| Yuri Semin's team easily coped with Liechtenstein The Russian team has reached the final stage of the qualifying round for the 2006 World Cup. The Russian team, having beaten Liechtenstein - 2:0, caught up with the Slovak team on points and now in the three remaining meetings - with Portugal, Luxembourg and the same Slovaks - will solve the problem of taking second place in the group, which gives the right to play in the play-offs matches.
The head coach of the Russian national team, Yuri Semin, had an extremely clear and simple task for the match with Liechtenstein: to win a landslide victory and take three points. Nothing complicated, even if you add to it the desire to win big and beautifully. It didn’t work out very beautifully, let alone large. But the score and the game turned out just right, and now Semin’s team will approach the meeting with the Portuguese without euphoria, but with confidence in their abilities.
Before the game with the Liechtenstein team in the camp of the Russian national team, no matter who you asked, everyone was talking about a quick goal. But it is unlikely that only this early goal was necessary for victory. It was much more important to prevent any blunder in defense that would make the team nervous. So a zero in the “goals conceded” column may be more important at this stage than large numbers in the “goals scored” column. And although it is somehow inconvenient to be proud of such an achievement in the match with Liechtenstein, it seems that it was the football dwarf in this qualifying group who became the eminence grise who decides who should take what position. In any case, it was the draw with Liechtenstein that deprived Slovakia of a clear second place.
For the match with Liechtenstein, Semin fielded the most attacking line-up in the last few years of our team’s existence. Two forwards Kerzhakov and Pavlyuchenko, two not even midfielders - half-forwards Izmailov and Arshavin, three defenders - brothers Berezutsky and Ignashevich. Our national team almost never played like this. And if we consider that only two players from this squad are over 24 years old (Smertin and Ignashevich), then we can say that under Semin the Russian national team almost imperceptibly experienced a generational change.
Naturally, the coaching staff will most likely choose a different option for the match against Portugal on Wednesday. And it is very likely that it will be close to what the Russian national team has been playing since the middle of the second half, when Aldonin replaced Pavlyuchenko. That is, with the same three defenders, but with one striker and two defensive players. But this is understandable - Yuri Semin is waiting for an opponent of a completely different level, in a match with which reinsurance is just a measure of caution.
And in the game with Liechtenstein we had to score. The first chance came in the fourth minute, when Ignashevich failed to convert the penalty. A moment later, Liechtenstein goalkeeper Peter Jehle parried the shot from Pavlyuchenko, who had arrived in time to finish. This is the fate of goalkeepers of teams like Liechtenstein - to be the heroes of matches in which the team concedes less than three goals. Later, Jela had several more opportunities to show himself in the game, but in the 27th minute he had no chance to repel Kerzhakov’s shot.
The goalkeepers of the favorite teams have a completely different situation. It's almost a shame to miss in a game like this. But in any match, any team has at least one opportunity to score. The Liechtenstein national team also had it, whose players did not make a single shot at Akinfeev’s goal in the first half. But in the 63rd minute, the guests' first meaningful attack could have ended in trouble. Burgmeier hit his header and even hit the goal, but the ball flew straight into Akinfeev’s hands. And three minutes later, after the flank attack of the Russians, Kerzhakov, who completed Anyukov’s pass, completely killed the intrigue - 2:0 and no questions asked.
Such matches are not memorable. There was no high tension, any controversial episodes and, thank God, no injuries or sensations. If it had not been a match of the national team, it is unlikely that any of the Russian fans would have watched it to the end, and a year later, apart from the result, they would remember any details. This is probably good - lately we have had too few such passing matches and victories won as if in passing. Andrey VDOVIN |
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