MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti sports commentator Mikhail Smirnov) - The long wait is over.
When the final whistle was blown and CSKA had won the UEFA Cup with a 3:1 victory over Sporting Lisbon, Russian fans no longer had to hark back to Soviet victories in the 1956 Olympics, 1960 European Championship, or Dinamo Kiev's and Dinamo Tbilisi's triumphs in the Cup Winners' Cup in the seventies in eighties. Russian football has recorded its own first success at the European level last night, and the panache with which it did so promises a great deal more.
The win in Sporting's packed Jose Alvalade stadium last night was the culmination of the entire club's efforts. It is the biggest, but no doubt not the last, landmark in the Central Army Club's recent history since Yevgeny Giner was appointed president and Valery Gazzayev became a coach in 2001.
The pair proved their worth the next season, when CSKA first won the Russian Cup and finished second in the league. A year later, the team took the title, while Gazzayev had also taken up the reins of the national team. But soon he had left both jobs.
In a fashionable move that now seems tinged with irony, Giner decided to replace him with a Portuguese coach, Artur Jorge. A former Porto player, he certainly brought something new to CSKA's game and discovered some new players, in particular dazzling left winger Yury Zhirkov, but he did not bring any success.
His departure spurred Gazzayev's resurrection after many pundits had already read the last rites over his coaching career. However, as Mark Twain might have said, rumors about his death had been grossly exaggerated. Returning to the club after it had a poor first half of the season, Gazzayev led a charge that only saw them lose out to Lokomotiv Moscow in the battle for the league title. And then came Europe.
After a painful exit from the Champions League, when the team just missed out on making it through the group stage by a single point, Gazzayev saw his charges through to a victorious finale to the UEFA Cup campaign with wins against Benefica, Partizan Belgrade, Auxerre, Parma and, finally, Sporting.
Gazzayev proved he was more of a tactician than many experts thought. The team displayed a broad range of abilities and talent that managed to respond to any situation that was thrown at it. The players executed Gazzayev's ideas on the pitch, as he trusted them and they repaid him handsomely.
Leaders in the CSKA lineup emerged in the form of younger players such as goalkeeper Igor Akinfeyev, the Berezutskiye brothers in defense, Yevgeny Aldonin in midfield, and Zhirkov. With the most experienced players - captain and central defender Sergei Ignashevich, midfielders Rolan Gusev, Deividas Semberas, Elver Rahimic, Daniel Carvalho, and forwards Ivica Olic and Vagner Love - they transformed the side into one that thought the same way and took the most onerous challenges in their stride.
Immediately after the Lisbon triumph, everyone that has ever had anything to do with the club said it was one of the most important days in their lives.
But soon there will be new tough matches ahead. Within just a few days, CSKA will be vying for a place in the Russian Cup final, while the team also has to play catch-up with its rivals in the championship. And in August, fans will have the mouth-watering prospect of their idols taking on the winner of the AC Milan vs. Liverpool Champions League final.
What more of an incentive does Russian soccer need to go on to scale even greater heights?
