With
Euro 2012 kicking-off - it's time to profile the countries taking part, from
their footballing beginnings to the present day.
Coach: Dick Advocaat
Qualifying
Group Winners
One to Watch: Alan Dzagoev
As
we approach the summer of 2012 all of our minds, well most of them at least,
will turn away from the domestic football competitions within our own
countries, towards the International arena for the eagerly awaited European
Championship Finals, to be held in Poland and the Ukraine. At It's All In The
Game, I shall be profiling each of the 16 finalists that will bid to become the
champions of Europe until 2016.
The
next in our series of team profiles for Euro 2012 takes us East to Russia. The
modern Russian national team played its first international fixture against Mexico
in 1992. Following the break-up of the Soviet Union, it is considered by FIFA
to be the natural successor to the U.S.S.R. team, even though many of the
former U.S.S.R.s best known players were actually from the Ukraine, for
example, seven of the Soviet starting eleven in the final of Euro 88 were
Ukrainian.
Russia
as the U.S.S.R., qualified for seven World Cup Finals, their best run in the
competition proper took them to fourth place in 1966 in England. The U.S.S.R.
fared slightly better in European competition reaching the final tournament on
six occasions (as the C.I.S. in 1992), winning the European Nations Cup, as it
was then known, in 1960 and finishing runners-up to the marvellous Dutch team,
which included Gullit and Van Basten, in West Germany 1988.
Since
becoming an independent country, Russia have managed to qualify for two World
Cup Finals, U.S.A. 1994 and in the Far East in 2002. Both of these trips ended
in group stage elimination, with Russia managing one win and two defeats on
each occasion.The European Championships have been slightly kinder to the
Russians, with qualification achieved for four tournaments-counting next
summer- which includes the last three in a row.
Russia’s
best ever showing in a major international tournament as an independent nation
came in Euro 2008 under coach Guus Hiddink. Having lost their opening group
game 1-4 to Spain, Russia won their next two group games to set up a quarter
final match against Hiddink’s native Holland.Russia took the lead against the
tournament favourites on ten minutes, and despite being pegged back, managed to
get back on top and eventually win the game 3-1.
Hiddink’s
charges went on to play, eventual tournament winners, Spain again in the
semi-final, where they lost 0-3. Under their Dutch manager, the Russians
narrowly missed out on qualification for South Africa 2010, losing out
agonisingly on away goals in their play-off against Slovenia.
Following
the failed campaign, Hiddink was replaced as manager by another Dutchman, Dick
Advocaat. The former Glasgow Rangers boss has managed to guide Russia to
automatic qualification for Euro 2012, topping their group on 23 points, a run
which saw them win seven out of ten games and lose only once.
Advocaat
has kept a similar group of players around him as were there under his
predecessor, and has been able to bring a number of the younger players further
into the fold during his tenure.
A
particularly exciting young talent is Alan Dzagoev, a hard-working, skilful,
attacking midfielder. Dzagoev, though still only 21 years old, is regarded as
one of Russia’s most talented players, a first team regular with his club CSKA
Moscow, he was awarded Best Young Player in the Russian league 2008/09. He made
his debut for the national side against Germany in 2008 and scored four goals
during qualification for Euro 2012 including a crucial winner in Slovakia.
Russia
are an interesting proposition coming into Poland and Ukraine; they showed
their quality in 2008 with a great run to the semis, and, that was without
their main striker Pogrebnyak who was out injured for the whole competition.
Advocaat can call on the services on the powerful front-man who has taken the Premier
League by storm since his arrival at Fulham in January.
Failure
to qualify for 2010 was by the narrowest of margins, and they could quite
easily have secured qualification earlier had they taken their chances against
Germany. Advocaat inherited a decent squad and has been able to work with it
and improve it slightly, adding a little more steel as results have shown.
Obviously,
not all sides can make it through the group stages, however, Russia have been
drawn in group A with Poland, Greece and the Czech Republic. Although the group
promises to be tight and fairly evenly
matched, Russia have quality within the team and have shown that they are hard
to beat, making them my favourites to finish on top. Should they manage that, they will face the
runners-up from the group of death a daunting prospect, but possibly one that
the Russians could cope with.
By Neil Patterson
Email: neil.b.patterson@gmail.com
Facebook: http://goo.gl/MJce0
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Neil1980
