Youth didn't pass

Russia will miss the Olympics again

Football remains a sport in which Russia has never been represented at the Olympic Games. The Russian youth team, having lost away to Portugal with a score of 0:3, was unable to overcome the qualifying tournament for the final part of its 2007 European Championship, which is also the qualifying stage for the Beijing Olympics. A major home victory did not help either, after which Borodyuk’s team already considered the task solved.

However, “Borodyuk’s team” is too strong a word. The youth team was forced to play their last away matches without their head coach. Guus Hiddink categorically refused to let his assistant go to the second Russian team - he needed Borodyuk's German in the first. But when the youth team won 4:1 in the first play-off match with Portugal in Moscow, it seemed that Borodyuk would not be of any use to them in Porto. You still had to be able to lose with a big score of 0:3. But, as it turned out, there is no limit to the skill of Russian football players and coaches.

In an away match, it suddenly turned out that the Russian youth team had no strikers. Bukharov has been injured for a long time, Bazhenov recently received a serious injury, Samodin was not called up due to injury, and the coaching staff did not want to call forwards, as well as other players, from the first division to the national team. When the last surviving forward Savin was taken off the field, it turned out that the coaches simply had no options to replace him. So Torbinsky appeared on the field as a battering forward - anyone who can imagine the size of this Spartak player will understand the comedy of the situation. By the way, it is not clear why exactly the bet was placed on the Spartak team. Of the entire red-white camp, only Shishikin played decently. Pavlenko failed the second match, how Torbinsky would play in the adult teams remained a secret, and the favorite of Spartak veterans, Rebko, was the worst in the Russian team in both games - so you had to be able to lose position and make mistakes in every second pass.

Meanwhile, the Portuguese had no doubt that they would be able to win back the three-goal handicap. Even before the return match, they unanimously declared that they were capable of winning against Russia with a big score. When the Dutch referee Vink joined them, it became obvious to everyone else. The hosts managed to open the scoring only with an 11-meter kick. Formally, the penalty was awarded according to the rules: the ball actually touched Cherenchikov’s hand. But he could have flown past only if the Russian defender had been an armless invalid - Cherenchikov had no way to dodge. And in the 44th minute, referee Vink decided to provide more significant help by sending off Russian national team player Kolesnikov for a foul, which in the worst case would result in a yellow card.

However, the Russian team played the entire first half in such a way that there was no doubt that the major Moscow victory was celebrated on a grand scale. There was not a single dangerous attack, the percentage of defective passes went beyond all conceivable limits: if it was possible to make three accurate passes, then the combination could be considered a multi-pass one. And the Portuguese, stunned by permissiveness, struck one shot after another on goal.

After the break, everything remained the same as before: the hosts attacked, the guests frantically fought back in panic. In the end, what happened was what was supposed to happen: first, Djalu with a header reduced his team’s gap on aggregate to a minimum, and then Taranov sent the ball into his own goal with an excellent volley. Thus, thanks to a goal scored on a foreign field, the Portugal youth team achieved an advantage in the play-off matches. But if they needed to score a fourth goal, then this would not be the case.

“We did not expect such a result and are disappointed that we did not complete the task. The whole half we played with ten men - it was very difficult to resist the strong Portuguese team,” all that could be said was Viktor Losev, who replaced Borodyuk in the team. But this does not change the situation: in Russia, football, like field hockey, is not an Olympic sport.

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Play-offs of the European Youth Championship . Portugal - Russia - 3:0 ( first match - 1:4), Serbia - Sweden - 5:0 (0:3), Czech Republic - Bosnia and Herzegovina - 1:1 (2:1) , England - Germany - 2:0 (1:0), Italy - Spain - 2:1 (0:0).

Andrey VDOVIN