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SEMAK: WE HAD SOMETHING OTHER TEAMS LACKED
The captain of Rubin and the national team Sergei Semak gave an interview
to Sport Express about the season.
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Sergei Semak Photo SPORT EXPRESS
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Sergei has already been Russian champion, five years ago
in the squad of CSKA. And now in his first year in Rubin he gets a second
gold medal of the regular championship.
"Taking into account the achievements of the national team this year,
this season cannot be compared to any one else," said Semak. "Euro
is quite a different level. So the year 2008 is more important for mw
than 2003."
"When I was joining Rubin I did not think about champion's title.
Everybody knew that the Kazan club is a strong team ready to fight for
a place in European Cups zone, we were supposed to fight for medals as
the team was reinforced with several experienced players but actually
nobody even imagined us to win gold. That became a pleasant surprise both
for our supporters and for us."
"When Kurban Berdyev, the head coach of Rubin, announced me captain
I was astonished. I am not a person that can easily get used to a new
team I need some time for adaptation. And moreover I knew only several
players in the team."
"People were talking that there are too many veterans in the team
but I think that they are necessary. There is a kind of people who help
only because they are here because of their humanities."
"I cannot say that our good start determined the result of the championship.
The start is of course very important. And seven victories in a row helped
us a lot. But most important were the games with our direct opponents
in August-September. We beat Amkar, Dynamo and Spartak in turn."
"I think that Rubin does not exceed such clubs as CSKA, Dynamo or
Lokomotiv in mastery but we had something that in modern football can
be decisive. Team spirit, discipline, good squad, patience of the management
in some questions and common sense of the head coach all together make
us perform more stable than others."
"The only failure of the season was the match against CSKA in Moscow
where we looked tame and not dangerous. The defence split and gave the
opponents an opportunity to make so many dangerous moments that there
were not for half a season. It is obvious that Rubin was tired and not
the best squad was playing while CSKA reached the summit of his form."
"But I would not say that matches against Terek and Lokomotiv were
failures as well, though of course three defeats in the closing part of
the championship did not look nice."
"The coming year will be the most difficult in the history of the
team. It is always difficult to hold at a high level. And I think our
participation in the Champions League we can regard as an opportunity
to gain experience. Objectively it will be very difficult to get through
the group stage but nobody exonerated us of this task."
Sport
Express Daily, 26 Dec 2008
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