The Russian national team lost to the Americans in the quarterfinals of the World Championship with a score of 3:8 and ingloriously flew out of the last major pre-Olympic tournament. Together with five thousand Russian fans who gathered at the Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, a Lenta.ru correspondent also watched the defeat of the team.

It was necessary to get to Finland to finally be convinced that hockey is not a game for Moscow hipsters, but for gas workers from Novy Urengoy, metallurgists from Magnitogorsk, oil workers from Tyumen. In any case, they were the ones who came to Helsinki to cheer for the Russian team, and in Finland they seemed to appreciate this: they greeted the Russian fans very warmly. If there were no Russians, the tournament would have been little different in terms of excitement from the world championship in some kind of bandy or lacrosse: not a single team (except Finland, of course) had the kind of support that Russia had.

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Russia - USA

Quarterfinals of the World Hockey Championship: online “Lenti.ru”

Two hours before the match, one might get the feeling that the championship was taking place in St. Petersburg, and several dozen people in blue and white sweaters were tourists from Finland. There were no American fans at the entrances to Hartwall Arena, nor were there any in the stands. Moreover, the stores sold paraphernalia of all teams except the American one: one got the feeling that the USA had long been eliminated from the tournament and everyone had forgotten about them. To find at least one fan of the US team, it took two breaks to scour the stadium cafes, but all the seats in them were occupied by Russians. The only American I found said with slight irritation about the people in the stands: “These Russians are everywhere.” There were no other reasons for fans of the US national team to be irritated on May 16.

Before the match, Russian fans were entertained by a Russian DJ, who probably went to the Leningrad rock club as a child. In front of the arena, “Leningrad”, “Chizh”, “Spleen”, “Chaif”, Garik Sukachev were heard at full volume. However, the Russians sang along sluggishly, perking up only with “Argentina - Jamaica, five-zero.” They had no idea that today they would have to feel far from Argentinians.

No one in the crowd expected not only defeat, but also defeat. “See you in Stockholm,” “Kovalchuk will score three today,” especially brightly colored fans, who gradually gathered around the arena, gave predictions to the television crew. Someone was showing off Ovechkin’s newly received autograph, someone was taking a photo with a fan in a white, blue and red hat (“Russia’s main fan now,” some envious person passing by mockingly said), someone was simply drinking beer. In general, as they say, there were no signs.

Ilya Kovalchuk and Alexander Ovechkin after the match with the US national team Photo: Grigory Dukor / Reuters

Even after conceding two goals at the beginning of the match, no one thought that the Russians could lose. How much Russian fans love their players was clear, if only by the homely way they called them: on the court, if you listen to the conversations in the stands, there was neither Ilya Kovalchuk, nor Ilya Nikulin, nor Alexander Radulov, nor Alexander Ovechkin - only Koval, Nikula, Radul, Sheep.

Due to the fact that Russian fans did not sit in one stand, but were scattered throughout the arena, there was neither choral singing nor organized fan support. While on one side they were trying to start a “Yankee Go Home,” on the other they were shouting “Russia, Russia!” Sometimes a woman with a very high-pitched voice shouted down everyone. “You are my hero,” she cried, turning to Ovechkin.

When Svitov played one goal back, it was taken for granted by the stands. The fans expected that a real celebration was about to begin, but instead the Russians put on a somewhat unique circus performance: our hockey team had never missed eight goals before and is unlikely to miss any time in the coming years.

If during the first break the Russian fans were having fun carefree, then by the second they were unrecognizable. “In defense *****, in speed ****, in power play ******,” one of the fans yelled into the phone, and this express analysis of the game seemed to be the most adequate reflection of the situation. During the unsuccessful second period, some fans tried to irritate Team USA players by coming close to the protective glass and shouting insults. True, their knowledge of the English language was invariably let down: after the first well-known abusive phrase in English, they experienced a shortage of the necessary words. “Yu... uh... shhhh!” — one of them was eventually found.

In the middle of the third period, it seemed that just a little more and the Russian team would make such a comeback that would go down in the history of the World Championships. As a result, the result of the match will go down in history - it is unlikely that the current world champion has ever been knocked out of a tournament with such a bang.

The third period, when the Americans made fun of Semyon Varlamov, the teams finished the game in silence, more suitable for a philosophy lecture than a hockey match: on the upper tiers you could hear the US hockey players talking on the court. To the credit of the fans, it must be said that none of them left the stadium before the final siren, although everyone was probably tempted to quickly run away to some quiet pub (they will have double or even triple revenue in Helsinki today) - look at that watching the pucks fly into the goal of the Russian team became more and more unbearable.

Bryzgalov finished his performance at the tournament in the 39th minute - a whole period earlier than the rest of the team. His replacement Varlamov, as soon as he stepped on the ice, began to literally radiate calm, fighting with some imaginary enemies to warm up. However, very soon the opponents acquired flesh and blood and pucks began to fly into Varlamov’s goal one after another. The Russian goalkeeper really saved the game only once, preventing the score from being made 3:9.

It would probably be easiest to blame the goalkeepers for the defeat and make a couple of jokes in the text about the Stalinist Bryzgalov and Sergei Bobrovsky’s failure to be called up to the national team, but after I saw the faces of Bryzgalov and Varlamov in the mixed zone, it is simply impossible to do this. The expression “like a blow” was very suitable to describe both of them - it was clear that a little more and they were either ready to burst into tears or smash the walls of the Hartwall Arena with their hockey sticks. Both spoke to reporters very quietly - so quietly that on the recording from a voice recorder brought close to them, the words of US team striker Nate Thompson, who was giving an interview not far from the Russian goalkeepers, were more clearly heard.

Photo: Grigory Dukor / Reuters

Both Varlamov and Bryzgalov routinely said that they did not know what happened and asked for forgiveness for their game, but this time it was clear that the goalkeepers really wanted to apologize, they were truly ashamed, their emotions were truly sincere. Ilya Kovalchuk was just as sincere when he honestly said: “We crap ourselves.” It was much more difficult to achieve sincerity from coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov. Only at the end of the press conference did he break down and turn to the journalists: “Do you think I’m not ashamed? I may be even more ashamed than you. I've never lost like that."

After today's matches, the tournament moves to Stockholm, where the semi-finals and final will take place. For Russian fans who have already bought tickets to the Swedish capital and booked hotels there, these will be sad matches: the shadow of defeat from the Americans will come to the stadium with them. Everyone else will have fewer reasons to remember the shameful defeat, but the match with the Americans, like the 3:7 defeat by the Canadians in Vancouver, will be a mandatory part of any serious conversation about the team’s preparation for the Olympics in Sochi.

"I've never lost like that"