HELLO, CHAMPIONSHIP!,

The subject of football remained the centre of attention in Azerbaijan despite the Beijing Olympics. This is not surprising - clubs completed their appearance in the European competitions and began the country's championship, while the national team is finalising preparations for the World Cup 2010 qualifiers. In a word, we have something to talk about.

If we look at the statistics regarding the performance of all Azerbaijani clubs in the current round of European competitions, we get the following picture: Neftci, Olympic, Xazar-Lankaran and Inter played 14 matches this season, winning three and losing six, while five matches ended in draws. It is notable that all the victories went to Neftchi. Playing well in the Intertoto Cup, the club made the biggest contribution to Azerbaijan's UEFA ranking, which will be confirmed at the end of the season.

Reshuffles

Before the start of the national championship, teams reshuffled coaches as well as dabbling in the transfer market. Specifically, the new-old leader of Xazar-Lankaran is Rasim Kara, who replaced Agasalim Mircavadov under whose leadership the team was knocked out of the early stages of the UEFA Cup, losing twice to Poland's Lech. At the same time, Qarabag's new coach was the former coach of Neftci, Qurban Qurbanov.

Mircavadov's work with Xazar was quite productive over the last two seasons, as he took the team to the championship, won the national cup twice and celebrated victory in the Commonwealth Cup. However, the southerners' European Cup campaign failed. Whereas last year the Lankaran team gave Dinamo Zagreb a really hard time in the first round of Champions League qualifiers, leaving the tournament with heads held high, in the matches against Lech they had nothing to boast about.

So Xazar is now turning a new page in its history and Kara promises to be its chronicler. However, there is a big question as to whether the coach will be able to prepare the team properly for the season ahead; he does not have much time to make any radical changes. The team entered the pre-seasonal period under the leadership of Mircavadov and experience also shows that replacing the coach at this crucial time may have a negative impact on performance. Furthermore, almost all the coaches who worked with Mircavadov have left the southerners. The club is taking on no small challenge, especially in view of their main objective - to win the championship. Kara was once very close to this; however, in the "golden" match Xazar-Lankaran lost to Neftci, led then by Mircavadov.

Meanwhile, the departure of the Turkish coach affected Qarabag most of all and they now had to find a candidate to replace him. The Agdam football club's management had already expressed its outrage that Kara, who was under contract to Qarabag, was in negotiations for employment at his new-old place. However, they had to find a way out of this difficult situation. And they found Qurban Qurbanov, who was invited to the Agdam camp.

To break the vicious circle

In the championship, most attention is focused on Neftci who have been deprived of the spoils of war in the domestic arena for three seasons in a row. It is high time for the Baku football team to break their unlucky streak, especially as they started the season successfully, clearing two rounds of the Intertoto Cup. But on the other hand, the flagship of Azerbaijani football accelerated its preparations in some ways and it is still not clear what the club will look like in the middle of the tournament or at the end of the championship, where they have to secure solid results. In any case, the club began the championship extremely badly, losing their two opening matches.

In general, it must be noted that, in this championship, the fight for the leading places promises to be quite a struggle. Baki, Qarabag and Karvan, who failed last season, will try to get among the medals again and to win a place in the European Cup. We should highlight Baki, who have become significantly stronger over the past few months and are preparing to challenge the recognized favourites. Their victory over Neftci proves once again that Gyoko Hajiyevski's team has quite serious intentions.

Olympic are also planning to confirm their ambition. The team missed out on gold medals last time round and won silver, which was not in their plans. The coaches are also encouraged by the return of Brazilian Junivan, who has become a real talisman. Brazilian players also feature strongly in Xazar-Lankaran, who won the Cup and now intend to win the championship. We should not discount Inter either, as they have been a trendsetter in Azerbaijani football for at least a season. Time and the team's performance will show how this trend develops. Until recently, the team was occupied with the Champions League, where it did very well, clearing one round of the European Cup. So in the championship, where rivalry will probably become fiercer, the "bankers" will test the truth of the saying that it is easier to win a title than to keep it.

At the same time, the main coach of the Azerbaijani national team, Berti Vogts, expressed his concern about AFFA's decision to lift the limit on foreign players. He thinks that this step will have a negative impact on the development of Azerbaijani football, as proved by the starting matches of the national championship. "There are very few local players on the pitch, which is why I think that the lifting of the limit was not the right decision," the coach believes. Vogts also observed that the training of players in their clubs leaves something to be desired and their condition is far from perfect. "I want the national team to hold monthly practice sessions, because then we will be able to keep an eye on all international players. I am currently having to do the job that the team coaches should be doing," Vogts complained.

Dress rehearsal

It is not difficult to understand the coach because only a few days are left to the beginning of the World Cup 2010 qualifiers. In fact, the German coach is short of time to prepare for the forthcoming matches, which is why every friendly match is seen as a dress rehearsal for the qualifiers. The match against Iceland was no exception. It was played in Reykjavik and ended in a 1-1 draw. After Vogts spent one month in Switzerland and Austria, where he watched European Cup matches and the performance of our main group rivals - Germany and Russia, his attention turned to the performance of Azerbaijani clubs in the European competitions. The coach visited Antwerp to see the first match of the second round of the Intertoto Cup - Germinal-Neftci (1-1) and the return match of the first round of Champions League qualifiers Rabotnicki-Inter (1-1). If we include the UEFA Cup matches played by Xazar-Lankaran and Olympic, the team that went to Iceland included 16 footballers who had played in European competition. We should also add Branimir Subasic, who has signed a contract with Crvena Zvezda, who play in the UEFA Cup. The naturalized Brazilian Fabio Luis Ramim, of Baki, who played in the friendly matches with Bosnia and Andorra, has been called up to the national team again. The South American may well become a key figure in the national team - the team will be built around him.

In any case, he stood out in Iceland, opening the score for the national team. Although Vogts thinks that a number of his players did not push themselves to the limit and there will probably be changes ahead of the opening game with Wales in Cardiff. Our group is quite a complicated one and we can already say that Germany and Russia will set the pace, especially as our opponents are on the rise - Germany played in the Euro-2008 final, while Russia took the bronze medal in this tournament. The Azerbaijani national team cannot boast any trophies yet, but the forthcoming matches should provide some kind of incentive and a chance for our team to make a name for themselves. And they probably understand this very well.