The Russian football season has finally kicked off after a three month wait, with Rubin Kazan beating CSKA Moscow for the Super Cup in the opening match.
Rubin walked onto the pitch of Luzhniki stadium in the Russian capital looking for some revenge against the Army team, to whom they lost both the Cup final and the Super Cup to last year.
And Coach Kurban Berdyev and his squad walked away victorious in their long-awaited rematch, thanks in part to a disastrous blunder from CSKA goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev.
With the score stuck at 0-0 in the first half, Akinfeev of the Russian national team failed to clear the ball after blocking a behind-the-net pass from Sergey Ignashevich and put the ball directly into the path of Kazan’s Aleksandr Bukharov, who slammed the ball home over the head of the diving goaltender.
After the break the Kazan players played a cautious, defensive game, concentrating on holding on to their 1-point advantage.
However, CSKA dominated possession time, which allowed them to set up some good scoring opportunities on the part of Mark Gonzalez, Japanese rookie Keisuke Honda and Serb star-midfielder Milos Krasic, but their efforts failed to break through Rubin’s defense.
And thus the game ended 1-0, with the Super Cup heading to Kazan for the first time in the history of Russian football.