“This time the team must play to win” – Kommersant FM

The Russian national football team continues preparations for a friendly match with the Cameroon team, which will take place on October 12. On October 11, Valery Karpin’s team will hold a training session on the field of the Dynamo stadium, where the meeting will take place. Kommersant FM sports commentator Vladimir Osipov is monitoring the team’s preparations.

The RFU was often reproached for finding weak opponents for the national team. This time is finally different. It is difficult to classify Cameroon as a weak team. There are many football players here who play in Europe and even in top clubs. For example, striker Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting takes to the field wearing a Bayern Munich T-shirt. Midfielder Andre Zambo-Anguissa represents Napoli and goalkeeper Andre Onana represents Manchester United. So this time it will at least be interesting for Russian football players, Valery Karpin assured the fans:

“Points, FIFA rating, but what is of more interest to me personally and the players is the opportunity to play against players of this level. We haven’t met such an opponent for a long time.”

At a meeting with representatives of the press, Karpin, as always, was as closed as possible, often answering a question in monosyllables or with a question. When it came to the future of our football, the national team coach immediately went on the offensive:

“What if the SVO ends tomorrow? That’s it, and then we’ll be allowed in. Hope. Don’t you hope?”

But for now, fans can only harbor hopes of winning the weeds in friendly matches. Although the statistics are not in favor of Krapina’s team. Under his leadership, our guys prevailed in only two friendly matches. This time the team must play to win. At least the national team players do not hide the fact that they expect serious support from the fans. The first goalkeeper of the national team, Matvey Safonov, spoke about this:

“There was a great desire to play at home and the expectation that there would be good support, because we had not played on our home field for a long time.

I would like to see a full stadium.”

Goalkeeper coach Vitaly Kafanov named Safonov’s number one. By the way, Kafanov said that he even tried to contact Ivan Provedel, but the Lazio goalkeeper, who has Russian roots but does not have Russian citizenship, did not want to communicate with the coaching staff of our team. So in Russia it is Safonov who is the best of the best, Kafanov is sure:

“We had a conversation. I said, Matvey, don’t give me any reason to doubt, you are the first now. It’s not that easy to keep it. Safonov is now a reference point for other goalkeepers. He played this part well, so everything is going well.”

Daler Kuzyaev from Le Havre will most likely also get a place in the team. But the appearance of Alexander Golovin from Monaco on the field is in question. At least, Golovin did not take part in the open training, where representatives of the press were allowed. The reason is simple – a minor injury.

Although, perhaps, the coaching staff simply technically hid Golovin, who would certainly have been tormented with questions. The same Kuzyaev, for example, was not released by the press for 20 minutes. There was even a question about whether Golovin helped him when Daler moved to France. Kuzyaev’s answer made everyone smile:

“Yes, I visited Monaco during the September team meeting, and he recommended a couple of good restaurants to me.”

But no matter how Kuzyaev tried to be careful in his statements about the level of the Russian and French championships, in the end he admitted that the First League is more serious. It was interesting to hear from the newly minted legionnaire that after each training session he sends a report to Le Havre about how much and how intensively he worked in Russia. There is even a special mobile application for this.

In addition to Kuzyaev and Golovin, another foreign player arrived in the national team – Atalanta player Alexey Miranchuk. The remaining players represent RPL clubs. The match with Cameroon will take place on October 11, and there are still plenty of tickets for the game on sale.

You can buy a ticket through the official website of the RFU. And what’s nice is that the prices are very affordable. The cheapest ticket costs 400 rubles, the most expensive, excluding VIP seats, costs 2 thousand rubles. The Russia-Cameroon game will, of course, also be shown on TV. This time, the public television channel Match TV will broadcast live from the Dynamo stadium.

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