“Claims are presented either to the players or to the coach” – Kommersant FM

The Russian national football team is preparing for another friendly game. This time with the Cuban team. The meeting will take place in Volgograd, where the Russians will go on November 18. In the meantime, the team is at the base in Novogorsk. On November 15, representatives of the press came to the team’s open training session. For details, see Kommersant FM sports commentator Vladimir Osipov.

Despite the suspension of the country’s main team from all tournaments, the interest of the press in the national team does not decrease. There are many questions. Yes, many are repeated at every training camp: about motivation, for example, or about lineup options.

And, of course, my favorite thing: what is it like to play against teams of such a low level, and even in matches that mean nothing? The head coach of the national team, Valery Karpin, sometimes got irritated when answering questions, but tried to be sincere and called a spade a spade:

“It would be more interesting to play against the national team of Germany, France or Spain. It’s more interesting to play with Cameroon than with Cuba, for example, or Kenya. But to tell the truth, we don’t have to choose; we play with whoever is possible now. It’s impossible to say that this is a top-5 team. There is no need to deceive anyone – not yourself, not the players, not the public.”

As for the public, despite the absence of official matches in international tournaments, criticism of Karpin’s team is heard regularly. Either the players are presented with complaints that they, it seems, are not giving 100%, or the coach, who, according to some experts, does not call up all the strongest players at the moment.

This time, several players were unable to travel to Volgograd for medical reasons. This caused a storm of indignation among football expert Vladimir Bystrov live on the federal channel:

“Let the players be crooked, slanted, but they must fight and show at least the football that we saw with Cameroon. Everyone is attached to the fact that this is an unofficial match. At the same time, in the opposite situation, players come to the national team even with a microtear, and the doctor gives an injection in the leg – the main thing is to play. And it doesn’t matter that in three days the football player will return home broken, this is no one’s business. And it has always been like that, and it should be like that. This is fine”.

But, despite the criticism, there are already many people who want to watch the Russia-Cuba match – 22 thousand tickets have been sold. Although the Volgograd Arena seats 45 thousand people, so it won’t be difficult to get to the game. In addition, the cheapest ticket costs only 500 rubles.

In general, it’s inexpensive to see our main stars in action – Alexander Golovin from Monaco and Daler Kuzyaev from Le Havre, who, if you believe Karpin’s promises, will appear in the main lineup. Of course, as always, only victory is expected from the team, but if the unexpected happens, no one on the team, it seems, will sprinkle ashes on their heads. When asked what will happen if the team doesn’t win or even loses, midfielder Andrei Mostovoy answered:

“I don’t think anything will start. We play in Russia, the national team is constantly criticized. Anything is possible, but I am confident from today’s training that everyone was well prepared. It’s the middle of the season, physically and tactically there is time, so everything will be fine.”

Don’t forget that the match with Cuba will count toward the FIFA rankings. So the Russian team will definitely play to win. We’ll see how this impulse ends on November 20th. The meeting starts at 19:30; Match TV will broadcast live from Volgograd.