynic, but the little D3/D4 clubs will be left w/o the necessary facilities. Much of the football will be played indoors/in s*** weather. And are they really going to schedule Spartak-CSKA and other big games for mid-December? There will still be some sort of a winter break - no less than 2 months IMHO, so the teams are not going to be exactly in tip-top conditions heading into European competitions. And is "doing it for Europe" really worth messing up the whole Russian club football system.

Prediction - an unsightly mess and confusion. If Russian football does make it as far as the switch I I don't reckon it's going to be able to bear more than 2-3 years of it before everyone's had enough of it.

Anyway, well done, Giner, you utter ****.

So, the championship that starts in spring 2011 will be a three-stage one, 15+15 + 14 in spring 2012 (top and bottom 8).

correct me if i'm wrong but it means that the championship for 2011/12 will start in March 2011 and will end in June 2012.

that's weird....

who will enter euro cups for 2011/12 then? it'd be based on 2010 season, no?

An absolutely cathartic victory for Spartak in Marseille last night, clinched with a jammy own goal
rutube.ru/tracks/3587132.html?v=f9c1eb21...fc49e52288330232dc16
Many fans just hoped to avoid humiliation (awful defence, 1 clean sheet in 10 league games) and, maybe, scrape for 3rd with Zilina but last night... ooooof... desperate defending, some big old slices of luck (Gignac hit the post in injury time) and, amazingly, after almost 2 years of comedy goalkeeping, an absolutely sensational performance by a Spartak goalkeeper. The new signing, the 33-year-old Andrey Dikan (who didn't play top-flight football until the age of 27 and even then for the smaller clubs in Russia and Ukraine), played an absolute blinder in only his 2nd match for the club. Absolutely inspired on the night!

Magik wrote:
So, the championship that starts in spring 2011 will be a three-stage one, 15+15 + 14 in spring 2012 (top and bottom 8).

correct me if i'm wrong but it means that the championship for 2011/12 will start in March 2011 and will end in June 2012.

that's weird....

who will enter euro cups for 2011/12 then? it'd be based on 2010 season, no?

Yeah, one super-long season. To finish in May 2012.

Since currententry for Europe in, say, autumn 2011 is based on league places in autumn 2010, there should be no disruption as there will be no placings in autumn 2011 with places being decided in Spring 2012 and these teams then entering European competition in Autumn 2012.