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On Saturday, March 12, the Russian Premier League championship starts, and the new 2005 season promises to be no less interesting and changeable than the previous one, when Lokomotiv secured the champions title only in the last round.
The 2004 season was particularly changeable and interesting - at first, Moscow's Torpedo was leading the league, later it gave up the leader position to St. Petersburg's Zenit, with whom Samara's Krylja Sovetov fought tirelessly. Although at the very end of the competition CSKA surged ahead, the latter was overtaken in the penultimate round and the gold medals were won by the city neighbor Lokomotiv.
Due to the rapidly increasing number of foreign players this year, the Russian Football Association introduced new rules allowing each team to have five foreign players on the field at the same time. An exception will be made only for those players who have played more than ten matches for their national team. Therefore, this rule should allow most Lithuanian players in the league not to be counted as legionnaires, and for Brazilians playing in the championship, it may be harder to take advantage of this exception.
As the new season approaches, clubs have been active in strengthening their teams. The champion Lokomotiv added Russians A.Bugayev, S.Omelanchuk, I.Lebedenko, while leaving R.Nigmatullin, Lithuanian D.Cesnauskis. CSKA paid 3.5 million euros for Brazilian Dudu Cearense, his countryman V.Love remained in the team, but J.Yarosik and S.Semak moved to Western Europe.
In recent seasons, Lokomotiv and CSKA have dominated the league, but this time other clubs may also challenge them. Despite the fact that contenders for the title will be Krylja Sovetov, who have only signed Ukrainian A.Gusin, and Zenit, who have acquired Norwegian E.Hagen, Croatian I.Krizanac, and Macedonian D.Cadikovski, much more is expected from the other two Moscow clubs, who recently changed owners and head coaches.
Under the guidance of O.Romancev, Moscow's Dynamo aims for top places, strengthened by six Portuguese players, including Derlejumi and Maniche's brother Jorge Ribeiro, Russians G.Kutarba and S.Kuznetsova, and Bosnian E.Spahic. Fourth Moscow giant Spartak has high ambitions, this offseason not spending as much as last year, but still acquiring Russian D.Boyarinsev, Czech R.Kovacs, Austrian E.Pogatetz and Latvian A.Rubins, as well as having defender Y.Titov return after a year of disqualification.
Zenit, Krylja Sovetov, Moscow's Torpedo, and Moscow region's Saturn will seek places in European cup tournaments, but it seems that only Zenit is capable of breaking into the top four Moscow clubs. Meanwhile, Moscow and Yaroslav's Shinnik will try to upset the leaders, and for survival in the Premier League, Vladikavkaz's Alania, Kazan's Rubin, Perm's Amkar, Rostov, and debutants Grozny's Terek and Tomsk's Tom will most likely fight.
Russian clubs with registered Lithuanian players: - Robertas Poskus, Evaldas Razulis - Žydrūnas Karčemarskas - Deividas Šemberas - Algis Jankauskas - Nerijus Barasa, Darius Žutautas - Rolandas Džiaukštas - Orestas Buitkus - Ignas Dedura - Mantas Samusiovas - Egidijus Majus
