The Russian national football team played a draw with the Kenyan team. Score 2:2
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The friendly match with the Kenyans in Turkey turned out to be one of the most difficult for the Russian team among all that it played during the period of international isolation. Having conceded goals due to stupid mistakes, she was behind the 109th team in the world ranking for a long time and was saved only in the end thanks to a goal from Ivan Oblyakov.
This match of the Russian national team with a team that also knows firsthand what an exception to big football life is (the International Football Federation (FIFA) only recently lifted the disqualification from the Kenyans for government interference in the activities of the national federation and misuse of its funds), was hosted by the hotel stadium in Antalya, Turkey. And the style of the meeting was fully consistent with the modest status of the facility, which, if hosting games of decent-level opponents, was within the framework of a comfortable training camp at a well-known resort, when falsehood and absurdities are still forgivable.
For a long time it seemed that the original, let’s say, version of the Russian national team was not that completely strange, from random names, but also not the one that coach Valery Karpin would send into battle if it was a question of a fight with someone stronger than his opponent from the second hundred in the world ranking, much more modest than the Cameroonians, who were beaten by a completely different composition on Thursday, is much better prepared for proper football. The very first episode in which the Russians dared to put heavy pressure in the attack zone resulted in a goal. The Kenyans looked so confused in those seconds that one would have thought that they had been playing all their lives according to the rules that prohibit opponents from taking the ball in the other half. Everything led to an awkward pass from Johnstone Omurva directly to Maxim Mukhin, who immediately spotted Alexander Sobolev, who was not covered by anyone.
But soon the Russian team made a terrible mistake. Ilya Pomazun, who took his place in the goal, decided to make a neat pass to Dmitry Barinov, hardly expecting that an experienced football player, who had every chance of appearing in the starting lineup even in the match against the giants, would handle the ball so badly, not noticing that vultures were swooping in from behind two Kenyans. One of them, Anthony Akumu, equalized the score.
Further, those who were worried about the Russian team should have been tormented by bad thoughts.
It seems that ten minutes ago the Kenyans looked frail and timid against her background. But now they regularly go forward and regularly find free areas – fortunately, not yet inside the penalty area, but near it. And it’s lucky that they can’t manage them properly.
Help for the Kenyan team arrived from an unexpected place. The Russian team fought back after a simple set piece, and the Kenyans returned the ball to Pomazun’s goal, hardly expecting that they would create something sharp. Well, it was not clear how he could get to one of their players. I came to Maksud Juma after Georgy Dzhikia, who, in theory, was supposed to become the embodiment of reliability in the center of defense, gave him such a convenient header, as if he wanted to give the forward a scoring chance that is almost impossible to miss.
During its “isolation” cycle, the Russian national team often experienced problems in matches with unprepossessing opponents, but almost invariably demonstrated a very valuable quality – flexibility, chameleon-like ability, allowing it to adapt to circumstances and transform under them. In the Turkish match it disappeared somewhere.
In the second half, the Russian team remained exactly the same as it had been before – for some reason too toothless and unprincipled.
The Kenyans, also not very inventive ahead, sometimes still stuck together, and, for example, the breakthrough of their leader Michael Olunga was terribly sharp. For a long time, nothing stuck together for the Russians. Everything was fine with toughness and stubbornness, but for a team that was inferior in the score, these were only so-so advantages.
Except that in the end something started to work out. But there is not much to suggest that Kenyans are hanging by a thread. They held on convincingly, and goalkeeper Birna Omondi showed that he was not going to jittery, taking a difficult shot from Mukhin.
To save themselves, the Russian team needed to show something extraordinary, contrasting with the routine game that they had switched to and could not give up. And she, on the flag, refreshed by a portion of fresh players from the bench, still managed to create something that turned out to be an unpleasant surprise for the Kenyan team. Moreover, it was built by the players who had just come on as substitutes. Alexander Silyanov suddenly shifted from his left flank to the right and from there he fired a cross into the center, where Ivan Oblyakov guarded the ball, bringing the Russian team a draw.
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