Photo: Danny Armstrong
There are few cities more contradictory than St. Petersburg. Its uncanny likeness to a major European town – a product of the travels of its founder Peter I to the cities of Manchester and Leipzig to study their structures – seems to almost mock its status as the site of the Bolshevik October Revolution, the event that sheathed a Communist curtain between Russia and the west.
Nevertheless St. Petersburg’s markedly severe 313-year history seems to seep through its glorious architecture and flow into the hip vibe of the city. It manages to be “Russia’s window to the West” as well as preserve the memory of the Blockade of Leningrad. The result is an atmosphere that is typically patriotic but diluted, although not tainted, by a non-Russian element.
There is a distinct Petersburger pride in this outside factor. The city’s residents believe it places them ahead of the Russian curve in culture, simultaneously leaning to the west without ever losing their fierce affiliation with the Fatherland, the belief that they, not Muscovites, are the centre of Russia’s past and future.
It is a pride that is apparent in the city’s football ground when the capital calls. The visit of Spartak Moscow on Saturday was no exception.
St. Petersburg’s Petrovsky Stadium. Photo: Danny Armstrong
On the day of the game, my coach pulled into St. Petersburg from Moscow at around 7am. The air in the town was clear and biting but it became apparent as the day progressed that in it hung expectancy. Out of the four home games against Moscow sides in the RPL season, Zenit’s match with Spartak, the twenty-one times champions, is the most eagerly awaited.
Spartak were the standout team of the late 1980s, the 1990s and the early 2000s, racking up thirteen major honours under idiosyncratic coach Oleg Romantsev. Zenit represent the flashy Russian nouveau riche that has enjoyed varied success under various managers with players who play under various flags. Spartak’s manager Dmitry Alenichev is perhaps the greatest Russian player ever, tasked with returning the club to its glory days. Andre Villas-Boas is Zenit’s latest international recruit tasked with driving the team to further success.
Throughout the day, Spartak fans could be spotted in patches around the city. Some gathered on the beach at Peter and Paul Fortress, the town’s first ever building. Their bright crimson jackets and t-shirts making sure they stood out among the middle-aged Russian sunbathers who convened in skimpily-dressed lines along the thin strip of sand between the outer side of the fortress walls and the Neva River. The sight was as surreal as it sounds.
As early evening approached glimpses of fans of both sides became more frequent. Home supporters wearing white-blue-sky-blue scarves piled into the metro on the way to Sportivnaya, the closest station to the quaint Petrovsky Stadium. Nestled on the edge of the Petrogradsky district on Pitrovsky Island and framed beautifully by the Zhdanovka and Malaya Neva River, the ground will be sorely missed by supporters when Zenit leave move to Zenit Arena.
The completion date of the new stadium – which broke ground on the banks of Primorskaya on the very western edge of the city in 2007 – has been put back numerous times. The original date was proposed to be 2009. Last January, St. Petersburg Vice-Governor Igor Albin ensured supporters that construction is “82 percent finished” and likely to wrapped up in December. Upon inspection, the pristine, domed ground and the winding bridge that connects it to St. Petersburg’s mainland make the chances of it being completed on time look favourable. But seeing is never a reason to believe in Russia.
For the game on Saturday the Petrovksy provided a more than ample setting. An unexpected but pleasant autumnal sunshine had showered St. Petersburg throughout the day and was more than enough to illuminate the starting line ups as they emerged from the tunnel for the 19.30 kick off. Their arrival punctuated a bizarre pre-match ritual of preened young male dancers dressed in black with white gloves and waving around giant letters that spelled out a slogan accompanying Nissan cars driving around the running track. Both underlined the prevalence of Russian football’s commercialism.
Ultras from both sides had their own, more original slogans. The Music Hall crew – Zenit’s hooligan group – are situated in the Virazh fan zone, where a small banner reads ‘The Pride of the Northern Capital’ (Гордость северной столицы) a gentle reminder of their self-esteem. Shortly after Artyom Dzyuba received an award from the RFPL, recognising his hundredth career goal, they unfurled a sheet with the words “Where are your golden bills” (Где твои золотые билли), in reference to Zenit’s capture of Artyom Dzyuba from the Moscow club last year with a large caricature of the characters from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. I was later told that it was an extremely popular Soviet cartoon. Go figure.
Photo: Danny Armstrong.
