The Yamal national team performed at the Russian Football Championship of a new format

In Russia, the trend for 8×8 football is gaining momentum. The Yamal national team, under the leadership of head coach Ilya Savelyev, participated in the Russian Championship in this discipline for the second time in a row and achieved some success, the press service of the regional football team told the MK Yamal correspondent.

For the second year in Sochi, at the beginning of November, the Russian Football Championship among amateur teams is held in the 8×8 format, the dimensions of the site are 30 by 70 meters. Eight players each take to the field, including the goalkeeper, and the goal is slightly smaller than standard. This year more than 100 teams gathered in Sochi. For many football players, a successful performance in this tournament is a chance to show themselves, an opportunity to attract the attention of the coach of a professional team.

“The Yamal team is the team of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, a real “hodgepodge” with its original ingredients and spicy seasonings in the form of really good players who have played in professional clubs. The specificity of our team is that it does not constantly train in one of the cities of Yamal, but gathers from different regions, from those football players who are currently in the best shape and are ready to defend the honor of our district,” the press emphasized -service of the Arctic region team.

Head coach Ilya Savelyev lives and works in St. Petersburg, he is the holder of a professional coaching license. Goalkeeper Eduard Gryaznykh is from Noyabrsk, where he runs his own football school, and he once played for the Tobol masters club from Kurgan. The team leader and player Rinat Isaev is from Novy Urengoy. Defender Anatoly Baklakov lives in Anapa.

The Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug team entered the field with great desire and thirst for victory, the press service noted, but the lack of basic teamwork prevented Yamal from achieving a more outstanding result. The first match was a draw with a score of 1:1. The second game with the team from Kalmykia turned out even more dramatically – 3:1 was on the scoreboard in favor of the Yamal players five minutes before the end of the meeting, but a penalty and then a free throw deprived Yamal of a well-deserved victory.

By the way, when the opponent scored these two goals, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug team had two fewer players, the referee turned out to be very strict and principled and sent off two players at the very end of the match.

After two games in the Yamalu group for a ticket to the 1/32 finals, it was necessary to hold a play-off match. And this time the team showed its best qualities, leaving no chance for the opponent to succeed, finishing the match with a score of 5:2. In the 1/32 finals, the representatives of the Yamal team faced a strong and unyielding opponent – “Express Office” from Tula. The result of the straight-out game was 1:2 in favor of the Tula football players. At this stage, the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug team dropped out of the tournament.

“However, this result cannot be called a failure. Last year we didn’t make it out of the group at all, but now we’ve made it into the top 32 teams in Russia. Young players received the necessary tournament experience. Head coach Ilya Savelyev saw his players in action and was able to try out new tactical schemes. The Russian championship was won by “Kombinat” from Domodedovo near Moscow, which beat the “Domodedovo” team from the same city. Which raised some questions among the tournament spectators. Third place goes to the team from Saratov, they beat the team from St. Petersburg in the bronze medal match. The closing ceremony of the tournament was attended by legends of Russian football – former Lokomotiv Moscow players Ruslan Pimenov and Dmitry Sennikov (both were involved in playing for the Russian national team), Alexey Igonin from Zenit St. Petersburg, who also played for the country’s main team,” the message says.

Ruslan Pimenov and Dmitry Sennikov, commenting on the results of the tournament, noted its great popularity and the growth of the players’ skills. Both emphasized that they would like to come to Yamal and have heard a lot about the Arctic region.

Deputy General Secretary of the Russian Football Union Irina Posirenina added that the RFU will continue to pay attention to new, modern formats of playing football.

“We will definitely hold such a championship in 2024, especially since the number of teams that take part in it is growing every year, and the interest of spectators is increasing. There will be other tournaments in the 8×8 format among both men’s and women’s teams. Each such tournament helps to increase the popularity of football in Russia and this is a positive trend. More football, more sports – this is the main motive in our work, and we are trying very hard,” announced Irina Posirenina.

Earlier we talked about how a regional tournament was held in Labytnangi mini football.