Courtesy: UEFA.com


Kairat champions of Kazakhstan again

Tuesday 31 March 2009

by Mikhail Kozachkov from Almaty

Kairat Almaty will go into the UEFA Futsal Cup finals later this month with a fifth straight Kazakhstan domestic double under their belt after wrapping up the league title for the sixth year in a row.

Title success
Having secured a draw and a win against their main title rivals Aktyubrentgen Aktobe in two away games in mid-March, Kairat welcomed the second-placed team holding a nine-point lead. They knew two victories would give them an unassailable lead, and in the first game they won 4-1 after recovering from falling behind early on and followed that up with a 3-2 success, Rafael scoring twice to secure the title with four games remaining.

Harder competition
Goalkeeper Vitali Khalyavin is the sole veteran of all six championship successes, and the 29-year-old Kazakh international said: "We had to work hard for every title. Some people think it has become easier to win gold medals after the reduction of the number of Premier League participants, but that is rubbish. On the contrary: the overall level is significantly higher. Our team continue to grow in terms of quality. We have four matches left in the Kazakhstan league and will try to use them as the part of the preparations for the UEFA Cup semis. As we saw during UEFA [European] Futsal Championship qualifying, Kazakh sides can play against any opponents. Yes we suffered a 7-0 defeat by Spain, but we were not inferior in terms of the game."

Interviú on top
His team will meet Spanish opposition in the shape of Interviú Madrid in the UEFA Futsal Cup semi-finals in Ekaterinburg on 24 April, with Kairat hoping to win at that stage for the first time in three attempts. In the Spanish league, Interviú remain top of the table after a 4-0 defeat of UD Guadalajara FS at the weekend, Neto scoring twice and Daniel and Schumacher both on target. FC Barcelona are five points behind in the race for top seeding in the championship play-offs.

Russian tussle
The other two semi-finals, MFK Dinamo Moskva and hosts and holders MFK Viz-Sinara Ekaterinburg, are also closely matched in the race for Russian honours. Ekaterinburg saw their Super League lead over reigning champions Dinamo cut to six points this weekend as the capital club picked up a 3-1 win and 4-4 draw at neighbours MFK Dina Moskva while their rivals lost 4-1 at MFK Tyumen before a 4-2 success. Dinamo and Viz's league and European ambitions are on hold for the moment, though, as they face off over two legs for the Russian Cup on Wednesday in Moscow and Sunday in Ekaterinburg.






Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com