| Russia will start the World Cup without a number of celebrities Tomorrow in St. Paul, the Russian team begins its performance at the World Cup with a match against the US team. This tournament became the successor to the iconic Canada Cup of the eighties, but by the sixth “edition” it had considerably lost its “political” weight. The great confrontation between the USSR and Canada, alas, has become a textbook story. And the dispute that replaced it for the right to be called trendsetters in hockey between the founders of the game and the Americans is, by and large, interesting only to residents of the New World. In addition, the current tournament is caught up in paradoxes, which have reduced the interest of fans in it.
First of all, the timing of the Cup is perplexing, the first match of which (Finland - Czech Republic - 4:0) was played the very next day after the closing of the Summer Games in Athens. The two-week Olympic marathon has taken away almost all the strength and emotions from most fans, and they greet the second central event of the sports calendar somewhat devastated. Moreover, this trend is typical for all participating countries, with the exception of Canada.
In St. Paul, a couple of days before the USA-Russia match, you could easily buy tickets for this ice event at the ice arena box office. And this is in Minnesota, which proudly calls itself the “hockey state.” Where almost everyone, young and old, including the governor, races the puck. Given that a lockout in the NHL is almost inevitable, which means that after the World Cup, North America will be left without big hockey for a year, or even two. But it doesn’t draw people to the stands. Experts blame the so-called post-Olympic syndrome for all this.
The tournament regulations also do not create a strong desire to rush to the box office to buy tickets for the games of the first stage, in which eight teams are divided into two groups. The group tournament has actually been turned into a series of exhibition matches. All teams advance to the next round, distributing only places in the playoff bracket. One quartet consisted of Russia, the USA, Canada and Slovakia, the other - the Czech Republic, Sweden, Germany, Finland. Well, then the familiar strategy of world championships begins for all European teams, when the world championship turns into a one-match championship. If you win in the quarterfinals, your performance will definitely be considered a success; defeat will be called a failure.
All hockey people on both sides of the Atlantic understand perfectly well what kind of final the organizers are counting on. Calling a spade a spade, the entire tournament is designed as a remake of the Olympic gold match between Canada and the USA. And if this super task was already solved in Salt Lake City, where competitions were held according to the rules of the International Hockey Federation, then what can we say about the World Cup, a commercial tournament held by the NHL - according to its own rules, on small stages and, finally, with local judges... To throw the Canadians and Americans out of the fight for the trophy, you need to be two heads stronger. And in terms of composition, overseas teams are objectively the strongest in the tournament.
For Russia, this Cup is associated with a series of scandals. First, in May, due to fear of mass refusals of our stars from the NHL, the leadership of the Russian Hockey Federation (RFH) made a “velvet revolution”, replacing the team helmsman Viktor Tikhonov with a figure more acceptable to many - Zinetula Bilyaletdinov. Tikhonov was sent to the honorary position of head coach of all Russian teams. But the wave of refuseniks still came...
Goalkeeper Nikolai Khabibulin, forward Alexey Zhamnov, and defender Danila Markov, one after another, declared that they would not play for the national team until the power in the federation changed, repeating in an interview a memorized phrase about “chaos in the FHR.” Before the start of the national team’s training camp, forward Sergei Fedorov, who sent a fax notifying him of the injury, also refused to participate in the tournament. It soon became clear that for the same reason the team lost its second goalkeeper from the NHL - Evgeni Nabokov. The situation was terrible. After all, since the beginning of summer, many experts, including Vladislav Tretyak, who later joined the team’s headquarters, have been insisting that there is nothing to do at the World Cup without an NHL goalkeeper. And of all three goalkeepers of our team, only Ilya Bryzgalov has experience playing in the NHL. If, of course, you can consider 92 minutes on ice over three seasons as experience...
But despite all the obvious weaknesses of the Russian team, there is one argument in its favor. Perhaps, for the first time in the history of our hockey, the national team is not expected to succeed. After a decade without big victories on the international stage, reaching the semifinals will be regarded as a success, and defeat in the quarterfinals will not be a tragedy. And in such “hothouse” conditions, a young team is able to present a surprise. Victor SHUMOV |
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