Expert opinion

Alexander Mostovoy, former player of the Russian national team, champion of the USSR: “You can achieve results without playing football at all”

Self-confident and strong teams in Africa faced "pure football injustice" - and lost. - After watching the first matches of the World Cup, I regret more and more that our team did not make it to this tournament. But we are in...

Self-confident and strong teams in Africa faced "pure football injustice" - and lost.

- After watching the first matches of the World Cup, I regret more and more that our team did not make it to this tournament. But we ourselves are to blame for this: over the past two years, we have behaved too self-confidently. I think that Russia is stronger than many teams represented in South Africa, and could show both a good game and a decent result.

So far, the biggest surprise of the tournament came from Spain, which lost to Switzerland. This result added nervousness to the whole championship. A strong team with good players and a great game lost to the team that fought back the whole match. I consider such an outcome purely football injustice. If they play each other ten more times, the games will be held in a similar vein and almost all the victories will go to Spain. Once again, we are convinced that it is possible to lose, demonstrating beautiful football, and play poorly or not play at all, achieving a result, because it is above all. Now many will take this technique into service.

The players who came to South Africa have long been known in Europe, and there is no need to wait for significant discoveries, at least until I saw them. The only unpleasant moment is that African pipes are constantly blowing throughout the game. I have very little idea how you can withstand this at the stadium.

The second round will be decisive, the teams need to take risks and prove their class. We have already seen the beginning in the performance of the national team of Uruguay and Argentina.

Even before the start of the championship, I noted that I would be rooting for the national teams of Spain and Argentina. I remember how in 1990 Spartak played with Napoli, and Maradona, coming on as a substitute on the terrible field of Luzhniki, showed what a great talent he has. He was the idol of millions of fans (even in our still closed country, which did not see much and did not know much, not to mention the Italians and Argentines), Maradona remains the same football idol even now, for me as well. And it’s funny for me to hear when they say: as a coach, he has achieved nothing, he has no experience. How can you say such a thing about a man who became the best football player in the world, who played professionally for 30 years? In two years, he led Argentina to the World Cup and, I am sure, will surprise many more here. They scold him because he is a person, a famous person, and no one is interested in throwing mud at the Korean coach.