“Even without holding official matches, the national team remains a powerful incentive for athletes”

“Even without holding official matches, the national team remains a powerful incentive for athletes”



On Friday, the men's championship of Russia in volleyball, the most successful domestic game in this century, starts. Before it starts Konstantin Bryansky, the head coach of Dynamo Moscow, who won the previous two championships, who also led the national team in the summer, told a Kommersant correspondent Alexey Dospekhov about why a national team is needed in the conditions of international sports isolation and what tasks it solves, left without international competitions.

- A few days ago, the training camp of the national team of the country was completed - the first for you as its head coach. Can you explain why they are needed in principle if the national team is still under sanctions and does not take part in competitions? What was their purpose?

- One of the obvious goals is, of course, to get to know the team, to assemble the coaching staff. For the team - the same thing: you need to get to know the head coach, having worked with him, to understand his requirements.

- So what for?

- Let me formulate a thought that is very important in the current circumstances. It is relevant, I think, for all sports.

Any national team is an elite club that players and coaches strive to get into, the pinnacle of their career. And if we proceed from this point of view, then even without holding official matches, it remains a powerful incentive for athletes, an opportunity to prove that you are ready to compete with the best of the best.

Not by correspondence, but by direct competition with other candidates. Therefore, I am sure that our collection was of great importance.

- It lasted three weeks. This is quite a long time...

Even a little more than three weeks. And they were filled very tightly. We held two training sessions a day, constantly solving various technical and tactical tasks that I outlined when I applied for the post of head coach of the national team. Yes, it is formed from great professionals, but it still requires grinding, the search for an ideal mutual understanding. And in this sense, there is nothing better than working together. So it turned out to be a full collection.

- The list of those invited by you to the training camp - and these are two dozen volleyball players - can be divided into two approximately equal parts. One is the players well known to the public, who constantly played for the team in the previous Olympic cycle, which ended with reaching the final of the Tokyo Olympics last year, the second is new names. In what roles does the team most need them?

- As for the players of the first pace, setters, finishers, everything is in order with them in Russian volleyball, there are plenty of cool volleyball players of these roles. Therefore, we could invite a whole group of both experienced guys and those who had not been involved in the team before. But with the position of the diagonal, everything is not quite so.

- Do you mean that for many years Maxim Mikhailov almost single-handedly closed it?

- We invited Mikhailov to the training camp, but a few days later we let him go to the club ("Zenit-Kazan"). "b"), because its capabilities are well known to us. It was much more important to look at the reserve, younger players - Viktor Poletaev, Nazar Litvinenko, Kirill Klets.

- Are you satisfied with them?

- I will say this: not everyone showed a level that suits the coaching staff ... There was also a rather tough selection for the finishers. Here, however, the positions of those who completed the previous Olympic cycle are still strong.

- Not all the players you called up completed the training camp ...

- Someone - Mikhailov, Poletaev, some other players - we ourselves released, taking into account club obligations or family circumstances, someone, like the setter Konstantin Abaev, whom the coaching staff counts on, was injured. This, unfortunately, happens ... By the way, Roman Poroshin, called instead of Abaev, showed himself great.

— Let's imagine that following the results of this camp, you would have to form a standard application of 14 players for a major official tournament. How many newcomers would have a real chance to find themselves in it?

- I think that some players would certainly have them. For example, blocker Dmitry Lyzik, libero Evgeny Baranov and Ilya Fedorov looked good… Although, no, sorry, I would not want to single out anyone. In my opinion, this would be incorrect, since the competition in a number of roles is the highest. The choice would depend on the significance of the tournament, on specific tasks.

- The camp was crowned with two friendly matches in a row with the Belarusian team, which the Russian team won in three sets each. Are you satisfied with their results? I mean, of course, not so much the numbers: after all, the opponents were not from the world volleyball elite.

- I think that we showed a fairly confident game, won not on other people's mistakes, but we ourselves often forced the opponent, who, by the way, fought very hard, to make mistakes. And two different compositions.

At the same time, I believe that we used only 40-50% of our reserves. That is, the national team, having realized its full potential, can show a much better game.

- You appointed to the post of head coach of the Russian national team, which Finn Tuomas Sammelvuo left in June. Then it was already clear that there would be no international competitions in the foreseeable future. Did you understand all this at that moment?

- Of course, I understood. But I have already said that work in the national team, regardless of whether it participates in competitions or not, is always a great honor, recognition of merit. Such offers are not rejected. On the contrary, they inspire.

- Did you watch the World Championship, which was supposed to be held in August-September in Russia and which was taken from her?

— Of course, I looked. Why did you ask?

- Well, there are experts who say that they are not interested in tournaments without Russians.

