Alexei Vlasov. Exclusively to VK
The history of Russian football has seen sadder events than failure in the group in Euro 2012 in the past 20 years. For example, Euro 2004 was an epic failure in the post-Soviet history of Russian football for our team, headed by Mr. Yartsev, and the voyage to Japan to World Cup 2002 with the easiest group is an epic fail too, in comparison with the current misfortune.
But the internal state of the supporters of the Russian football team resembles a hangover; several hours ago you felt perfect, but now you feel sick. The point is not that it was a bad end to a good start, from 4:1 with the Czech Republic to 0:1 with Greece. The problem is not about the playing, but about the information background and entourage which accompanied the playing of the national team.
The position of the bureaucrats and Mr. Fursenko after the inglorious performance of the Russian team is understandable – the Federation took its toll, the team was ready, but a ball is round, and Fortune doesn’t always smile upon the strongest team, and so on.
Blaming Fursenko for his indistinct explanation means having no idea about the nature of bureaucrats in our country. Even if any other person were in his place, the comment would be the same.
Fans took offence at comments by Andrey Arshavin. He answered them sincerely: “It is your problem.” We can shout and boil over, but the logic is cast-iron. A new round of qualification games will start, and we will see the most media-friendly Russian football player in shampoo or car video advertisements. What do you want? He is in demand. Each person earns money the way he can.
Should the whole blame be put on Advocaat? He doesn’t care, you know. Several months ago he stated that wouldn’t work with our team after Euro 2012.
Who is next to blame? Ignashevich? Try to find a defender who would be stronger than the main column of the Russian defense. I think discussions of whether Dzuba would be more useful than Pavlyuchenko make no sense. I think the situation won’t change even if Dzuba were in the team. We got what we deserved in a situation where each of the components forming Russian football doesn’t work as a solid mechanism and lives in a virtual world. The guys played nicely, the functionaries worked well, experts praised the team at first, and then it sank in – but it is natural – the fans expressed their displeasure to the team and Mr. Fursenko in different ways. And today a new day has come which will hardly be different from all other days.
Our football is captured in a vicious circle which resembles a giant soap bubble called “football of post-Soviet Russia.”
