I did not have to give a tie

The Russian team issued a quarterfinals in the anniversary of the head coach

Until the 53rd minute, the main gift Valery Bragin from the team, according to the jokes popular in the sports environment, was a tie-the Swede, which had been led to the wall, led the “TRANURA”, who remained for the only goal, left hope for the saving finish of the group stage. But, as in a meeting with the Swiss, the Russians saved the ending, and the hockey players did not have to hide their eyes. Two legionnaires made the result who managed to arrive in Riga from behind the ocean as quickly as possible, sit on quarantine for five days and go out on the ice at the right time.

At first, the defender of Washington Dmitry Orlov took the game on himself, and even if his program found only the horse Anton Slepyshev, this was enough for the puck to whip against Adam Reidorn. After 12 seconds, the Saint-Luis striker Vladimir Tarasenko received a penetrating pass from the depths, he threw a lot, the Swedish goalkeeper that had not yet departed from the previous episode, not easily beat off, but then as it was Alexander Barabanov. The fact that Olofsson managed to equalize the score only delayed the denouement - the Swedes took the Russians in overtime for five minutes, but it came to the Bullites, and then the decisive word said the same Tarasenko, who was cold -blooded and not without grace that realized a decisive attempt.

The anniversary wiped the sweat from the forehead, on the First Channel, which took the most top -end direct broadcasts from the World Cup, they exhaled, one could rejoice not only the first place in the group, but also the fact that they unhooked a possible competitor in the upcoming struggle directly for the medals. The day before

Vladislav Tretyak unexpectedly wished his national team to certainly send the Swedes home, not acting as the president of the Russian Hockey Federation, but rather as a defender of the state interests of Russia and Belarus, offended by the “collective West”.

By the way, the Belarusians won the only victory in the tournament just over the Swedes, which predetermined the failure of the team of Yukhan Garpenlev. So without a political background after the scandal with the replacement of the flags, the finish of the group stage did not cost one way or another.

It would be even more interesting if the last teams flew out of the elite division and for the national team of Belarus everything would be decided in the final meeting with the Russians. But this time, due to special circumstances, there is no exchange between the divisions, so everyone remains with their own, and Belarusian hockey players can prepare for the analysis of flights, without which the return to their native penalties is unlikely to do.

Let us return to our heroes who, the task set at the group stage is not without difficulty, but fulfilled: the result is, let the intelligible game be present only by mini-epizodes. The main apologist for the return of Soviet hockey traditions represented by the chief of staff of the prefabricated Roman Rotenberg can clearly see what happens when a project collided with reality - it always wins. In order to play the way the USSR team played in its best options, you need to play for years and the strongest to keep on a leash. Someday, Russia will reach this, but I'm afraid that by that time it will finally cease to interest the world as a partner in any game.

In the meantime, everything goes like people. Without washing, so nevertheless they gathered the strongest, against the backdrop of the main competitors, the composition with ten Enhaelovites, but it is categorically not enough to rub the time, there are no ligaments played, it remains to show some kind of individual skill and fortitude. Let the chief of staff dream about hockey with lace, and we’ll already be able to replay, so we’ll roll out in a worker and peasant, as we can, make it mistaken and get something with God's help.

Whether the trivial arguments will play in the quarter -finals, it is unknown, and much will depend on who will take a place in the gate - adding debutant Alexander Samonov or who arrived from Florida the best goalkeeper of the NHL and the world champion - 2014 Sergey Bobrovsky. It will not end in a failure, as for the Swedes, this strange world championship for the Russian national team will not end, and it will be difficult to extract some lessons from it-if we hope that we are still not forever living with coronavirus.

From yesterday, who could be placed as if he had to place the four applicants for medals to the numbers of the four, spectators appeared in Riga on both arenas, albeit in a small number. At the beginning of the confrontation of Canada and Finland, two fans laid on the “Arena Riga Arena”, but here the calculation was for the evening. The Latvian authorities decided on this step, obviously, not least, in order to support their team, which only victory over the German national team needed to enter the playoffs.

If in group “A” the situation looked simply confusing, despite the fact that all quarter -finalists were already known (Russia, Switzerland, Slovakia, Czech Republic), then in group “B” the presence of two vacant places complicated the intrigue to the limit. So that not a single quarterfinal pair is known to the last round, there was no world championships on the current formula. Like the fact that two of the most titled hockey powers of the current century could be overboard at once - in addition to Sweden, Canada is also. Yes, phantasmagoric three defeats at the start could first leave the founders of hockey without playoffs-even in case of victory over the Finns.

Two years ago, in Bratislava, these teams played gold in the finale, and now the Canadians were forced to fight for getting into the four.

Naturally, no one wanted to go out to the evil Canada - the national teams of Germany or Latvia would look much more preferable as an opponent of the Russian national team. But in this case, little depended on the Russians, and there was no time to engage in the possible layouts of the direct participants in the process.

In the entire latest history of the world championships, the Russian team only once allowed itself to choose an opponent in a cup stage, which ended in a deplorable. It was back in the mid-90s of the last century, and since then the team coaches prefer to avoid talking about who they would like to see on the opposite side of the site at the start of the cup round.

And the 65-year-old debutant Valery Bragin does not like to reason abstractly. He always emphasizes that he is only interested in the closest opponent. On Tuesday, it was the last team of group “A”, which had already said with the championship, his former mistress is the team of Belarus.