| An unprecedented fiasco of volleyball players
For the first time in the history of the European Championships, our country’s team will not end up on the podium. After Nikolai Karpol's team suffered their second defeat in the tournament (0:3) from the German national team, they finally lost their chances of reaching the semifinals. In addition, the Russians lost the opportunity to win a ticket to the World Cup, where the first Olympic licenses will be awarded. Our team will only have to hope to win the European qualifying tournament (January 2004) or then get into the medals of the last FIVB tournament.
There are no particular doubts that our girls will qualify for the Olympics, even after the failure at the European Championships, but the more distant future looks with concern. It is quite possible that the detective story with the poisoning of two dozen volleyball players in Ankara, from which our team suffered more than its rivals, played a fatal role. This version is quite plausible, but one way or another we are once again convinced that the safety margin of our team is melting before our eyes. If the last European Championships were held with the unconditional advantage of Karpol’s team, now all that remains is to remember this. And it’s not just the increased level of European volleyball. The retreat was mainly due to our personnel problems. The team's game is too dependent on its two miracle scorers, and as soon as Evgenia Artamonova went out of action and Ekaterina Gamova got sick, the team instantly turned into a middling team. The saddest thing is that the national team has not received any worthy additions at all in the last two or three years. They don’t see it or don’t want to see it in the future. Vladimir ILYIN
Spaniard suffers from long tongue
The cooperation between the Russian champion futsal club Dynamo and the Spanish coach Miguel José Rodrigo Conde-Salazar did not last long. The Spaniard worked with Dynamo for a little over two months and left for his homeland, taking with him three compatriots-players - Ricoeur, Purao and Cesar. The legionnaires failed to cope with their mission - to teach Russians to play modern football. And Dynamo President Konstantin Eremenko did not like the criticism of the domestic mini, which Rodrigo dealt with at every opportunity. The Spaniard was fined several times by management for making unflattering statements about the tactics of opposing teams at post-match press conferences, but did not settle down. As a result, “in accordance with the three-month trial period provided for in the contract, the parties came to a mutual decision to suspend cooperation, expressing satisfaction with the joint work.” Now Dynamo will be led by a tandem of coaches - Vladimir Shibaev and Yuri Rudnev. Denis VDOVIN
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