Team on rails

Yuri Semin won the first match with the national team

Yuri Semin's debut as head coach of the Russian national team was successful. His team, having beaten the Latvian national team 2:0 on Saturday in St. Petersburg, now shares second and third places with the Slovak team in its qualifying group for the 2006 World Cup.

So, in almost an hour and a half, the situation of the Russian team turned from almost catastrophic to completely tolerable. And this despite the fact that the victory over the Latvians was quite expected. It just so happened historically that with the arrival of a new head coach, our national team is starting to get healthy. But much more important is how Semin’s team beat the Latvians - calmly, in a businesslike manner, with a clear understanding of the players, what the coaches want from them and how to achieve it. That’s why each of the two goals against the opponent did not cause much joy on the bench. Success was taken for granted. This is unusual for the Russian team. We are already unaccustomed to such “calm” victories.

We are also unaccustomed to the fact that our team can have its own identity. Even if it is very similar to a copy of Lokomotiv or even CSKA, but still recognizable and with a clear and understandable picture of the game. And this despite the fact that among his own, among the Loko players, Yuri Pavlovich released only Dmitry Loskov into the main lineup. The same Loskov, whom the previous national team coaches, while certainly paying tribute to the talent of this player, did not fully understand how to use him on the field.

Meanwhile, Izmailov and Sychev, Sennikov and Ovchinnikov remained on the bench. Perhaps, by doing so, Semin wanted to make it clear that he does not divide the players into “us” and “strangers”. He gave - and we understood. But at the same time, he managed to prove that his scheme works regardless of who exactly is on the field. It’s been a long time since the Russian national team selected players for a specific scheme. Recently, everything has been the other way around - the game model was tailored to specific players.

There were, however, some mistakes, each of which could have turned Semin’s debut from a successful one into a failure. However, the national team coach himself did not try to deny this after the match. “I’m mostly concerned about the defensive line,” Semin said after the match. “You can’t allow so many counterattacks.” But I'm very pleased with the result of the game. There were a lot of mistakes, but the result was good.” Now, probably, it is the result that really comes first. But at the same time, as the players say, there was no pumping or pompous talk in the locker room about the fate of the match with Latvia. On the eve of the game, the most experienced player of the national team, Sergei Ovchinnikov, said that the main thing in the upcoming match is to do a good job on the field. Looks like it worked. And the fact that the victory over Latvia was a working one, and maybe even a pass, can be considered a plus for the current Russian team.

The victory of the Portuguese national team over the Slovaks turned out to be just as successful. The Russian team is still in a position where it cannot help but look at the results of its opponents' matches. In fact, any outcome of the Portugal - Slovakia match was in the hands of Semin’s team. The Portuguese won, and with the same score - 2:0. But, unlike the Russians, the European vice-champions achieved results in the first half, after which they slowed down. Now the Portuguese national team, which leads the standings, doesn’t really care what’s going on behind its back. “We have every chance to take first place in the group,” Portuguese coach Luiz Filipe Scolari said after the match. - Now everything depends on the match with Estonia. We know how this team can defend and counterattack.”

The Portuguese will play against Estonia on Wednesday. On the same day, Slovakia will play away against Luxembourg, and Latvia against Liechtenstein. The Russian national team will play its next match on August 17, and again our opponents will be the Latvians. Now the country's national team will play home matches only in the capital. This was stated by RFU President Vitaly Mutko. Somehow, the fact that this match was his debut also remained behind the scenes. So far, the new head of Russian football is lucky.

Andrey VDOVIN