Dwarf mayhem

Kolyvanov’s team started in the qualifying round of the European Youth Championship

The Russian youth team began its journey in the qualifying round of the 2011 European Championship, which in turn is a stage of selection for the 2012 Olympic Games. Yesterday, the team led by Igor Kolyvanov defeated the Andorran team - 4:0.

Russian teams have never competed at the Olympics in recent history. Moreover, since 1992, our youth team has taken part in only one final tournament of the European Championship - in 1998. At the same time, many worked with the team, including quite eminent specialists, such as Boris Ignatiev, Valery Gazzaev, Andrey Chernyshov and Alexander Borodyuk. Before the start of the current cycle, the youth team was headed by Igor Kolyvanov. The coach of the main national team, Guus Hiddink, had a slightly different opinion on this matter, but the RFU executive committee chose a young coach who had already won the 2006 continental championship with the youth team born in 1989.

Several players from that team made it to the current youth team. Goalkeeper Evgeny Pomazan, who is already Igor Akinfeev’s replacement at CSKA, according to experts, should in the near future be a worthy competitor to the country’s first goalkeeper. Roman Amirkhanov, after three years of playing for the reserve team of Lokomotiv Moscow, never got his chance to play for the first team and was exiled to the first division club Sibir. Alexander Prudnikov, who loudly declared himself at Spartak, but did not like the new head coach of the “red-whites” Michael Laudrup, was loaned to Terek. Dmitry Ryzhov is now trying to compete with the foreign players in CSKA.

Besides them, there are several other players in Kolyvanov’s team who have managed to make themselves known. Pavel Mamaev is considered a player of the army “base” and is almost the most experienced player in the country’s youth team. Defender Alexey Ionov is the only young Zenit footballer in whose services Dick Advocaat was even slightly interested. The bloodless, but still very ambitious Dynamo is counting heavily on striker Alexander Kokorin. Attacking midfielder Vladislav Ryzhkov really liked the same Laudrup last season, and full-back Sergei Parshivlyuk is already a solid player in the main team of Spartak. As did the army player Georgy Shchennikov, whom the Brazilian Zico immediately began to trust.

At the same time, we should not forget that due to his age, Alan Dzagoev, whom Guus Hiddink categorically selected to the main team, is also eligible to play for the youth team. So now the leading CSKA midfielder may be at the disposal of Igor Kolyvanov only for the duration of the decisive matches, the time of which will come only in October next year. Then, the winners of ten qualifying groups, as well as the four best teams from among the runners-up, will compete in the play-offs for the right to participate in the final tournament of the European Championship. The seven winners will be accompanied at the continental championship by the hosts of the tournament, the Danes.

The Russian team believes that our team should go head-to-head from first place. And its owner in Group 1 will most likely be determined in the last two matches with peers from Romania. The Russians will meet their main rival on October 4 and 7. And before that, Kolyvanov’s team, who did not hide his satisfaction with the draw for the qualifying stage, faces the task of not losing points with other teams - Moldova, Latvia, the Faroe Islands and, accordingly, Andorra.

The youth team in Krasnodar approached its implementation responsibly. It was decided to hold the match in the southern city of the country out of economy - renting the capital's Luzhniki would have been too expensive, and at other Moscow stadiums they were afraid of ruining the natural grass. In Krasnodar, the coaching staff was satisfied with the condition of the grass, and the hosts secured a solid groundwork for themselves in the first half. The first Russian goal in this qualifying round was scored by Alexey Ionov, and then Ryzhov and Mamaev supported their partner’s progress. After the break, the Russian team no longer looked so formidable, and only one effective strike was added to the three already existing goals: Anton Kozlov scored from long range - 4:0. But this turned out to be enough to immediately take the lead - the Romanians in the match with Andorra last week were content with a much more modest 2:0.

Andrey VDOVIN