- Not my case. I love my sport very much, I love beautiful volleyball very much. And it was very important for me to see everything, to assess the level of the game at the championship.

- You probably tried to imagine how the Russian team would play in the championship?

- I will not predict where we would be if we performed at the championship - there is no point.

But the fact that the absence of the Russian national team has greatly changed the balance of power is a fact. At the training camp, I was convinced that she was ready for any international competition.

The question is when the opportunity will present itself.

- Did you notice any new trends, accents while watching the World Cup?

Everything was expected. Everything is about the same as what I, as a Dynamo coach, faced, say, in the Champions League. In terms of tactics, the game of many teams repeats the game of the top clubs - quickly finishing the ball to the net, mobile blocking, high-speed use of the back line. The Italians, who became champions, cherished the ball very much, in difficult situations they tried to keep it in the game. But all these trends have been around for a long time.

- What awaits the national team in the coming weeks, months? Are there any plans?

- Until the end of this year, there will hardly be any fees. And for the next one, we'll make a plan. But in any case, it will depend on the international calendar, which the International Volleyball Federation usually typesets in January. We will start from whether there is at least a small chance that we will be included in it. If not, we will look for alternatives. All the same, the best players must work together to improve their level. This is not possible in all clubs due to the difference in class between the leaders and the rest.

- Are you not afraid that due to isolation, players may lose motivation? Nevertheless, they are used to fighting for prestigious international titles - both in the national team and in clubs. There were no such signs at the gathering?

- It certainly wasn't. Everyone who was at the gathering showed a great desire to work.

- The Russian Championship will start very soon. It is clear what is expected this season from Dynamo, which won two championships in a row. What are your feelings?

- Defending a title is always more difficult than winning it, is that what they say?

You defended him last season.

— Yes, but the road to gold was not strewn with flowers. In the course of the season, there was everything - both injuries, and a drop in physical condition, and absolutely not mandatory defeats. We have gone through trials, and in many respects that is why I am looking forward to the upcoming season with optimism. Although I understand that it will be long (16 teams will play in the Russian championship instead of 14), and anything can happen.

- Dynamo won two previous gold medals in the championships, the ending of which took place in the Final Six format. Now these tournaments have been replaced by a full-fledged, traditional play-off. Which formula do you like best?

- I really like the play-offs - more important games. And most importantly, it is guaranteed games both on the road and at home. Kazan hosted the Final Six last season, and not all of our fans were able to enjoy Dynamo's victory "live".

- Two "Zenith", Kazan and St. Petersburg - are these your main competitors again?

- Why? What about Lokomotiv Novosibirsk? And Dynamo from the Leningrad region? And "Belogorye"? We have several teams in the championship that can show very good volleyball by any standards. You can't relax.

- Participation in the volleyball tournament of the Summer Spartakiad, in which Dynamo played as the Moscow team, did you find it useful in terms of preparing for the season?

- Rather yes than no. An interesting tournament, although insanely difficult - eight matches in a week and a half. In the future, I would slightly correct the format. Still, it is better to add rest days and hold competitions not in the summer, but, for example, in September, “closer” to the championship.

- I can't help but ask about the Dynamo legionnaires - the Bulgarian diagonal Tsvetan Sokolov and the Finnish libero Lauri Kerminen. First of all, about Kerminen. He, if I'm not mistaken, was suspended because of the contract with Dynamo from playing for the national team. Will he play in Russia?

- Yes, Kerminen faced serious pressure at home, but he came to Dynamo. In my opinion, this speaks first of all about the club, about its level.

The fact that the atmosphere, the attitude towards the players in it is such that volleyball players tend to stay here for a long time, regardless of circumstances, difficult political moments.

So thanks to both Kerminen and Sokolov. The loss of such players would have a negative impact on the championship. By the way, if you look, in this sense, Dynamo is no exception. And our other leading clubs remain attractive to famous foreign players. I mean both Zenit Kazan, which retained American Mike Christenson and signed a contract with Belgian Sam Deru, and Zenit Petersburg, Frenchman Zhenya Grebennikov remained in the team, and another leader of the US team, Matthew Anderson, will probably become his partner. . There are strong foreign players in other clubs as well.

- Do you still have any suggestions about when Russian volleyball can return to the international arena?

- Can anyone predict this? I can only say that the Russian national team is a special team, one of the strongest in the world. And any competition without her participation a priori cannot be considered full-fledged, one that determines the absolutely strongest, the strongest without reservation. And I am sure that the leaders of the International Volleyball Federation, the European Volleyball Confederation feel the same way, that they understand that the removal of the Russian team is a violation of the principle of fair competition, fair play. In this situation, it was logical to find some compromise solution that would give the team a chance.



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