10 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Marko Baumgartner obliged against Volga. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is CSKA Moscow.
Player ratings26 Nov 2040
A brace, and Alex Ramku takes the afternoon — 8.47
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alex Ramku provided it, and the 8.47 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pedro Pereira did not need any: 7.75, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Nov 2040
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henrique Carmo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Mateo Bogdan has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Lokomotiv Moscow did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $6.9M for Marko Baumgartner, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Marko Baumgartner is living that version at CSKA Moscow, and it tends to show in the first month.
The chase for Luis Blanco ended with $1.3M changing hands and Nizhniy Novgorod out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ernesto Ballabile has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Jun 2039
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henrique Carmo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Marko Baumgartner from Lokomotiv Moscow for $6.9M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
149 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lokomotiv Moscow lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lokomotiv Moscow will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lokomotiv Moscow have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
CSKA Moscow paid $6.9M and Lokomotiv Moscow took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Marko Baumgartner was one of the reasons people came, and $6.9M does not replace that by itself.
156 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lokomotiv Moscow lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lokomotiv Moscow will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokomotiv Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Lokomotiv Moscow training over how hard people work
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Lokomotiv Moscow training over how hard people work
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tomás Perri and Lokomotiv Moscow agree another 3 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.24 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lokomotiv Moscow have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Lokomotiv Moscow are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lokomotiv Moscow will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Lokomotiv Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Rodina will make the call about Marko Baumgartner this week. Lokomotiv Moscow have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.04 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Vitor Farias was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Siljanov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
CSKA Moscow will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Cristian Ludueña has pre-agreed a move to Lokomotiv Moscow, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Two goals and a mark of 8.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Position 3, 60 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Federico Arena has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Sergey Pinyaev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiv Moscow they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.