UAE Wintering of the Bulls. Day 7

It is exactly 10 days ago the players of FC Krasnodar came back from their holidays. 3 days of training at the home training ground and a week of intensive sessions in Dubai are gone. Tomorrow, 29 January, the Bulls are to play their first friendly match of the winter training period.

South Korean champion Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors is a serious team and the way their recent clash vs. FC Rostov showed it has already reached its top physical conditions. The witnesses of the match claim that 4:0 being the final result was a rather adequate display for the advantage the Asian squad had over the team from the Don River. It should be said, though, that FC Rostov players took to the field being affected with a pressure of severe exercise stress, so they were definitely far from their optimal physical conditions.

Players of FC Krasnodar are to test their strength vs. Jeonbuk at the peak fatigue, too, since even on MD-1 the Head Coach Oleg Kononov gave his wards no easy time. The Bulls’ schedule for Wednesday listed three habitual sessions, and the training program for each of those was accomplished in full.

During the morning and afternoon training sessions two top managers of the Club were present, FC Krasnodar Director General Vladimir Khashig and the Head of the Academy Aram Fundukyan; they arrived to UAE to observe personally the way the team prepared itself and its first winter sparring match. What the Club bosses saw hardly disappointed them as the players performed all the drills in a top tempo and in a good mood. The fact that the Bulls have been picking a good form was proved with the 10 vs. 10 trial game on a pitch of a lesser size that ended the day training program. A 20-minute-long clash abounded with tough duels, but it was also a spectacular and productive one. Its principal champion was, perhaps, midfielder Pavel Mamayev, who was able to mark himself with three scoring shots in such a short time.

Tomorrow Oleg Kononov will certainly want to test all of the players at his disposal. However, apart from defender Artur Jędrzejczyk, who goes on with his recovery after the injury, the match vs. the top team of South Korea may be missed by two or three more players if advised by the Club medical service. Anyways, the final decision about the issue is to be done just a few hours before the kick-off.

What will be the outcome of FC Krasnodar’s first clash this year and will the Bulls have enough endurance for the 90 minutes of the playing time after those 10 days of most intensive sessions with no days off? We will be looking for the answers to these questions tomorrow. The live broadcast of the match FC Krasnodar vs. Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors will commence on our official Club website on 29 January, 14:50 (MSK). Don’t miss it!