Russian football is not something many in Britain know too much about, Sergei Baltacha apart. Torpedo are having a goodish season in the Russian Premier League which their manager Vitaly Shevchenko reckons is not as good as the English Premier League.
Last season they were third which gave them a European place for the second year running. Last year they lost to Swiss club Lausanne.
According to supporter Serguey Belykh (cheers Serguey) their star men are attackers Dmitry Vyazmikin, top scorer in Russia currently, and Alexander Shirko, a former Spartak Moscow player. In midfield Serguey Kormiltsev is rated as a "very talented playmaker”. He joined a year ago from Dinamo Kiyev. Igor Semshov is a talented all-action central midfield player.
They have been in Europe on several occasions since their first appearance in 1966. They have made the quarter-finals of the UEFA and Cup Winners’ Cups. In 1968 they met Cardiff City, who included former Town coach Bobby Ferguson in their line-up, in the quarter-finals of the Cup Winners' Cup They lost the first match 0-1 in Cardiff, won in the return game 1-0 in Tashkent, but lost the replay 0-1 in Augsburg.
In 1987 Torpedo did just as well in the Cup Winners' Cup when played Bordeaux in the quarter-finals and even though they drew 3-3 on aggregate, they went out on the away-goal rule.
Their European record is
Competition / AP/ MP/ W / D / L / GF/ GA
ECCC / 2 / 4 / 0 / 3 / 1 / 0 / 1
ECWC / 7 / 25/ 11/ 8 / 6 / 34/ 23
UCUP / 8 / 34/ 15/ 7 / 12/ 54/ 44
Intertoto / 1 / 6 / 5 / 0 / 1 / 13/ 5
TOTAL - / 18/ 69/ 31 / 18/ 20/101/ 73
Legend: AP - Appearance, MP - Matches Played, W - Win, D - Drawn, L - Lost, GF - Goals For, GA - Goals Against.
Their head coach is Vitaly Shevchenko who is no relation to Andriy Shevchenko from AC Milan. He has been with Torpedo since November 1998. He previously played for Dinamo Kiyev, Neftchi Baku, Chernomorets Odessa and played 15 times for the Soviet Union A-team scoring 4 goals. He managed Bolivar in Bolivia, Apoel Beer Sheva in Israel and Uralan Elista in Russia amongst others before taking over at Torpedo.
They have a number of international players. Vyacheslav Dayev and Shirko are Russian internationals while Alexander Lukhvich plays for Belarus, Ediki Sadzhaya is a Georgian international, Roman Berezovisky an Armenian full cap and Valeriy Vorobyov plays for the Ukraine.