It’s time to stop considering the current national team inferior. This team is not funny, but the only possible one.
The national team in March had several signs of a genuine, and not an experimental team: the legionnaires were called (even if they did not come), Valery Karpin put on a suit and tie, and played a home match for the first time in 16 months. At home, it is customary to win – they won Iraq. But both before the match in St. Petersburg and following the match in Tehran, Karpin said that if the team had the task of winning, the team would be different.
This sounds from the lips of the head coach so often that it’s time to listen. And try to understand: what could be the Russian team, if yes, if only?
Of course, there is no Russian team that is guaranteed to win. There is not even such a national team of Argentina. It is clear that Karpin is not talking about ensuring the result, but about setting maximum goals.
And yet: what kind of “other team” would he train if we weren’t removed from everywhere? You can offhand name a few names of fighters tested by international matches. For example, Zobnin. He himself said that in the current situation he was not interested in coming to the national team, and Karpin later hinted that Roman had health problems. Perhaps this is the reason for his intelligibility. Ozdoev could also be called, who clearly found himself in the Turkish championship. And also another stubbornly playing abroad candidate is goalkeeper Khaikin. Since Karpin spoke about the age limit in the current experimental period, it can be assumed that Dziuba could have been called to an important official game.
If the contours of the “real” team with these players remain unclear, one could add someone else: Mostovoy, Erokhin, Terekhov, Ionov, Smolov. All these players were the main players of the national team with Karpin. But now in their clubs they are not only not the main ones – even when they come on as a substitute, they are not very striking.
So, it is not clear with what kind of players Karpin would make a “real” team, which would be tasked with playing to win? Who and where are these titans on whom one could rely and not worry about the result? It should be noted that the names of Diveev, Jikia, Golovin and Alexei Miranchuk are deliberately omitted here, because they were also called up to this “fake” team, and only injuries prevented our best masters from playing against Iran and Iraq.
Suppose Karpin had in mind not the selection of players, but the game plan. That is, the “real” team would refuse to experiment in the methods of the game. It would be easier and more reliable. In it, we would not see a goalkeeper-passer, whose every mistake becomes an import. We would not see a way out from under the pressure through the game in our own half of the field from the bottom, which is great for training the nerves of our players (and fans, but in a different sense) and increases their self-esteem.
But it would look illogical for Karpin himself. Indeed, in the current experiments, he builds such a team game, which he considers ideal, which he himself likes. If we take into account his correspondence debate with the Minister of Sports, then these gaming experiments are exactly what Karpin, at least for appearances, is holding on to his place in the team. It turns out that in an official match he would prefer to play football that is not close to him in style for the sake of the result? For what? Even less stick to the team for your place? Doesn’t fit.
But there is another, much more harmful meaning in these words-refrain about the “real” team. They devalue the current team. Not only their own coaching trials and experiences, but also the work of those guys who are called now, and who come without any excuses and without a shadow of discontent. Who are told to play in Tashkent or put on the game with Iraq, and they give all the best for the sake of a T-shirt with a double-headed eagle.
It is a mistake to think that now the national team has “fake” times, because there are no real matches. Because each term of the team has its own tasks. The 2018 team, for example, had the choice of “chest in crosses, or head in bushes”: they could have ingloriously left the home world championship, or they could have played in the semifinals. But they became heroes. The current generation is valuable because it plays for the national team at a time when it is impossible to become famous. There will be no awards, no one will remember, no one in the big world will know about them. And they come and play honestly.
Not everyone succeeds even in such matches to show themselves in such a way that the line between the real and the funny is erased. But Pinyaev succeeded. It turned out for Anton Miranchuk, who scored in both March matches. Something, apparently, is well done by Osipenko and Glebov, whom Karpin, due to Rostov inertia, sees as players in the starting lineup. In any case, this team is not funny, toy or fake. She is the only one possible.
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