“Super Cup” sounds a bit funny, don’t you find it so? Looks like the Champions’ Cup, possessed by Mancunians, and the UEFA Cup, residing in the city on Neva now, are just waste vessels? In reality, it is exactly the Super Cup - invented by Anton Witkamp, who suffered with the fact that his favorite Ajax had won all the possible tournaments in the ‘70s - that is positioned as an exhibition match between the two main holders of the club awards and as an opening of the football season in Europe.        

On the other hand, this is for Real, Milan and Bavaria and other European grandees that a rendezvous on the Cote d’Azur may mean just warming and power check before long and serious tournament. As for Zenit, that led a dull life in the minor league 15 years ago, and that makes the world astonished today with fancy spending on not very outstanding football players, well, Super Cup is exactly what it needs, considering that the club has very little chance for becoming the first in the current Russian championship.   

The intrigue was reinforced with the fact that Manchester had never yielded to Russian clubs in UEFA tournaments. And the Sir Alex Fergusson had stated his team would be competing strongly so that to feel why Lazio players, who won them in 1999, were so crazy about that. It’s only stingy fans from the Albion who did not support the fighting mood of their pets, buying only 3,000 tickets to the August show. As for the wealthy St Petersburg people, they bought up the entire quota of 6,000 and arrived in Monaco not believing to bookmakers, who considered that Zenit had no chances.       

…In the meantime, major part of Zenit supporters had been discussing the transfer of the Portuguese Danny. While specialists argued whether Miguelito is worthy this money, the devoted fans, who are far from being concerned about gas pipe-line problems, were worried about a tattoo with a letter “D” and a number of 10 on the left hand of the Portuguese, who had vowed his fidelity to Dynamo in such a reckless way. Danny was offered to remove that “shit” or to play in a long-sleeve T-shirt or even to cut off his hand. Well, that was a unique situation: the transfer of the most expensive player in the Russian football history made frenzied exactly those who were supposed to become happy out if it.        

Luckily, Dick Advocat does not care about tattoos and he did not make the leader of the transfer market sit on the bench at the “Luis II” Stadium. As a result, a fantastic for our football record was registered where the value of 11 Zenit players was higher than that of the 11 “devils” from the starting stuff. And when in the second half the ruddy-cheeked Arshavin appeared, for whom Roman Abramovich had arrived in Monaco, then even Christian Ronaldo could get gloomy, as even his hypothetical appearance in the filed would not equalize the banking accounts.      

In short, Gazprom - oh excuse me! - Zenit got a convincing victory in all fronts – football and financial one. And let them say that money does not play football. It’s a pity that my Granny did not see Danny scoring the decisive goal. Probably, she would stop complaining that her pension is too small…   

Well, our dreams come true: Zenit revenged for TsSKA and repeated the success of Kiev Dynamo in 1975. Besides, thanks to St Petersburg football players, Russia has become the 11th country to hold this honorable trophy. In autumn they will be waited by Juventus and Real. There will be more occasions for being proud…