Rubin Kazan celebrates their only goal.
I honestly thought Rubin was one of the best eight clubs in the world. They still might be. Maybe Dynamo Kyiv is a lot better than I thought (I guess I would have put them, maybe, in the top 25 or 30, before the match). After Kyiv dominated Rubin today, I need to make an honest assessment of not only Rubin Kazan but Russian football in general.
Obviously, I’m a fan of the league and football culture, but if another league just has these two UCL performances (counting yesterday’s CSKA result) on top of bowing out of Europa league, I would be critical. So, I’m going to be critical of Russian football tonight on the RFN podcast. You can not undersell the importance of Rubin doing well.
To prepare yourself for that, you can read the post-game on what happened in the Ukraine. Here’s a taste:
Though they were clearly the best team, Dynamo would lead for only nineteen match minutes, giving Rubin supporters more than a half of playing time to get used to the idea of taking three points from Ukraine. When the final whistle blew, Russian football fans were left with the exact opposite feeling. Not only had Rubin lost, but they had lost decisively, in a matter than shifted thoughts from second place contention to whether Rubin can avoid finishing bottom of a very tough group.
Click here to read the full article.
