Oleg Vinokurov: "The Russian national team always plays better if the opponent is strong"

Interesting people are always welcome at Vestnik Kavkaza. Oleg Kusov is ready to give the floor to everyone who has something to say. His guests talk about many things, not only the Caucasus. These conversations are then published in video, audio and text formats. Our guest today is Oleg Vinokurov.

- Oleg, the Russian national team is taking part in the World Cup for the first time in 12 years. Reporters say that the slogan "No one can get us" is written on the team's bus. To whom is this slogan addressed?

- This will be the sixth World Cup in the history of the new Russia. Only in two of them did Russia take part, while three others were missed. Both times Russia did not leave the group stage. In fact, the Soviet team often failed to go higher than the 1/8 finals as well. The last time we played really well was in 1986. However our team lost that time too. The only game we won at the second stage was in 1982. First we beat the Belgians and then played a draw game with the Polish. So we weren't defeated, but didn't enter the semifinals anyway. This was 32 years ago. So this slogan - "No one can get us" - is addressed to the fans who were not even born in 1982. Of course, they may know it, if they are interested in history, but the thing is that Russia will be pleased by any success at the World Cup, since it never actually had any. The Europa League is a different story. We recently marked the anniversary of the historic victory over France in 1999, when Oleg Romantsev's team beat the French team in a qualifying match 3:2. It was a great success. The game itself was good, but did not bring any serious achievements. We failed to get into finals anyway. Still, we have been marking it for 15 years. The 2008 World Cup was a remarkable one. We won the game against the Dutch in the quarterfinals. It was a great and colourful victory. We marked its fifth anniversary last year. This means that in nine years we will mark the 15th anniversary of the event. This is what we are proud of. That is why I am afraid that this slogan is a bit premature. However, it demonstrates the social atmosphere. I remember a very peculiar story. According to polls conducted in 2008, 70 percent of Russians were going to support Russia's team at the World Cup in South Africa, while the Russian team did not even take part in the event. This demonstrates a lot. It demonstrates that only 30 percent of the people knew that Russia was not going to play, while 70 percent should have simply said that they don't care, that they know nothing about football. Instead they said that they were going to support the Russian team. I am not talking about football fans, but the rest of society is simply missing the point.

- Fabio Capello believes that Russia has a good chance to enter the quarterfinals. Even Alexander Bubnov, who always very sceptical, said that the Russia team played a very good game against Morocco. According to him, the players now seem capable of launching an attack. So, many experts believe that the chances are very good. However, others say that, without Shirokov, we should not even go to Brazil.

- That's nonsense. Of course it's a loss, but such losses are natural.

- Even during a tournament?

- Of course. I remember that the Columbian team once lost Radamel Falcao, a very bright player. Such things happen. Many teams are forced to play without their best players. In 1962 Brazil had to play without Pelé, but won the tournament anyway. A good team is much more than just one player. I think that Fabio Capello, who is a very skilled coach, knows how to play without Shirokov, even if no actual replacement can be found. These are the details. In fact, there's nothing I can say against the Russian team. It's a good team, headed by a good coach. I don't think it will do something great, but I am very hopeful of seeing a good game. I believe it has a good chance of qualifying from the group stage. However, this does not mean that we will win automatically. Of course Belgium, Algeria and South Korea are by no means a serious threat, but we know that in fact the Russian team plays much better when it is facing strong opponents. The Soviet team could beat Spain and Italy and lose to Hungary, Finland and Greece. The same is true about the Russian team. In 2008 we defeated England in a qualifying match, but lost to Slovenia in 2010. Such examples are numerous. During the last World Cup the situation was very similar to the present one. Only, instead of South Korea we are now facing Japan, and instead of Algeria - Tunisia.

- They are neighbouring countries...

- Yes, one is an Asian country and one - an African one. Firstly, we are very pleased that the competitors are not so strong, but then we failed to leave the group. I guess it's some kind of a psychological trick. We play better when we are facing a strong opponent. The last Europa League is a good example of this tendency. The Polish, the Czech and the Greek teams were all rather weak, but we lost. So it's much more difficult than it may seem.

- I know that you don't like to predict the results, so I'm not going to ask.

-Well, the chances are good. Let's hope everything will be all right.

- Let's trust Capello.

- Why shouldn't we?

- He promised we will be among the eight strongest teams.

- Eight? So he promised we will be in the first play-off final? Let's hope then!

- Of course. Many teams won't get us, Capello thinks.