FC Krasnodar – Suwon Samsung Bluewings (South Korea) – 0:0 (0:0)
FC Krasnodar (Russia): Dykan (Sinitsyn. 46), Kaleshin (Petrov, 46), Granqvist (Sigurðsson, 46), Martynovich, Joãozinho (Burmistrov, 61), Gazinskiy (Akhmedov, 46), Shirokov (Adzhindzhal, 62), Pereyra (Lanin, 61), Izmailov (Laborde, 46), Mamayev (Bystrov, 61), Wánderson (Ari, 61).
Suwon Samsung Bluewings (Suwon, South Korea): Jung Sung-ryong, Yang Sang-min, Cho Sung-jin, Oh Beom-seok, Kim Eun-sun (Ko Min-sung, 77), Seo Jung-jin (Ha Tae-goon, 61), Shin Se-gye, Kwon Chang-hoon (Cho Ji-hun, 46), Yeom Ki-hun (Lee Sang-ho, 61), Santos (Leo, 61), Jong Tae-se (Ko Cha-won, 72).
Yellow cards: Laborde, 60 (unsporting behavior) – Oh Beom-seok, 60 (unsporting behavior).
Referees: Marin, Rivero, Escot (all Spain).
10 February. Spain. Marbella. Estadio Municipal Marbella. Overcast. 11 degrees. 100 spectators.
For the third winter sparring FC Krasnodar boss Oleg Kononov fielded the line-up which was most close to the optimal one. The problem was the fielded team was unable to show everything it was capable of at this stage of readiness. The opposition should not be entirely blamed for that, even though the silver medalist of the South Korean K League Classic turned out to be a tough and well-trained team of the similar quality the country’s champion Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors boasted when met recently by FC Krasnodar in UAE. The pitch of the Marbella municipal stadium enjoys some popularity during the training camps season, so it obviously grew “tired”, so to say, of an endless series of friendly games. One shouldn’t also forget that the local club performing in Segunda División B holds its official matches there occasionally, so the stadium is also the venue for MD-1 training sessions of Marbella FC’s opponent.
The black-greens were deprived of their favorite short and medium pass football on such a hummocky field, so they were forced to bet on a swift transition from defense to attack with a minimal number of passes in the centre of the pitch. The Korean players displaying some competent and selfless performance in defense were barely able to disrupt several good attacking actions of the Bulls in the very last moment. The shot by Pereyra was warded off from the goal by a double rebound, then Mamayev didn’t get the ball past the keeper from an acute angle, and finally Joãozinho produced the best shot of the first half. The newly-made left back of the Bulls made an almost perfect shot from a free kick 30 meters away from Suwon’s goal. Almost is the word since the ball hit the intersection of the woodwork and bounced back into the field of play instead of the net.
Before the half-time the Korean team also tried to attack, but the black-greens would not allow them to do it often. As a result, Dykan was robbed of any serious workload in his 45 minutes of play while the only threat to his goal was a blank one when the Bluewings centre-forward Jong Tae-se made a powerful shot within the box sending the ball into the sky.
The five subs Oleg Kononov made during the half-time interval were matched with only one by his Korean vis-à-vis Seo Jung-won. 15 minutes later the Russian Head Coach released five more fresh players to the pitch while Suwon boss made his statement with a triple substitution. The character of the game didn’t undergo significant changes though. Krasnodar players kept the initiative with their opponents displaying a clear-defined defensive actions and making occasional lunges forward of their own, but those were not too sharp.
The break-through by Laborde turned everything upside down. On the 65th minute the Colombian made a run with the ball through half of the pitch leaving three opponents behind and managed to make a shot tricking the advancing goalkeeper. It seems the ball had already crossed the goal line when it was cleared by Korean defender Shin Se-gye. At least the replay says so, though it is not 100 percent accurate (unfortunately, Marbella stadium hasn’t acquired its own goal-line technology yet while our media group still lacks a goal-line camera). Anyways, Spanish ref and his assistant were simply unable to keep up with the swift Colombian player, so they missed the full episode, and since they missed it they didn’t register a goal scored.
After this event the game itself finally sped up, for the most part thanks to Korean players who in the final quarter of the match decided to play some attacking football. In the last 25 minutes they maybe even surpassed FC Krasnodar in ball control going as far as to produce two decent scoring chances. However, on the 68th minute Jong Tae-se missed with his header and three minutes later Brazilian player Leo, who came out as a sub, shot the ball where he meant to just several meters away from the goal, but Sinitsyn acted beyond praise at the last line of FC Krasnodar defense.
And still, FC Krasnodar was much closer to success than its opposition. The black-greens felt themselves free in the rarefied space of Suwon’s half of the pitch and kept bringing Ari the centre-forward into the killing positions over and over again, but the latter (being at the moment far from his best shape the way Spain is from Brazil) kept wasting them consistently. The very best of the scoring chances was failed by the No. 9 of FC Krasnodar 7 minutes before the final whistle. A lengthy attack and a fine penetrating pass by Bystrov were good, but a primitive shot into a goalie by Brazilian player spoiled all of the finesse. Burmistrov at least tried to save the situation making it in time to the rebound and shooting on goal from a zero angle, but the run of luck went against him, too.
In the end the match finished with no goals. Even though there possibly was one goal scored, it found no record on the scoreboard. Nevertheless, here is a short summary. FC Krasnodar did not win again and for the second time in the winter sparring matches it was unable to score a single goal; that is a shortcoming. The brighter side is that for the first time the Bulls managed a clean sheet of their own while the performance of the team, even considering the roughness of the pitch, seemed at times very attractive. It’s the finishing that should be improved…