On Wednesday, September 13, the next issue of the magazine “Soviet Sport – Football” was published. We offer you material in which two columnists of our publication share their point of view on the unusual training camp and three friendly matches of the Russian football team. You can buy the magazine at printing kiosks.
Treasure of the pharaohs
Vladimir Lazarev, deputy chief editor of the Sovsport.ru website:
You already know the shortcomings and strangeness of friendly matches with the Egyptian Olympic team without me. So I won’t repeat myself. But if you delve a little deeper into the history of this topic, it becomes clear that there are still more advantages than disadvantages.
First of all, our football is in a regime of strict international isolation and finding opponents is not a trivial task. When the Russian national team played test matches against representatives of Asia, skeptics unanimously said: isn’t it time to change the region?
With great difficulty, the RFU achieved the opportunity to hold control matches with representatives from another continent, but there were no less discontents. In the current political situation, it is time to accept the fact that the strongest European and South American teams are currently not interested in playing matches with us. And any international match is a big step toward breaking the deadlock.
Photo source: Mikhail Shapaev / RFU
Secondly, the Russian team, even in these conditions, must regularly practice matches. And these matches in the current situation are much better than conditional meetings with national clubs, which are not difficult to organize. Experience in football, as in almost any profession, is acquired only through real work. And endless training camps without the opportunity to test your strength, even if not against a high-level opponent, are a road to nowhere.
Finally, if we talk about the expanded list of candidates that Valery Karpin called to the national team for the September matches, then this measure also seems not only justified, but also necessary. When the team does not have responsibility for the immediate outcome, the opportunity to review the widest possible range of applicants should be used as a gift, even if received against their will.
Sooner or later the international suspension of Russian football will end, and then the head coach of the national team will not have to judge all the players who suddenly shot in two or three rounds in the conditions of a real tournament. The upcoming friendly matches can and should contribute to the formation of the core of the renewed team, which will be prepared to solve the most serious problems when that opportunity finally arises.
Work Visibility
Football correspondent Andrey Tupikov:
What can we talk about when Valery Karpin’s team will not have high-level international matches or qualifying tournaments in the coming years? Here the question arises: why does all this gibberish with training camps, trips to unknown places and games with unknown people start about once every six months?
Before at least I had status. The player was called up to the national team and his price increased significantly. And if the calls become regular, the collection status begins to work immediately for the footballer. Thus they exposed young people who unexpectedly stood out in national tournaments or European cups (when Russian clubs participated).
Nowadays there is no status or understanding, why do our boys need to travel to Egypt to play with their Olympic team, that is, with their dark youth? For the Egyptians, yes, of joy. This type of training before the Olympic Games is perfect. What about ours? Karpin and his staff are on the RFU payroll and these expenses must be justified in some way.
Photo source: Mikhail Shapaev / RFU
It will not be possible to leave the “Russian national team” project in a distant closet, because it is a kind of brand. But if you look closely at the team that the head coach called to training camp (49 people!), it turns out that they just need a bunch of people. Just because it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter who will appear on TV, the main thing is that players (not always) of the appropriate age for Egyptians participate. And this is good.
As a result, it is not known what the country’s main team will look like in four or five conditional years (and even two years), when we will be allowed to participate in official international games. But the composition will definitely be different. Therefore, it does not matter whether the Russian national team plays friendly matches or not. At least get the FNL team together. It won’t affect anything.