Around 2,000 Spartak supporters had made the journey north to create a menacing sea of red in the adjacent stand. At their end the St. Petersburg based ultras group The Aliens celebrated their 15th anniversary with a banner reading ‘The Aliens – 15 years among strangers’ (15 лет – The Aliens – среди чужих), and the Red-White fans sang and swayed in unison.
By kick off the atmosphere was bubbling. After a tame opening ten minutes, forward Ze Luis was played through on goal. The Zenit backline waited in vain for the linesman’s flag while the powerful Cape Verdean skipped past a committed Lodygin. Ze Luis was felled but the ball was slotted home by onrushing team mate Ivelin Popov, who wheeled away to celebrate in the corner opposite Spartak’s end, which was now a frantic ruckus of bodies framed by smoke.
First blood to Moscow. But it wasn’t long before Zenit levelled.
Four minutes later and Danny’s square ball from the left flank was cleared as far as Axel Witsel on the edge of the box whose deflected shot sailed high into Artyom Rebrov’s net. Opaque plumes of smoke and drums bellowed out from the Zenit Ultras end in celebration, accentuating the approaching dusk. All square.
The heavy smoke corrupted the view in the Zenit half. But it hardly caused a problem as the ball was held for large periods just above the Spartak box while Zenit pressed hard for a second.
But when a second goal came, it came against the run of play. On 21 minutes Quincy Promes found himself free on the left hand side. Lethargic Zenit defending was never going to trouble the rapid Dutchman who played the ball inside for Aleksandr Zotov. His pass played through Denis Glushakov who turned and smashed home. The home fans seemed to rise in unified apoplexy at the lack of a linesman’s flag for a second – and what they thought was a more obvious – case of offside. The goal saw Spartak lead 2-1 going into half time but neither side had managed to take control of a loose and fluid game.
Photo: Danny Armstrong
At the start of the second half the Spartak end was infected with coruscating flares that lit up bright red after a startling bang. But the red and white joy was only effervescent. Thirty eight seconds after the restart and Hulk raced through into the Spartak box, opened up his sizeable frame, and slotted past Rebrov to level. Music Hall obliged in matching the Spartak show just moments before and only urgent pops and bangs of flares being lit interrupted their scorching chants. From then on the momentum was very much with the home supporters; Fratria remained largely placid.
Then suddenly, Zenit took the lead. On 65 minutes Hulk carved the ball over to Dzyuba, who cushioned it on his chest and bobbled the ball into the net before covering his face with his shirt and walking off into the left hand corner of the pitch to celebrate being front for the first time in the match. 3-2. From then on Spartak chased the game, their lead squandered.
The sun had disappeared and dusk was firmly settled when Dzyuba turned provider six minutes later. The Sbornaya forward floated the ball across the box to Mauricio and the Brazilian sweetly half-volleyed into the net. In the Virazh stand a sea of bare chests emerged to heave out victorious chants, but the game wasn’t over yet.
On 78 minutes Makeev received a second yellow card for a slide tackle on Dzyuba, although it took the referee a few minutes to determine whether it was actually his second offence. When he did, the Spartak man was duly sent off and moodily threw himself over the advertising stands and past the goading gauntlet of Zenit fans surrounding the tunnel on the way to his early bath.
Zenit made the 10-men pay late on. Three minutes before the end and Hulk drifted in a free kick that caused a scramble in the six yard box. Witsel first failed to turn it in before the Spanish substitute Javi Garcia poked the ball home to score the game’s seventh goal.
On the final whistle the Petrovksy exploded, as if every inch of Petersburg’s rich history had collided with their European leanings to send one huge message to Moscow.
The Spartak fans attempted a minor pitch invasion at the end. It was caused when a loan Zenit fan broke onto the field and snatched a Spartak banner laid on the pitch. Men in black clambered over the cages separating them from the pitch. When they reached the other side they were chased and accosted by heftily dressed police men and escorted from the ground. But the unrest didn’t extend past these daredevil stunts.The significance of what happened was relayed to me by a journalist after the game.
Given the intense pitch at which the game was set form start to finish, such an act of familiarity seemed not only strange but rather sacrilegious and oblivious to common custom. But such is the state of Russian football that sometimes the men in charge are often far removed from the passion of the supporters.
And so the banners were unfastened, the flags stashed away and shirts again covered up chests. Both sets of fans streamed out into the St. Petersburg night knowing of the gravity of the result for the other. But whatever the quarrels between past and future, between current and original, every fan leaving the ground on Saturday night knew that footballing pride would be staying in the ‘other’ capital.
Follow Danny on Twitter: @DannyWArmstrong