The Russian team moved to the better half

In the first home match after last year’s suspension from participation in official international competitions, the Russian team first made its fans tremble with fear, making almost fatal mistakes, and in the second half, starting up, easily dealt with the Iraqi team – 2: 0.

Special times give special colors to seemingly routine events. Such as a friendly match of the Russian national team with an opponent from such deep and dark bowels of the International Football Federation (FIFA) rating that you don’t even want to look into it, the only obvious practical meaning of which is to show that, despite the sanctions, the domestic national team and without important tournaments in the long term still exists, lives on. But there was nothing surprising in the fact that some of those who came to the Gazprom Arena on this cool St. Petersburg evening, having previously studied the news agenda, looked at her coach Valery Karpin, something terribly valuable was at stake in the match. So valuable that the fate of the mentor may depend on whether she takes the bonus. But it’s not just that the Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation Oleg Matytsin, who rarely pays attention to football, just during a trip to China made a whole statement dedicated personally to Karpin based on the mediocre game of the national team in the previous meeting – with the Iranians last week – and, most importantly , it seems, the words of her mentor, who, after a draw that almost turned into a defeat, calmly said in response to a question on duty that if he suddenly had to resign, he would “not die” from this. Well, who a year and a month ago would have been hooked on this “will not die”? And Oleg Matytsin’s statement said that “an expression of indifference in sports is a road to nowhere” and that Valery Karpin “needs to clearly define: you are with us – the team, the fans, Russia – or you are on your own.” And it’s probably better not to think about what “by itself” is now. But definitely not a prestigious coaching post. And after this call, in fact, everything in St. Petersburg acquired new shades: both the behavior of Karpin and the game of the Russian team, which, I must say, did not change itself.

That is, having radically adjusted the composition, she transferred the inertia that almost killed her in the second half of the match with the Iranians from Tehran to the Gazprom Arena, along with a tendency to constantly fake out of the blue. It was scary to look at the Russian team for a quarter of an hour. Here Sergei Pesyakov managed to give away, spinning the attack, passing to someone else’s player, and the ball was already planning into an empty net, where Ali Al-Hamadi sent it, when Ruslan Litvinov came to the rescue of the goalkeeper. But the Russian defenders, badly parted, allowed the same stubborn Iraqi striker to shoot almost to the slaughter. But Pesyakov, not noticing the huge rake lying under his feet, again decided that, leaving the gate, it was necessary to look for a partner with a quiet pass, even if there were mainly opponents nearby, and again, of course, he found not a partner at all, but the same Al -Hamadi, who again was not allowed to hit the empty net by the defender, this time – Maxim Osipenko.

Then everything seemed to settle down, and the Russian team became like a team that, according to its status, was supposed to crush the Iraqis, it was supposed to be cooler than the guests.

And Karpin started up on the edge, as if he felt that he was about to go. But then, suddenly, goalkeeper Jalal Hassan cleared the ball from the goal, and this unpretentious clearance leaked through the center of the Russian defense, packed to capacity with players, as if flying through the pure vacuum of space. Considering all the previous events, it is even strange that not Al-Hamadi fell out on Pesyakov, but Aymen Hussein. Hussein forgave the Russian team, having missed. And soon she was already rescued by Pesyakov, who beat off a rather dense blow. No, this, of course, was not the kind of football that the Minister of Sports would take back his harsh words. True, it was, it seems, whatever one may say, not in indifference, but in a banal lack of skill, mutual understanding.

Unless the end of the first half was a success for the Russian team, thanks primarily to the 18-year-old Sergey Pinyaev, from whom it definitely sparked as it should. But his outbursts resulted in the only good moment for Daniil Fomin. One moment per half – it would be so-so for a game against the Iranians who recently participated in the World Cup. For a match against their neighbors, who only dream of world championships for now, it was a little monstrous.

You could expect anything from this match, including something very bad. But the Russian team, having played enough on the nerves of those who are still hers, albeit remaining in such tight isolation that Iraq is a good sparring partner, loves, decided after the break that she had already played enough.

She suddenly became like a normal team from that niche of the FIFA classification, which the guests will never get to in the foreseeable future.

She opened the account immediately after the rest. If a picky VAR had been used in this match, it would certainly have called into question the episode when Ivan Oblyakov received the ball on the right flank. But there was no VAR, and the linesman’s naked eye thought that Oblyakov still caught on the offside line. Then there was a pass to Alexander Sobolev, a blow repelled by Hasan and a finishing move from Anton Miranchuk, who had just come on as a substitute. He put the Russian national team ahead in Tehran too, in a match that, however, turned out to be a bad continuation. The continuation of the St. Petersburg match was much more optimistic, because Sergei Pinyaev effectively picked up the baton from Miranchuk.

He took a fifty-meter throw from Maxim Osipenko at the left curb brilliantly – with a touch, he threw the ball past the defender who was trying to interfere with the junior, moved to the center and perfectly shot into the bottom corner, turning into the youngest (18 years 4 months and 24 days) goal scorer in history domestic national team. Dmitry Sychev’s record, beaten a couple of months later, lasted two decades and more. And the Russian team moved and began to seethe. And Sobolev’s head kick into the crossbar fit perfectly into the fresh trend, which contrasted so sharply with the horrors of the first half: this team deserved a chance. Well, the victory, of course, is also the first, by the way, after a series of three draws with the Tajik, Uzbek and Iranian teams.

Alexey Dospekhov