Will Russia see the World Cup live?

Two days are left before the beginning of the World Cup in Japan and Korea. PRAVDA.Ru has already reported that all 64 matches would be broadcast on Russia’s two major television channels: ORT and RTR. ORT will broadcast the opening match (France vs. Senegal) and all the odd-numbered matches, whereas RTR will broadcast all even-numbered games, including the final one.

Unfortunately, the schedule of the matches is very inconvenient for our country. Russia will play early in the morning on June 5 (Russia vs. Tunis at 10:20 a.m. MSK), in the afternoon on June 9 (Japan vs. Russia at 3:20 p.m.), and again in the morning on June 14 (Russia vs. Belgium at 10:20 a.m.).

Russian television channels will boadcast these matches (and others as well) live, which is not good, because people will be at work. Therefore, the number of fans who will to see the Russia's national team live will be reduced considerably.

The SPORT-Express web site published the complete schedule of matches, which are going to be broadcast live by ORT and RTR. The opening match between France and Senegal will be shown on ORT television on Friday, May 31, at 3:20 p.m. Moscow time.

There are many forecasts that predict Russia’s chances in the World Cup. PRAVDA.Ru has already presented its opinion on the subject. The Agava.Ru web site published an interesting forecast, which was written by football astrologer Soccer Stradamusov. A: France vs. Denmark B: Spain vs. Paraguay C: Brazil vs. China D: Poland vs. Korea E: Germany vs. Cameroon F: Argentina vs. England G: Croatia vs. Italy H: Japan vs. Russia

According to this scheme, Russia will play Brazil, but there is no chances for Russia, unfortunately. The forecast for the 1/8 finals is the following:

“France and England: this will be a hard game for the British squad, and the French will win. Brazil vs. Russia: Russia has no shot. Argentina vs. Denmark: The Argentineans are a lot stronger, and they will win. Japan vs. China: the Japanese are lucky with their adversary; they will have to do a lot to win. Spain vs. Cameroon: this is something, but the limit of Spanish misfortunes has been exhausted. Italy vs. Paraguay: The Italians will win, of course. Paraguay vs. Germany: hard question. I think Paraguay will win. Korea vs. Croatia: Korea will win, but Croatia will play very well too.”

Therefore, the following teams will play in the 1/4 finals:

Brazil vs. France Argentina vs. Japan Spain vs. Italy Korea vs. Paraguay

“Semi-finals: Spain and Korea; the answer is evident. It is Spain, and the Argentineans will win the match against the Brazilians. Here is my variant of the final: Argentina vs. Spain. Needless to mention that these two squads are the strongest, together with Brazil and Italy. I think that Argentina will be the champion.”

Well, let us all see.

Sergey Yugov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov