|
DISASTER IN MARIBOR FOR RUSSIA
The worst nightmare Russian football could have
had came to fruition as they will miss out on the 2010 World Cup via a
2-2 aggregate playoff loss to Slovenia.
| |
|
|
Slovenia vs. Russia Photo SPORT EXPRESS
|
The result casts a dark pall over the national team as it
brings the exciting run typified by the brilliant run in the Euro 2008
and will surely cause the governing body of the sport to consider how
it proceeds in the future.
Following the 2-1 opening leg victory in Moscow criticism for Russia's
play hit the boiling point as they failed to lack killer instinct to put
away Slovenia or the tactical vision to shut down their advances. Failing
to cull the visitors advances in Moscow resulting in Nejc Pecnik notching
the all-important late goal and immediately the return engagement in Maribor
took on an entirely different form.
Knowing full well the task at hand and the potential legendary story ahead,
Slovenia manager Matjaz Kek crafted a tactical masterpiece in route to
a 1-0 victory at Stadion Ljudski vrt that left Russia in shock.
While the Slovenian's were patient in Moscow, they were on a bloodthirsty
mission from the opening whistle at home. With their supporters in full
song, barely four minutes in the match a warning shot was sent across
the bow as Valter Birsa dissected a stoic Russia back-line and provided
Milivoje Novakovic a clear cut chance but the Koln striker was denied
by 'keeper Igor Akinfeev.
While Russia breathed a sigh of relief, at the tenth minute they came
with a fraction of falling victim to an own-goal as Wisla Krakow's Andraz
Kirm cross was re-directed off the goalpost by Sergey Ignashevich before
cleared to safety. Slowly Russia began to settle down and whilst they
appeared to gain a morsel of confidence, that all changed a minute shy
of the break when Zlatko Dedic nudged away from Alexandr Anyukov and Vasiliy
Berezutsky to flick Valter Birsa's cross to the back of the net for the
shock 1-0 lead.
Realizing that overcoming the rich team defensive play of the Slovenian's
was a heavy burden, Guus Hiddink summoned Alexandr Kerzhakov and Sergey
Semak in for Roman Pavlyuchenko and Renat Yanbaev at the break. Despite
the changes and an obvious more urgent step in Russia's play, they were
having little success going forward into the final third.
Disaster struck Russia twenty minutes after the break as they were forced
to play a man down when Alexandr Kerzhakov was shown a straight red-card
for a questionable challenge. Shaking off his mark the Dynamo Moscow striker
surged into the box to track down a Yuriy Zhirkov cross but in lunging
towards the loose he appeared to come into contact with Slovenia 'keeper
Samir Handanovic and while reviews put the decision in question, he was
given his marching orders by Norwegian referee Terje Hauge.
In dire need of the equalizer the Russian manager made his final substitution
with thirteen minutes remaining as he added an additional striker with
Pavel Pogrebniak, curiously at the expense of in-form Diniyar Bilyaletdinov.
The VfB Stuttgart striker, came close to the levelling the match almost
immediately but his header of Andrey Arshavin's cross from the right was
denied by Samir Handanovic.
As desperation grew Vasiliy Berezutsky took advantage of a rare defending
miscue but his close range volley drifted over the bar too safety. Tempers
ran hot as Slovenia understood they were only minutes away from the upset
of qualifying period and deep into added-time they boiled over as Yuriy
Zhirkov was sent off for a physical confrontation with a Slovenia substitute
at the by-line, causing Igor Akinfeev to erupt in a shouting match. As
the match ticked down to the final whistle, Slovenia claimed the historic
victory and Russia began to face the grim reality of missing the World
Cup.
While the host supporters enjoyed the moment in jubilation, travelling
Russian fans sat aghast at the outcome. In the simplest form, the result
came via a collection of players, joining forces to play as a team defeating
a high-flying group of individual performers.
Though criticisms of Guus Hiddink's tactical choices are both prone to
inaccuracies and are anecdotal in nature, there is a clear-cut lesson
to be learned with the enormous disappointment. Though the quality of
Russian football has taken a great step forward in the last decade, it
is suffering through the negative impact of its top players now outside
the domestic league and unable to play together as a team when they come
together on the international stage.
While many will want to focus on tactical decisions and poor individual
production during the playoff confrontation, from the earliest stages
of this game it is always a team sport and Russia failed to gel as a team
when it needed it the most.
As players move across the top leagues of Europe and quality of play in
Russia continues to grow in the coming decade, the organizing body of
the sport must address the new-found problem and formulate a plan to ensure
that international play does not suffer. Those plans unfortunately can
be drawn up immediately, as Russia must turn its eyes toward the 2012
Euros, as they will be watching the World Cup from home.
Prepared by John Davies
Sport
Express Daily, 19 Nov 2009
|
|
