“It is for the rotation of Valery Karpin that many experts criticize” – Kommersant FM

On the evening of October 16, the national football team will hold a friendly match with the Kenyan team. Bookmakers consider the Russians to be clear favorites, since the Kenyans occupy only 109th place in the FIFA rankings, and they do not have any players playing for top European clubs. But is everything so clear in the upcoming game? Kommersant FM sports commentator Vladimir Osipov looked into it.

While European teams are fighting to qualify for Euro 2024, our team is waiting for better times and holding friendly matches. After protracted games that evoked melancholy, Valery Karpin’s team played a good match with Cameroon in Moscow and, in theory, should chalk up another victory on October 16.

Only the spirit that the native stands gave to the players will no longer be there, although now there are still many holidaymakers from our country in Turkey, and since the national team will play at a small stadium in the suburbs of Antalya, the team will not be left without support, the midfielder believes Russian national team Danil Glebov:

“A lot of our people will come to the game with Kenya, but it’s clear that the atmosphere will still not be the same as at home.”

Bookmakers consider the Russians to be favorites, but they are confident that there will be few goals scored. At least Danil Glebov clearly outlined the priorities of the players before the game, which indirectly confirm this:

“The head coach should be happy. Our job is to do what we do in training.”

It is clear that anything can happen in the match with Kenya, but the starting line-up of our team will definitely be seriously different from what the fans saw in the game with Cameroon. In friendly games, this is a clear and predictable story, says commentator Timur Zhuravel:

“We dealt with Cameroon with an easy attack, now it will be a more classic option with Sobolev, so everything is logical.”

Kenya is without a doubt significantly weaker than Cameroon in terms of football. Our today’s opponent has never taken part in the final stage of the World Cup and has not even progressed beyond the group stage in the African Cup of Nations. Kenya hasn’t had opponents of the same level as Karpin’s team for a long time.

The Kenyans’ mentor from Turkey, Engin Firat, even called the game historic, noting that the Kenyans had never had to play with European teams before. So the Kenyans will be fine with their motivation. In addition, let’s not forget that Kenya was expelled from FIFA for a long time due to the government’s interference in the affairs of the local football association, and the team has not played official matches since November 2021.

The Russian coaching staff seems to consider the result of this meeting not as important as in the home game with Cameroon. A possible roster rotation confirms this. By the way, many experts criticize Karpin for his rotation. One of them is Spartak legend Andrei Tikhonov:

“Kenya is a different ranked opponent. Everything will depend on the composition. Giving someone a taste of what the national team is like is good, but only the best, strongest players should play in the national team, regardless of whether we play in Europe or not.”

But all this, in theory, should not prevent the Russian team from taking over the Kenyans. And, most likely, any outcome other than a confident victory for our players can be considered unexpected, and in this case there will definitely not be criticism of the players and the Russian coaching staff. The Russia-Kenya match will start at 19:00. The live broadcast from Turkey will be broadcast by the public television channel Match TV.

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