On This Day: Semak scores first RPL goal

On 13 April 2002, CSKA Moscow captain Sergey Semak scored his first goal in the Russian Premier Liga, but it did not help his team beat Saturn. When the first season of the RPL started in the spring of 2002, the midfielder played for the army team for almost eight years, although he almost left them more than once.

In 1996, a 20-year-old Semak - whom Aleksandr Tarkhanov had just appointed as CSKA captain - signed a personal contract with Feyenoord, but the move fell through when the clubs did not agree on the transfer fee. After the season, the player was set to leave the team again. Asmaral were waiting for Semak, where he was still under contract, even though CSKA had taken him in 1994 under the guise of conscription. The player also got interest from other Moscow teams.

"Nikolai Tolstykh also called me to Dynamo, saying: ‘We will solve all the issues with al-Khalidi (the president of Asmaral – Ed.), there will be no problems,’” Semak told Sports.ru in 2012. “I had left CSKA by that time and together with a group of former army men trained at Torpedo under Tarkhanov.

“They also promised to negotiate with al-Khalidi, but without success - I did not go to the second training camp with them. As a result I was called back to CSKA via Valery Minko: ‘We will settle all the issues,’ they said, ‘we want to see you.’ They finally agreed and I stayed at CSKA."

The player remained the skipper of the Armymen until August 1999. After losing 4-0 to Molde in Champions League qualification, however, Semak himself gave up the armband. He was appointed captain again by Pavel Sadyrin in 2001. Before the following season - when the top division was relaunched as the Russian Premier Liga - Valery Gazzaev was placed in charge, and he left the armband with Semak.

The team started the RPL with five consecutive wins, but the almost entire run came without the participation of the captain. In the first round, Semak was sent off in the 25th minute for hitting Aleksandr Kurtiyan of Torpedo-ZIL in the face. His opponent was also shown a red card for provocation, and both players were suspended for five matches. In addition to the following four RPL games, they missed the quarter-final in the Russian Cup.

Semak returned in an away game against Uralan, and in Elista the army team lost points for the first time in the season in a 3-3 draw. In the next round at Torpedo Stadium, they hosted the fourth-placed Ramenskoye Saturn-REN TV. The guests were coached by Vladimir Shevchuk, Gazzaev's former teammate at Lokomotiv and his future assistant at CSKA, Dynamo Kyiv and Alania Vladikavkaz.

"The plot of this match was interesting, but, alas, tragic for the army team," began the CSKA press service’s report on the game. Both teams scored in the first half, and after the break it was Semak who put the hosts ahead. The midfielder's debut goal of the season was not a winner though; Saturn's players snatched all three points with two goals in the last 12 minutes.

That match report ended like this: "We have dropped five points in the last two matches and lost first place to Lokomotiv. Many have been waiting for this moment, and now one after another articles appear in the media about "the randomness of CSKA's opening victories". Well, sometimes it just helps."

Before the end of the season, the captain scored five more times, and the army and railway sides played a ‘golden’ match for the championship at Dynamo Stadium. Then Lokomotiv won, but a year later Semak and his teammates lifted the title in the same place.

In 11 seasons spent in the RPL as a player, he won the league with three different clubs; after CSKA, he also became a champion with Rubin Kazan and Zenit St. Petersburg. Now Semak is the only person in the history of the Russian championship who has won the title as a player and manager.