Sergey PogrebnyakSport correspondentAll materialsEmail to the authorFor the past month it seemed that the most popular teams in Russia are not Zenit and Spartak, but Amkal and 2Drots. Both amateur clubs unexpectedly climbed high in the updated Russian Cup, creating several sensations. The scandalous goal of Amkal outperformed its age-old rivals in media football, reaching 1/64 of the Cup. Bloggers lost absolutely no chance to the St. Petersburg “Star”, but in the end they could create a real miracle. With the total advantage of the team from the Second League and the removal in its composition, «Amkal» managed to equalize and transfer everything to a penalty shootout. But the miracles ended there, in the 11-meter series, Zvezda went further. But Amkal will definitely still be able to make some noise in the media space. The defeat turned out to be scandalous, because Zvezda scored an extremely unusual goal in the match. The St. Petersburg player performed a free kick without the referee's whistle, when the amateurs did not even have time to stand up against the wall. Goalkeeper «Amkala» also did not expect a blow without a whistle, passing into the near corner. Despite all the controversy, the referee counted the goal scored. The founder of «Amkal» German Popkov has already announced that he will file a protest against the result of the match because of the scandalous goal. And he has every chance that the judge will officially recognize the mistake. For example, former referee Igor Fedotov stated in his Telegram channel that the goal could not be counted. The referee had to cancel it and repeat the free kick on the whistle. Not bloggers, but football players Amkal's performance in the Cup did not leave people from the world of football indifferent. Some opposed the issuance of a kind of «wild card» for popular amateur clubs in the Cup of the country, while others were only glad that such stellar teams appeared in the tournament. they were conquered. But to call «Amkal» a bunch of bloggers is definitely not right. Yes, there are a lot of guys with a huge number of subscribers in the team, but this does not negate their football skills. In the Cup, not the most popular, but the most skillful players came out. All of them were professionally involved in football and went through sports schools. In «Amkal» there are pupils of «Spartak», CSKA, «Rostov» and other clubs of the Russian Premier League. And Alexei Gasilin did play for the main team of Zenit and was on loan at Schalke. Therefore, it is definitely impossible to call Amkal's victories over Zorkiy and Tver a sensation. The compositions and level of play of these opponents can be called at least equal. And in all three matches of the Cup with professionals, “Amkal” frankly drove only one half in St. Petersburg.
