IF A MEDIUM-STATISTIC MAN Suddenly Falls On An Uninhabitable Island, After equipping a roof over his head and preparing enough food to survive, then he will soon be openly opened.
Almost all women think so, because the love of men for football, as it was, remains an inexplicable, ubiquitous and comprehensive phenomenon. So I thought, looping in the dark along the dodgy twists of an unlit road leading from exit 60 at Emirates Highway to the Etisalat Academy complex, where the Rustar football team, the only Russian team to play for more than a year, in the top division of the Amateur Football League of Dubai.
19.30. The still-lit football field of the Academy. The light will turn on later when the paid time begins. Today will be a game with the British-controlled team Safa (Safa FC), which is in the Amateur League championship two lines above our “Rustarovites”. Since I arrived an hour before the start of the game, the manager of “Rustar” Rinat Salikhovich took me with him to inspect the field: it was necessary to place the flags in the corners, first to tear out the holes not provided for by anyone, and pull the net of the gate with metal pegs to secure the tents. Such training is optional, and few people bother with it. “Rustarists” need everything to be in an adult way: after all, the championship of Dubai, and even in the top division, and the better the preparation, the less problems and contentious points during the match. Until the lights are turned on, I walk across the field with long sticks of flags at the ready, feeling like a partisan. As soon as the light is turned on, it will be necessary to modestly go beyond the field line, men do not tolerate an attempt on their territory. It is almost sacred.
19.45. Huge spotlights are turned on, and it turns out that the players are already warming up on the edge of the field. Ours are in white uniform. On the chest is the famous "golden key", the logo of Rustar Real Estate, the largest real estate operator in Dubai, on the back is the logo of the second sponsor, the Dubai-based Sariin Investment Group, also engaged in construction. Nearby are the Reds, rivals.
The history of FC “Rustar” is usually counted from August 14, 1999, when, at the initiative of Iskandr Halilov and Alexander Buranov, a club was created in Dubai for Russian-speaking football fans. Before “Rustar” in the Amateur Championship of Dubai under the leadership of Vadim Shaposhnikov, the “Spartak” team, consisting mainly of Russian citizens, successfully performed. After its disbandment, many players moved to “Rustar”, and continue to play in this team until now. Until August 2004, the club was called Al Bayan Union. Rustar Real Estate has been sponsoring the team for several years, taking on all the material concerns: for this season, sponsors have allocated tens of thousands of dollars to support the team, giving the guys the opportunity to fully concentrate on their favorite game.
I look at the list of players handed to me. The first name is Habib, the second is Mustafa, the third is Adnan. “And where are ours?”, I ask the manager. "These are" our "foreigners: they have long become" ours "," says Rinat Salikhovich. Further down the list: Vitaly, Umed, Yuri, Alex (that is, Alexander), Sergey, Abid, Eduard, Sanzhar, Pavel, Dzhambulat, once again Pavel, Bilal, Dmitry, Sergey, Roman, Kirill, Igor, Khusnutdin, Tarek, Tamir, Bashir, Simon. The full international is obtained: Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Syria and Afghanistan, who joined them in a football outburst. Only the Afghan Habib speaks Russian from foreign players of “Rustar”, but this does not affect the game, many years of experience playing side by side affects the game.
The age of the “Rustarians” is also different: from the very young Pavel, Cyril, Volodya and Jura, to team veterans who fall into this category not so much by age as by the length of time the team played. Nearly 10 years ago, old-timers began with an asphalt-flooded improvised field in a Dubai courtyard. Now they are training with their sons, such as dad and son Khusnutdinov.
Some of the “Rustarians” in the past are professional football players and graduates of sports schools. Rustar coach Eduard Milgizin, who played as a midfielder, used to play for Samara's Wings of the Soviets. The captain of the team Vitaly Alekseev also played in the “Wings”, who had previously graduated from the football school at the Rotor Volgograd. Vitaly, by the way, lives in Abu Dhabi, where there is also an amateur football team of immigrants from the USSR, but twice a week regularly appears in training and games with “Rustar”. The team’s top scorer Umed Alidodov, who had scored 11 goals at the time of the game this season, rose to the “Master of Sports of the USSR” in the Pamir Dushanbe. A young and promising Pavel Savenko in his youth played for the youth composition of the Tashkent Pakhtakor.
There are about forty people in the team. By occupation, almost all “Rustarians” are businessmen. And in temperament - young, persistent boys.
20.30. The whites came out against the reds. Or vice versa. In any case, the game has begun. I’m stomping around the line drawn with chalk between us and the field together with Pasha Savenko, who was disqualified at the request of a judge, which is still disputed by the management of “Rustar” as unrelated to reality. A couple of dozens of fans right there, at the line, yelling and giving directions. In the sixth minute, Umed heads the ball. Ours attack, then they attack ours. At the 11th and 15th minutes the goals are already marked “red”. At the 40th minute with an accurate supply, Eduard with a aimed blow compares the score - 2: 2.
During the break, a panting coach on a white board with multi-colored chips that has appeared from nowhere, emotionally expresses his complaints to the players. Everyone listens, discusses and shakes their heads, including the Syrians. They get up and go to the second half, wiping completely wet heads along the way, which, like a halo, are enveloped in thick steam.
Breakthrough, blow, fall. Normal game. Only, as in the first half, it seems that the referee is a little more supportive of “Safe” than of “Rustar”. And when our defender falls near the gate, and for several minutes the referee does not pay any attention to this, waiting for the clutter in a conversation with the manager of the “Reds”, concurrently the chairman of the Amateur League of Dubai, even it becomes unpleasant for me. The "Rustarists" who are in the reserve answer my direct question about his explicit preferences with restraint, not denying, but not confirming my hypothesis. Our continue to play, persistently and aggressively, much better than in the first half. Probably quite angry ... In the 80th minute, the Safa striker still scored a goal, and the match ended with the score 3: 2 not in favor of Rustar.
Trying to take photos. Useless. Immediately after the game, its emotional discussion begins. I quietly leave without even saying goodbye: at such a moment, it’s more expensive to touch men.
I’m returning a few days later already to practice to take photos. Everyone who was able to come gathered at the appointed hour, in clean white uniforms with a "key." While I adjust the camera to the unusually bright light of the spotlights of the stadium, I am completely alone: everyone was blown away by the wind into the perimeter of the field! What pictures are there for the magazine - it's time to play football!
