russian teams in europa league; ugh.

Dynamo Moscow could not create anything even remotely interesting in their game against CSKA Sofia. The Bulgarian team wasn't anything special, and evidently neither is Dynamo. 0:0 is the final score, and while the game (and especially the second half) was disappointing, the result isn't exactly horrid.

Amkar had the hardest opponent. The team traveled to England to face Fulham. The Russian team was simply not physically ready to compete. By the time it was the middle of the second half, Amkar footballers were running out of gas. The result was predictable, a 1:3 loss, though to be fair Dimitar Dimitrov's men tried their hardest, and not all is lostwith this result. But with the current state of the team, Amkar is not likely to move into the group stage of Europa League. Might as well wave bye-bye now.

The biggest disappointment came from the 2007/2008 UEFA Cup winners, Zenit St. Petersburg. The team traveled to Portugal to face little known CD Nacional (Cristiano Ronaldo's home and first pro club). Zenit's performance was, once again, marred by wasted opportunities and absolutely horrific defense. With the St. Petersburg's team controlling the flow, the game ended with a 4:3 win for the home side. This certainly gives the Russian team ample opportunity to advance if they do win at home, but with the amount of positional mistakes from the defensive players, and Zenit's chronic inability to put the ball in the back of the net, I am skeptical that Zenit can accomplish anything reasonable this season.

UGH!