Tajik Regar-TadAZ and Moscow's Locomotive tie

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DUSHANBE — The results of the July 28 game between Tajik champions Regar-TAd-AZ and Moscow's Locomotive partly met all the fans' expectations. The game ended in a 2-2 draw.

The presence of Locomotive in Tajikistan led to a rush on the ticket office. Tickets were sold out a month before the match. For the first time in years, Dushanbe's Central Stadium was filled to capacity. The game football fans so anxiously anticipated, however, was played listlessly and lacked any adrenaline-pumping moments.

Locomotive club athletic director Rinat Bilyaletdinov claimed his club would play against Regar-TadAZ with a seasoned group of lean and hungry young footballers. As it turned out, though, the Moscow club put only second and third stringers on the pitch. There was not one major Locomotive player on the field. Bilyaletdinov further unjustifiably claimed the match was a test of the team’s strength prior to a game of the second tour of the Russian championship.

For the Tajik club, the game with the Russians became the control match prior to the finals of the Asian Football Confederation Presidential Cup that Dushanbe will host in September.

Currently there are several players of Tajik origin who are being trained by Locomotive. Bilyaletdinov named Muhammadnaimi Sharifi, who played against the Tajik club with the Moscow team, and Manuchekher Jalilov, who is captain of the Locomotive youth team and the best striker. Not too long ago, Locomotive's head coach was Rashid Rakhimov, pupil of the Tajik football school.

Today, however, the level of Tajik football barely exceeds that of neighbourhood games. Training of professional athletes in the country falls short of adequate. In addition, there are practically no football schools left in the republic and the financial difficulties which athletes face compel them to try out with clubs of other countries if they want to play professionally.