Not one of Russia's more famous clubs, FC Rostov have never won the Russian title and before this season their highest placing in Russia was the respectable 6th achieved in 1998. Since the break up of the Soviet Union, Rostov have been a mainstay in the top division. With the exception of the two relegations of 1993 and 2007, they have stuck around the mid table safety of the league. They have tasted success in the recent past however. In 2013-14 FC Rostov won the cup for the first time in their history. Founded in 1930 they floated in and out of the Soviet First league and it was their 4th place finish in the final season of the First league that allowed them to compete in the first ever Russian championship.
As for European football well Rostov are very inexperienced with the concept. They have only competed in European competition in three seasons. Two of which were in the now defunct InterToto cup. In their first season in Europe they reached the semi-finals of that InterToto cup losing to Juventus rather heavily having dispatched FK Cementarnica of Macedonia and Croats NK Varaždin. That was in 1999 and they competed again the following year but were out when Auxerre overcame their challenge. It wouldn't be until 2014-15 after winning the cup when they would be on the European scene again. Just like 2000, it was brief and they were eliminated at the play-off round of the Europa league by Trabzonspor.
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| Rostov can they win the title? source: Sergey Pivovarov / Sputnik |
So what has happened this season?. Well they have in simple terms made the most of their opportunity to compete in the top flight. Last season they survived a scare when Torpedo Moskva, well torpedoed up from the bottom of the table to within a point of Rostov who finished 14th. They overcame Tosno in the play off comfortably in the end 5-1 but it took a fight back in the second leg to ensure they stayed up. From there they had a decent start to the season going unbeaten in the opening five games before losing to CSKA Moskva. What really got the confidence going was the run of four straight wins in October/November. Beaten four times this season by teams pretty much in and around them is no shame but its defensively they have really improved. Rostov this season have the best defense in Russia with just sixteen goals conceded from twenty-one games to date. They don't score many up the other end but when they do score its winners and equalisers. 8th placed Ural for example have scored eight more goals than Rostov but are ten points worse off.
And what about the star performers? well Rostov possess a talented Iranian, well at least for the rest of the season, in Sardar Azmoun. The nineteen year old striker or attacking midfielder has three goals to date as well as two assists. Currently on loan from Rubin Kazan, Azmoun has been attracting interest from western Europe. From what I found it appears Rostov do have a buy option in the loan from Rubin so it would appear he will be joining Rostov permanently and then wait for offers.
Dmitriy Poloz is Rostov's top scorer this season with seven goals. The twenty-four year old is having his best scoring season of his career. Aleksandr Bukharov, previously with Rubin Kazan is now on Rostov's books and has three goals himself this season.
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| The mastermind behind the challenge Kurban Berdyev source: soccer-bet.ru |
Coach Kurban Berdyev has history of this sort of challenge. He guided Rubin Kazan to back-to-back league titles in 2008 and 2009 their first ever top flight league titles, won the cup with them as well in 2012 for the first time as well as the promotion in 2002. This season the coach from Turkmenistan has deployed a 3-5-2 with the back three of Bastos, Ivan Novoseltsev and veteran Spaniard César Navas. A mean defense encouraged by a coach who has done it before with an attack that features young hungry talent. The base of this unlikely challenge from FC Rostov.
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