Japanese and Belgian journalists do not believe in the Russian soccer squad

If you listen to Belgian and Japanese journalists, then you will have an impression that the Russian squad should not have come to the World Cup at all. Mass media outlets of those countries believe that the Russian national soccer squad lacks discipline, organization, and fresh energy, since our football players are basically over 30 years of age: Viktor Onopko, Alexander Mostovoy, Valery Karpin, Stanislav Cherchesov. Journalists say that the Russian team has not presented any young stars to soccer fans for a long time already.

All these remarks may play a bad joke on the Russian team and show the negative influence on the matches. They do not know the Russian squad abroad: when the squad was playing with the French team in Paris, one of the leading players of the Russian team, Valery Karpin was presented as a player from Moscow CSKA, although he was Spanish Selta’s half-back. Karpin got worked up over such a curious detail and showed a very good game.

The Russian squad has a very good shot to make the world respect it. Our group is not the strongest, to put it mildly, “a life squad” so to speak. No matter what people say, our team is ready to give away everything in the struggle for the honor of the Russian flag. The Russian national hockey squad has recently showed a very good example of that in Sweden, when they made their way to the final game of the world championship and won silver medals, although it seemed impossible.

What about Marat Izmaylov, Dmitry Sychov, Ruslan Pimenov, Igor Semshov? Aren’t these guys our young stars? Ukrainian player Andrey Shevchenko, who is currently playing for Italian Milan, said that he was going to root for the Russian team only, he wished Oleg Romantsev’s squad brilliant victories. Russia will play with Japan on June 9 and with Belgium on June 14.

Sergey Yugov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov